Croton Jewish Center’s new rabbi loves to blow his own horn!

He’s an amazing jazz trumpeter, gourmet cook, post-Katrina New Orleans volunteer, and deeply spiritual rabbi who has won an award for his sermons.

Rabbi Bockman started playing trumpet after the 4th grade, and never stopped. He sees music and the access it gives him as an integral part of his rabbinate. “Music is a means to open gateways to God awareness within ourselves. It is also a means for people to open up to each other, allowing for sacred community,” he explains. He has played trumpet and flugelhorn in various groups, including San Diego Brass and Electric, Jerry Katz’ Simcha Orchestra, the Fred Weisgal Trio, the Panorama Jazz Band, the Bone Tone Brass Band, the Modern Jews Quartet, and Rabbi Russian and Blonde. He currently plays in a Jewish funk band called "Migdal Oz" (Tower of Strength) with professional musicians from the New Jersey-New York area.

Rabbi Bockman earned a B.A. in Judaic Studies at the University of California at San Diego. His graduate studies took him first to the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, where he received a B. Lit. and won the Rabbi Henry Fisher prize for “homiletics,” which is the technical term for thought-provoking sermon development. Rabbi Bockman attended the Hebrew University and Neve Schechter in Jerusalem, and was awarded an M.A. from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, where he was ordained as a rabbi. While at JTS, Rabbi Bockman had leading roles with the organization’s Hebrew theater group, playing King Arthur in Camelot and Nicely Nicely in Guys and Dolls. (He also translated the show into Hebrew.) He continued to pursue Jewish-related studies, spending a summer studying Yiddish at the YIVO Institute’s summer immersion program, and began work towards a PhD at the Baltimore Hebrew University in post-modern Jewish philosophy, focusing primarily on the French-Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

Rabbi Bockman comes to us from Congregation Beth Israel of Northern Valley in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He also has served as the pulpit rabbi at Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Congregation Chevra Thilim in New Orleans. It was there that he developed his deep affection for the city. He has frequently returned after Hurricane Katrina to help Jewish congregations rebuild, and he is organizing a group of Jewish Westchester volunteers to travel to the city in November to continue the work.

Rabbi Bockman is married to Vicki Hyman, a features writer for the Newark Star-Ledger. They have a six-year-old son, Theo Hyman-Bockman. You can learn more about his many interests and hear his music on his web site, www.bockmonides.com.

Please join us in welcoming Rabbi Bockman and his lovely family to CJC.