For us, today is a sad and infuriating day in America. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling on reproductive rights, ...

José Rolando Matalon, B’nai Jeshurun’s senior rabbi, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was educated in Buenos Aires, Montreal, Jerusalem, and New York City. After his ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1986, Rabbi Matalon came to BJ to share the pulpit—and vision—of his mentor and friend Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer. They worked together to revitalize the congregation and turn its focus to prayer, learning, service, social justice, and interfaith cooperation.
After Rabbi Meyer’s death in 1993, Rabbi Matalon became BJ’s spiritual leader. He was joined by Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein in 1995 and by Rabbi Felicia Sol in 2001. With the support of Hazzan Ari Priven, Rabbis Matalon and Sol now lead a vibrant, diverse community of 1,800 households.
Rabbi Matalon’s visionary leadership has had a profound impact on the revitalization of Jewish synagogue life in the US and in Israel, his involvement in the New York, Jewish, and Israeli communities is broad and deep. He has received awards from the New York Board of Rabbis, the Jewish Peace Fellowship, the New Israel Fund, and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
Rabbi Matalon is a founding co-director of Piyut North America, a partnership between B’nai Jeshurun and Hazmanah Le-Piyut in Israel, which is dedicated to the dissemination of liturgical music from Jewish communities around the world. A student of Arabic and Turkish music, Rabbi Matalon plays the oud (Arabic lute). Rabbi Matalon is married and has two daughters.
For us, today is a sad and infuriating day in America. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling on reproductive rights, ...
The very first thing we learn about us humans in the opening chapter of Genesis is that every person is made in the image of ...
The Executive Assistant, Rabbinic, role will consist of providing clerical and administrative support to Rabbi Rolando Matalon and Rabbi Felicia Sol. To be a successful ...
על אלה אני בוכיה For these things I do weep Lamentations 1:16 We can’t find the words that can express the enormity of horror and ...
We were shocked, dismayed, and disappointed to hear about the Supreme Court’s draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. The impact will be wide and ...
Heschel articulated the devastation of 1943 in the following terms: "There has never been so much guilt and distress, agony, and terror. At no time ...
For two years, the pandemic has forced us to disconnect from the lives we used to live. We are all fatigued, and discouraged by the ...
What are we supposed to do with so much fear? We are in the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, frustrated and beyond tired of ...
There were a few minutes within one of the concerts—a strange work based on mystical texts set to a combination of Persian music with rock, ...
Everyone and every group is involved in their own pain: in the righteousness, the misfortune, the suffering of their own group, in the victimhood of ...