Englewood—Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin, Founder and Chief Rabbi of Efrat, will be the Scholar-in-Residence at Englewood’s Congregation Ahavath Torah this Shabbos, May 9-10.

Rabbi Riskin tells JLBC: “I will explain why this period of the year is extremely significant for the Jewish people, post Holocaust.  Within less than two weeks, we memorialize Yom haShoah and Israeli Memorial Day and we celebrate with great joy, Israeli Independence Day.  The connection between these three days is truly the great miracle of contemporary Jewish history and has many ramifications as to the Jewish mission world-wide in our time.”

Rabbi Riskin’s topics will be:

Friday evening—How Pesach teaches us to keep our youth within the fold and why we must remain Jewish;

Shabbos morning—The real meaning of Freedom; the true significance of Israeli Independence Day and the responsibility of Zionism;

Shabbos afternoon—The Pew Report; the Israeli elections for Chief Rabbi and the crisis of conversion.

Rabbi Riskin adds, “I believe you will hear from my lectures this Shabbos why Modern Orthodox Judaism is the truest response for the challenges of our post-modern generation.”

Rabbi Riskin was the founding Rabbi of the Lincoln Square Synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and was the spiritual leader there for 12 years.  He is the Dean of Manhattan Day School and founder and Chancellor of the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions, a network of high schools, colleges and graduate programs in the U.S. and Israel.

By Bracha Schwartz