THIS JEW

This is The Reform Shuckle, the blog of David A.M. Wilensky. I am a third-year Religious Studies major at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, though I was born and raised in beautiful Austin, Texas.

I consider myself a Reform or Pluralist or Progressive Jew. Or something. I observe the Reform ideology of egalitarianism and of personal examination of ritual and tradition. I reject sappy liturgy and vague expression, opting for serious engagement with our tradition. I am a Reform Jew frustrated with what it means to be a Reform Jew, a reforming Reform Jew, whose interests constantly draw him further into the world of pluralist, unaffiliated Judaism.

I was raised in a Reform synagogue by two fantastic parents. My father is a formerly lapsed Conservative Jew, who now regularly serves on major synagogue committees. My mother converted when I was in elementary school and, though she is now a Jew in the pew, once taught first-year Bar and Bat Mitzvah Hebrew students as well as adult conversion Hebrew. I was consecrated at, became Bar Mitzvah at, and was later confirmed at wonderful Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) in Austin.

At CBI, I worked in the religious school office in high school, served as two-term president of the NFTY affiliate, and on the board of trustees. Through NFTY, I also became involved with the Kutz Camp, NFTY’s headquarters camp in Warwick, New York. During my first summer at Kutz, the summer before tenth grade, I decided to become a Rabbi (um. yeah. more on that to come), a decision I attribute to years of consistently good Rabbis at home (Rabbis Steven Folberg, Elizabeth Dunsker, and Benjamin D. Sternman) and a few spectacular encounters with Rabbi Andy Bachman of Brooklyn’s Congregation Beth Elohim that very summer.

During my second summer at Kutz, I had a further transformative experience at the hands of rabbinical student David Singer, with whom I studied the Amidah. My summer of classes with David opened my eyes to the intricacies and beauty of Jewish liturgy, which remains my chief passion.

I then attended NFTY’s high school semester in Israel program, EIE, during the fall of 5766-5767. There I became a staunch Zionist and increasingly critical of the Reform mainstream. I also began my first blog there, Live from Israel: DAVID SAYS THINGS, where I first declared my general dissatisfaction with Reform liturgy and initially pledged to create my own sidur to express exactly what I believe. Upon returning, the blog briefly became The Donkey’s Mouth, before I took a long hiatus from the blogosphere. When I started college, the blog moved to its current location with the name LIVE from the Lone Star of Jersey. After attending Limmud NY in January of 2008, the name changed once again to its current name, The Reform Shuckle.

During my third summer at Kutz, working as librarian, I used my spare time sitting in the library to make good on what was then my nearly year-old pledge to create my own sidur. Sidur Eilu D’vareinu, as I call it, currently exists as a plethora of unfinished drafts currently languishing on my hard drive waiting for another round of my sporadic editing. The Erev Shabat service currently in use at the Drew University Hillel is the result of that summer of work. I also spent a fourth summer working at Kutz in a similar capacity. I was there again this year (summer 2009) as Rosh A/V.

I work for Jewish pluralist communal conference organization Limmud NY. I’m going into my second year of work at Limmud. For more on that, see this.

I reserve the right to disagree with whatever I said here ten minutes ago. All of this stuff is (c) by me, David A.M. Wilensky, except where it’s obviously something I said someone else said. Just becase I talk out of my ass doesn’t mean you can steal it. If you want to steal it, email me first at d.profound[at]gmail[.]com

David A.M. Wilensky

14 Av, 5769