Like father, like son.
On Saturday, Nov. 3, Rabbi Moshe Grussgott will be installed as senior rabbi of Kehilath Israel Synagogue by his father, Rabbi Ira Grussgott.
The younger Rabbi Grussgott, who came on board at K.I. on Aug. 1, jokes he had a glamourous view of the rabbinate when he was a child.
“When I was a kid, probably like a lot of little boys, I wanted to do what my father did. At home we actually have a kindergarten project I did where we were asked, ‘What does your father do?’ and I wrote, ‘My father goes to Mincha and makes money,’ ” he told The Chronicle in a recent interview.
The 37-year-old rabbi lived in Philadelphia until the age of 12 and spent his teenage years in Montreal, Canada. He moved to New York to attend Yeshiva University and lived there until he and his family — wife Becca and son Ari — moved to Overland Park this summer.
While he was growing up, the younger rabbi explained the senior Rabbi Grussgott saw to it his children were very active in the congregations he served.
“As a teenager I would run the junior congregation and was the head of the youth group,” Rabbi Moshe Grussgott said. “I was very much involved in the clergy team even as a kid.”
He didn’t enroll in Yeshiva with the intention of becoming a rabbi. As an undergrad, Rabbi Grussgott studied psychology and didn’t return to the idea of being a rabbi until he needed to decide what he wanted to do for a living.
“I was wavering between psychology and law, considering becoming either a psychologist or a lawyer. Then I realized I’ve always had a push to be a rabbi and maybe was denying it because it would be lame to do what my father did,” he said.
After more thought Rabbi Grussgott realized he truly wanted to become a rabbi.
“The rabbinate has a bit of psychology and law, which are two things I was interested in.”
Capt. Grussgott
At Yeshiva, Rabbi Grussgott earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, a Master of Arts degree in medieval Jewish history and received his rabbinic training at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. While attending rabbinical school, he decided to use his pastoral training and serve his country.
The idea of military service started brewing after 9/11, which happened when he was in college in New York.
“A few years later I figured a way I could do that was by being a rabbi and being a chaplain.”
When Army representatives went to Yeshiva to recruit chaplains in 2006, Rabbi Grussgott and a friend “jumped on board.” They were the only two Jewish chaplains in a class of more than a hundred. He described his fellow chaplains as “mostly evangelical and mostly pro-Israel.”
“It was quite an adventure and it was a good way to serve the country,” he said of his six years in the Army Reserves.
After 12 weeks of training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, he was committed to a two-week block of training every year and two Sundays per month.
“It’s usually one weekend per month, Saturday and Sunday, but as a synagogue rabbi I couldn’t go in on Saturday, so they let me go in on two Sundays instead.”
Rabbi Grussgott, who served as a captain, was assigned to a base of military police in Long Island. Since only a handful of Jews were on the base, the rabbi needed to learn to be a non-denominational social worker and pastoral counselor.
“For example, if I offered a Bible class and the vast majority of people coming are not Jewish, I have to teach it in a universal, non-denominational way.”
Rabbi Grussgott did not get deployed, although the chance was always there.
“That was an interesting tension I lived with. A friend of mine got deployed to Afghanistan for a year and we called him the Kandahar Rebbe.”
Settling in at K.I.
Following ordination in 2007, Rabbi Grussgott took a job as associate rabbi of Congregation Ramath Orah, an Orthodox synagogue located in New York’s Upper West Side. Four years later he became the senior rabbi of that congregation, spending a total of 11 years there.
Ramath Orah is smaller than K.I., with about 150-member units compared to K.I.’s 400-member units.
“On paper it is smaller, but very vibrant and most of those members were heavily involved in the congregation and came every Shabbat,” Rabbi Grussgott explained.
“K.I. is a bigger shul in terms of members and being involved in more people’s lives,” he added. “The members are keeping me busier, in a good way.”
A variety of factors led the rabbi and his wife — Becca is from Denver — to consider a move elsewhere, including the expense of living in New York City following the birth of their son.
“We always both had a pull to live somewhere in the middle of the country … because we like the pace of life in Middle America.”
He was drawn to the K.I. position because it is a Traditional synagogue.
“My father was a rabbi of a Traditional synagogue in Philadelphia, which is that very narrow niche in between Conservative and Orthodox and is basically defined as having mixed seating but is otherwise Orthodox in every other way,” he explained. “Having grown up in that world, there are far too few communities left that are like that, and I was intrigued by ministering to a place where the Jews are like the Jews I grew up with. That was very appealing to me and I felt like I have it in me innately to minister to the Traditional Jews.”
The fact Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy is a day school with an Orthodox track and Overland Park is consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the country also appealed to the Grussgotts.
“I really love it so far. It’s been a whirlwind, getting thrown right in at the High Holidays. But we’ve found the people have been really welcoming and it’s exciting getting to know many congregants.”
While Rabbi Grussgott has been at K.I. less than two months, the congregation’s president, Marty Gorin, said members are crazy about him, and “really enamored with his knowledge and the way he delivers that knowledge to the congregation.”
“People are just marveling what a jewel this man is,” Gorin said. “Many of us feel it was miraculous we were blessed to acquire his services. I’ve never seen anything like this about a rabbi.”
Now that the holidays are over, Rabbi Grussgott has “an ambitious goal” of reaching out to all K.I. members in the hopes of getting more people involved.
“Most shuls in America want to expand and grow. I always think before growing you have to strengthen internally,” he said of his goals.
“I’m going to tell people if you only come for the High Holidays, try coming once a month. If you come once a month, try coming twice a month and if you’ve never been to one of my classes, check one of them out,” he continued. “We’d like to get every Jewish person here more involved in not only the synagogue but in their own Judaism by doing more mitzvahs and being more Jewish. I hope to be able to inspire and light a spark in the community and get everyone more involved. Once you get a community that is strengthened internally it naturally expands from there.”
He’s also meeting with younger congregants whose busy lives sometimes lead to issues involving time commitments.
“A lot of them have little kids and I know exactly what that’s like,” he said. “Some feel like they are so swamped and overwhelmed and just don’t have time for synagogue. I want to try to light a spark in those younger people and see how we can get them more involved.”
After being a rabbi for 11 years, he said he loves his profession, including the teaching, public speaking and being there for people.
“Probably the most important thing is being there for people in life-cycle events, both in joy and sadness — funerals and weddings and brises. In the few months I’ve been here I’ve already been thrown in to a bunch of those. To me that’s what being a rabbi is all about,” he said.
Being installed by his father will bring lots of “nachas” to the Grussgott family.
“My father is retiring from his synagogue (The Freehold Jewish Center in Freehold, New Jersey), so it’s a nice element of passing the baton,” the younger Rabbi Grussgott said. “My parents are planning to move to Israel. It’s nice that at the end of his synagogue rabbinate that he will be able to install me.”