Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt grew up in Moscow as the son of the city’s chief rabbi, trained in Bnei Brak and Ponovezh, and spent a decade as assistant rabbi at Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue — until he was abruptly and very publicly fired. In this raw conversation with Nachi Gordon, he opens up for the first time about that moment: the New York Post headline, the car crash he got into reading about himself, and the isolation of losing not just a job but an entire community.
Out of that low point came Altneu, the congregation he and his wife built from nothing — starting with 40 people in their living room, then two and a half years of renting a different Manhattan venue every single week, never knowing until Thursday’s email where Shabbos would be. Rabbi Goldschmidt walks through how that instability became the shul’s strength, the breaking point that nearly ended the project, his father’s advice that turned it around, and how it all led to buying a $35 million building on the Upper East Side. He also gets into what it’s like leading a congregation through today’s political climate in New York, and the loss of a beloved member that shook the whole community.
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro: A Shul With No Address
2:57 Growing Up in Moscow as the Chief Rabbi’s Son
8:47 Sent to Bnei Brak and Ponovezh at Twelve
11:40 Choosing the Rabbinate and the Lakewood “Freezer” Years
18:28 Becoming a Rabbi at Park East at Twenty-Four
23:52 A Decade as Assistant Rabbi at Park East
26:52 Getting Fired: The Sudden, Public Fallout
33:47 Losing a Job, Losing a Community
36:19 His Father’s Parallel Story and the Birth of Altneu
44:20 Building a Shul on Wheels Across Manhattan
54:48 The Breaking Point and His Father’s Advice
59:05 Buying a $35 Million Building on the Upper East Side
1:01:28 Building Altneu’s Identity and Culture
1:10:01 From the Pulpit to Politics: Life in Manhattan Today
1:17:50 Confronting Antisemitism and What Makes a Movement Survive
1:22:00 Remembering Wesley
1:24:37 Closing