Judith Lewis returns to Riverdale Temple as education director, fostering Jewish learning and community

Congregation members of the Riverdale Temple welcomed back their former rabbi, who has returned to lead the religious school.

Courtesy Muriel Adams

Judith Lewis, the much-beloved former rabbi of Riverdale Temple, has returned to the community in a new role as education director.

As one of the first dozen women rabbis in the United States, Lewis has built an equally extraordinary career in religious leadership since her ordination in 1980.

For Lewis, who decided she wanted to be a rabbi at age 10, the idea of making history was never a consideration.

“I didn’t know that I was going to grow up to be a woman,” Lewis said with a laugh. 

Growing up in a very traditional Reform Jewish household, she said she benefited from a bountiful Jewish education, with her childhood education director becoming a lifelong friend.

Her grandfather, known for his theatrical flair, also played a significant role in her decision to become a rabbi.

Lewis fondly recalls her childhood Seders, the Passover meal, in which a piece of matzah called the Afikoman is hidden by adults for the children to find at the end. Despite her grandfather hiding the Afikoman in the same place every year, the children never once saw him do it, though it always ended up where they expected — next to his plate, under the tablecloth.

Lewis still doesn’t know how her grandfather managed this, but said she later realized what a brilliant educator he was, capturing attention through genuine curiosity and demonstrating how Jewish education could be taught similarly.

In 2015, Lewis and her late husband retired to her hometown of Rochester to care for her aging father. After her husband’s passing and her father’s recovery, she returned to New York just before the pandemic began.

Following the pandemic, a colleague in Cincinnati invited Lewis to help reorganize his religious school. Embracing the opportunity, Lewis moved to Cincinnati, where she rediscovered her joy for working with children — the aspect of her rabbinical work she had missed the most. 

When the position of education director at Riverdale Temple became available, Lewis was delighted to return to a community she had always found warm and welcoming. While she had spent more than two decades prior with an Upper East Side congregation, she said she found Riverdale’s values — warm, unpretentious, community-oriented — resonated more deeply with her. 

“This one was much more like the congregation I grew up in,” Lewis said, “the one that made me want to be a rabbi, that made me love Jewish tradition.”

Reflecting on her decision to retire in 2015, Lewis said she believes she would have remained in Riverdale if her father hadn’t needed her help. However, she recalled a conversation with a Temple member who asked, “Did you really retire to help your father or were you tired of burying people you loved?”

This question struck a chord with Lewis, as she recognized the emotional toll of administering funeral services for those she had grown closest to in the community. 

In her new role, Lewis is prioritizing Hebrew in the curriculum. She said she plans to incorporate Aleph-Bet yoga, a practice she has used before in which each class begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Children who are comfortable will perform a yoga pose that outlines the letter, which will correspond to the day’s lesson topic.

Lewis said she also aims to empower Jewish children in Riverdale, where they often feel less Jewish compared to their more traditionally observant peers.

“I want to give them the tools and the knowledge and the decision-making power to understand why we do things the way we do.” Lewis said, “We’re not less religious; we’re different. So I want our kids to have a sense of pride in the kind of Jews that they are.”

Lewis pointed out Judaism has been reinterpreted through the generations and that Orthodoxy itself emerged as a reaction to Reform Judaism, which sought changes in worship practices. 

“Everything is experiential,” Lewis said, explaining her educational philosophy.

She said wants children to enjoy learning so much they don’t even realize they’re learning, and to leave the classroom excited about what they’ve discovered. 

Despite taking on this new role, Lewis said she enjoyed being retired and wasn’t looking for a full-time job. The Riverdale Temple position is part time — just two days a week and volunteer based — allowing her to savor the benefits of retirement while remaining actively involved with the community.

For the rest of the education week, she has teamed up with a congregation member who will handle most of the work while she provides guidance.

Many congregation members have expressed their excitement about Lewis’ return.

Lydia Schorr, president of the Temple, said she feels a special connection, as the very first Bat Mitzvah Lewis administered in Riverdale was her daughter’s. Later, Lewis also performed her son’s Bar Mitzvah and was present with Schorr during her husband’s passing. His funeral was one of the last services she conducted before retiring in 2015. 

Lewis is very meaningful to her family, Schorr said, and she believes Lewis will be the ideal warm, accepting and caring ambassador of the Temple.

“I’ve been around here quite a while, but this is a real opportunity for us,” she said. “For her to help us bridge to the next step in all religious schools will definitely give people a sense that we care.”

Jennifer Sklar, who co-chairs the temple’s social action committee with her husband, also praised Lewis, who performed her son’s Bar Mitzvah and helped him learn Torah trope, a kind of cantorial. 

Rabbi Thomas Gardner, a fellow Oberlin College alum, said he was happy Lewis was back. While he and Lewis have their own visions and philosophies, he believes they share a common goal: connecting people with a sense of faith beyond the synagogue. Gardner said modern society often deadens the sense of holiness people were once more aware of in their daily lives.

“So for our synagogue,” Gardner said, “whether it’s the sanctuary for services or the religious school for kids, we want people to see there’s holiness all around them and that they can open their hearts to it and let it into their lives.”