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Rabbi Eric Yanoff (Courtesy of Rabbi Eric Yanoff)<\/p>\nRabbi Eric Yanoff (Courtesy of Rabbi Eric Yanoff)<\/p>\n
Adath Israel\u2019s Rabbi Eric Yanoff didn\u2019t always know he wanted to be a rabbi. But one summer during college, when Yanoff was working at Camp Ramah in the Poconos, he let his mind wander when overlooking the lake and, in that moment, he knew he wanted to be doing more of \u201cthis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cthis\u201d he spoke about wasn\u2019t quite clear yet, but Yanoff was on the path to becoming a Jewish professional \u2014 he just didn\u2019t know it yet.<\/p>\n
At the time, Yanoff was on the pre-med path at Princeton. He spent his free time working at a local synagogue off campus leading youth group activities and found himself \u201cleaning less and less into the activities that would be typical of someone pre-med.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t until several months later when he was talking with his great-aunt, Shulamith Elster, that he saw his path forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy Aunt Shulamith said something to me that was very formative,\u201d Yanoff explained in an interview with Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. \u201cShe said, \u2018Eric, sometimes we don\u2019t know the path we\u2019re on going forward until we look backward and see the steps that we\u2019ve already taken, and then that path forward becomes more clear.\u2019 And at that point in time, that was really eye-opening to me, and I more deeply engaged in Jewish leadership, Jewish education, Jewish life, and I applied to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yanoff, a resident of Bala Cynwyd, was born and raised in Dresher, was a member of Temple Sinai and was very involved in United Synagogue Youth. Over the summers he attended Camp Ramah, eventually working on the staff. He ended up graduating with a bachelor\u2019s in comparative literature with a concentration in Judaic studies, and headed to New York to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n
After ordination, Yanoff and his wife moved to Detroit, where he served Congregation Shaarey Zedek for six years and celebrated the birth of his first child. However, Yanoff said, \u201cwe felt this tug back to Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in the Philadelphia Jewish community. I grew up here. I want it to thrive. I believe that it has all of the ingredients,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that this community together could really do amazing things, and that especially at an inflection point where the future is ours for the imagining, it\u2019s really a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2010, Yanoff joined the clergy at Adath Israel in Merion Station and has since served the congregation for 16 years. What stuck out to him during the interview process was a question he was asked because he was told he looked very young: How do we know you are here for the long haul?<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, there are two ways of marking success in the trajectory of a rabbinic career,\u201d Yanoff explained. \u201cOne way, clearly, is to move on to larger platforms. I said, and the other way is to find a place that feels like home and to build connections and to grow that place into the deeper and broader platform, and to do the weddings of the teenager \u2014 you did their bar and bat mitzvah \u2014 and then to do those weddings, their kids\u2019 baby namings and bris, and then to do those kids\u2019 bar\/bat mitzvah and their weddings, and to do that intergenerational growth and connection. And that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done here now.\u201d<\/p>\n
At his first sermon, Yanoff introduced himself by saying, \u201cI\u2019m Eric Yanoff. I am not the bar mitzvah boy.\u201d Since then, Yanoff explained, not only has he grown up, but \u201cwe\u2019re growing up together.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that \u201ceven the funerals are more deeply felt because I\u2019ve been with these people. Sadly, I recognize more names [when] saying the Mourner\u2019s Kaddish because I was with those families in those moments, and I\u2019m a part of it with them.\u201d<\/p>\n