Reflections on My Time at Hebrew University
By Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin, Toronto
I studied at Hebrew University in 1994-1995. It was literally the best year of my life. I went because my cousin Karen Goldstein (also one of CFHU’s 100 Alumni We Love) attended when she was younger.
At the time, my parents told me I could either go to a school outside Toronto for an undergraduate degree or go to school locally in Toronto and go to Hebrew U for a year. The choice was a no brainer for me.
I am still in close contact with many of the friends that I made that year. One of them was the Maid of Honour at my wedding.
There is one night though that sticks out from that entire year. It was a Monday night and we had just been learning about the Six Day War. I remember the professor saying, “And on this day of the war, the IDF captured the ground on which you are sitting right now.” As I left class that night, I walked through Mt. Scopus, and stared down at the city of Jerusalem below me, and I knew in my heart and soul that I would dedicate my life to working for the Jewish community.
After my year at Hebrew U, I went back to York University to finish my degree. Then, I moved to Miami to work for Hillel. Soon after, I enrolled at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work in New York City and then moved to Los Angeles to go to rabbinical school. After working in a Jewish high school in the Chicago suburbs and leading a congregation in Queens, New York, I am delighted to be back in Toronto, working as a rabbi at Beth Tzedec Congregation.
My commitment and dedication to strengthening Israel and the Jewish community has never wavered. Since that year, I have returned to Israel more than 20 times and in my head, I compare each return trip to that year. It is no exaggeration to say that had I not gone to Hebrew U, I would not be the person, the Jew and the rabbi that I am today.
- After a 23 year absence, Robyn recently relocated home to Toronto and is now a rabbi at Beth Tzedec.
