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F E AT U R E I A World of Kiruv
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D
R. WILLIAM KOLBRENER, a William stumbled upon a Sefer Zichronot left his suburban Long Island hometown
third-generation American, was about various Jewish communities that for Manhattan’s Columbia University,
born in 1961 and raised in were annihilated during the Holocaust. It where he delved into language arts and
Roslyn, Long Island, in the loving was in this memorial book that he literature and met Leslie, the woman who
embrace of a warm, close-knit family that learned of his rich familial history in became his wife. As undergraduates, the
placed strong emphasis on education, Govorova, Poland, and discovered an couple found themselves exploring
values and ethics. The Kolbreners were article about his great-grandfather and political, philosophical and literary
members of their local Reform temple, namesake, Velvel Zev Blumstein. traditions that served as invaluable tools
where young William attended Hebrew Suddenly, the face on the living-room on an extended journey that would lead
school regularly but was constantly irked mantel that so resembled his own them back to their heritage.
by the lack of meaning and connection in acquired character, was transformed into In 1982, William joined Crossroads, a
what he learned. a living, breathing soul with a vivid mini-Peace Corps outfit that sent him on
He recalls attending a baseball game history and qualities to emulate. It was a summertime adventure to West Africa
as a youngster and being the object of this article that first sparked William’s to mark future archaeological digs in
anti-Semitic slurs, wondering why his connection to his roots, a connection that Mali. He recalls his experience in
Jewishness meant more to those hate- would develop and grow strong in the Timbuktu as similar to that of the Jews
filled gentiles than it did to him. He years to come. who had sojourned forty years in the
remembers learning about the holiday of William graduated high school and desert, affording him endless hours to
Sukkos in September, noticing one of
those wooden huts as he strolled through
the neighborhood and feeling
that it belonged in a museum.
(Left) Dr. Kolbrener
No one he asked could explain
in formal attire for
the purpose or meaning of the his Oxford Finals,
sukkah; in fact, they did not 1985.
evince any connection to the (Below) Dr.
Kolbrener in Mali
commandments at all.
with its Deputy
In his late adolescence, Minister of Culture,
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Coming Home
Returning to Columbia to work on his
doctorate, Kolbrener befriended Shlomo
Felberbaum, a classics student who
studied part time in Yeshivah Chaim
Berlin and who introduced the Kolbreners
to Orthodox life. Another individual who
indirectly inspired him to learn more
about his faith was an enigmatic
university professor whom he admired.
One Shabbos morning Kolbrener followed
the professor off campus, where he lived,
and watched wide-eyed as he entered a
synagogue. Kolbrener was stunned that a
man of such brilliance and stature was
Above: A poster advertising Dr. Kolbrener’s lecture ‘From Athens to
also an observant Jew. Jerusalem,’ which he gives on Ivy League campuses.
In the months that followed, the
Kolbreners read voraciously and began to and friends at the university. A significant throughout that turbulent year and still
embrace their Judaism. “Some connect majority of Columbia’s English reinforces his approach to students’
through experience while others connect Department — both professors and questions.
through intellect,” Dr. Kolbrener says students — were Jewish, and the In 1991, Kolbrener was awarded a two-
about his gradual progression to full atmosphere was one of pluralism, year fellowship at Jerusalem’s Hebrew
mitzvah observance. “My wife and I were multiculturalism and tolerance. Still, University, which allowed him to complete
both raised in loving, nurturing families. It paradoxically, one who chose to embrace his dissertation and begin intensive Torah
wasn’t the mitzvah tanks or Shabbos meals an ancient heritage with Medieval study. The young Kolbreners, by then
that drew us close but rather the intellect, practices earned scorn. “You’re taking the proud parents of baby Elisheva, moved to
the recognition of Judaism’s innate easy way out,” many of them said. Rechavia and eventually settled in Bayit
meaning and connections.” Kolbrener replied earnestly, “I’m not Vegan. Dr. Kolbrener spent his mornings
As Kolbrener took overt steps toward turning to religion for answers, but to get writing at the university and his
mitzvah observance, he drew skeptical a better sense of what the questions really afternoons studying in Yeshivat Hamivtar
looks and cynical remarks from colleagues are.” This insight sustained him in Efrat. In amusement, he recalls sitting
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