Although he insists that a rabbi can’t take things personally and remain in rabbanus if there’s one thing that typifies Rabbi Benjamin Yudin it’s the personal touch. His four-decade career as the rabbi of Fair Lawn’s Shomrei Torah shul as well as his regular shiurim given on the popular Nachum Segal radio show are testimony to his ability to reach out to Jews from all walks of life and inspire each and every one of them to grow.
Meet enough rabbanim
visit enough shuls and you develop a theory: the architecture and design of a shul is a reflection of the man who leads it. It’s true elsewhere and it’s certainly true in Shomrei Torah. The main chapel is an attractive spacious room — a fusion of a traditional synagogue with a high ceiling and formal decor a shtiebel with knotty wooden slats and paneling and a New Age retreat with a generous glimpse of blue sky above.
When we are seated in the rabbi’s office which is surprisingly small — and not surprisingly cluttered — I comment on the shul’s aesthetics. The rabbi looks at me.
“Listen carefully” he says. “There is only one complimentary adjective for a shul: used.”
Shomrei Torah is used. When he came to Fair Lawn in 1969 it was a Shabbos minyan. Today it boasts three daily Shacharis minyanim a morning learning program daily Minchah-Maariv and daf yomi and a full schedule of shiurim.
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