San Diego, CA (special) -- It’s a long way from the Borrough Park section of Brooklyn to the State University area of San Diego -- both geographically and psychologically.

Luckily, Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky served small Orthodox congregations in Binghamton,
N.Y., and Charleston, S. C., before accepting his present position as spiritual leader of Beth
Jacob Congregation in San Diego.

Those assignments prepared him for the great contrast between the neighborhood of his youth, where everyone seemed to be both Jewish and Orthodox, to his present position in a city that associates Saturdays more with sailing or going to the beach than with going to shul. From the standpoint of Orthodox Jewry, San Diego is an outpost.  However, Bogopulsky notes proudly about the San Diego State University area, “if you take a walk in any neighborhood on a Shabbos in San Diego, you will find that this will look like one of the only Jewish neighborhoods.” There are some telltale signs of Shabbos: men in suits and hats, women in long dresses, walking with their families and perhaps discussing along their way some aspect of the weekly Torah portion. Weekdays, too, give evidence of the Orthodox lifestyle.  There are two morning minyans at Beth Jacob Congregation: one at 6:30 a.m.; the other, for late risers, at 7:15 a.m.  Then at 8 a.m., every day,

Rabbi Avram Bogopulsky stands in front of Beth Jacob Congregation of San Diego

Rabbi Bogopulsky and some congregants partake in daf yomi -- the daily study of a folio page of Talmud.  Every day the congregation also holds combined afternoon-evening (mincha-mariv) services.

In the neighborhood are three kosher dairy restaurants -- Langs Loaf, Eva’s and Schmoozer’s -- a larger concentration of  frum eating establishments than anywhere else in the city.  Additionally, Beth Jacob’s own kitchen is serving up kosher meals on a daily basis for senior citizens and refugees from the former Soviet Union.  The College Area Jewish Senior Center is operated in the synagogue’s social hall by Jewish Family Service.

There also is a mikvah (ritual bath) in the San Diego area to which Beth Jacob members as well as members of Chabad of San Diego have easy access.

Bogopulsky envisions intensifying the Orthodox presence in the area.  He wants to reestablish a San Diego area kollel -- a learning/ teaching academy for rabbis in training -- and he has made preliminary inquiries to San Diego city officials about stringing an eruv -- a symbolic boundary -- around the area to enable observant Jews to carry on Shabbos, “which means that they can push their strollers and carry their babies.”

“If you ask a person who is trying to relocate to an Orthodox community what are the three top concerns, the answer will be a day school, mikvah and eruv,” Bogopulsky said.  “We have two out of the three and we are trying very hard for the third.”

Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School in the Kearny Mesa area and Chabad Hebrew Academy in Scripps Ranch compete to enroll  children through 8th grade from Beth Jacob,who must be driven to school in either case.  Meanwhile Torah High Schools -- one for boys, another for girls -- were begun this year for students in the 9th and 10th grades.

Continuing learning for adults also is a priority for Bogopulsky.  On Sunday evenings, he teaches a  Talmud class; Wednesday nights a class on the biblical prophets and judges, and Thursday evenings he leads discussions on the weekly Torah portion.  On Shabbat afternoon, his wife, Leah, often teaches a course for women “and then an hour before mincha services I give a class on the halachic (Jewish law) aspect from the portion of the week,” Bogopulsky said.

The educationShaal rhythm changes, of course, during Jewish holidays when “we give the High
Holiday preparation classes, or programs before Passover,” Bogopulsky noted.

Various speakers help the members of Beth Jacob Congregation stay plugged into the Orthodox mainstream, no matter how far away San Diego may seem.  For example, a San Diego visit by Rabbi Abraham Twersky, a noted psychologist, will be sponsored jointly by Beth Jacob Congregation and Congregation Adat Yeshurun, a sister Orthodox synagogue located in La Jolla.

Beth Jacob will observe its 60th anniversary Oct. 24 at a dinner that will launch the writing of a new sefer Torah.  On the weekend of Dec. 25, Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, national president of the Orthodox Union, will serve as Beth Jacob’s scholar-in-residence.

“What a person would see in a synagogue in any large city -- New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami -- or in Israel, you will find here in San Diego at Beth Jacob,” Bogopulsky said.

“We have visitors from Los Angeles and other cities, and they can’t believe the level and the
commitment and the existence of an Orthodox shul in San Diego,” he said.

* * *

The Beth Jacob rabbi grew up in Brooklyn as the son of  Edward Bogopulsky, a drapery and
upholstery retailer, and Anita Bogopulsky, a homemaker.  When he was younger the rabbi
might have been among those who are incredulous that Yiddishkeit can thrive in a place like
San Diego.

“When a person grows up in a ghetto type community, you think every Jew around you is
like you or that they have no connection at all because they are not like you,” he reflected in
an interview with HERITAGE.

But having served the tiny Orthodox communities of Binghamton, where he was a day school teacher, and Charleston, where he was an associate rabbi, “you broaden the horizons and  you see the world differently,” he said.

“You realize that everyone is not like you, yet we are all the same: we are all Jews,” he
added.  “Not everyone had the opportunities as far as education is concerned.  Not everyone
had the same background growing up, so ...we don’t judge anyone.  We are here to help and
to educate people, to give people some insights and knowledge into things that we took for
granted because of where we grew up, things like the beauty of Judaism, the tradition, the
heritage, the flavor of Judaism.”

Bogopulsky began learning those lessons as a boy in an elementary school called Etz Chaim
“which was one of the first Hebrew schools in the United States.  It started in the 1800s and I
was actually in the last graduating class of that institution” before it moved to another neighborhood in Brooklyn and reopened under different auspices.  For high school, Bogopulsky commuted from Brooklyn to Manhattan where Yeshiva University operated the MTA -- Manhattan Talmudical Academy.

Following graduation, Bogopulsky went to Neveh Zion yeshiva, outside Jerusalem, for nearly two years, then enrolled at Shaarei Torah Academy in Monsey, N.Y. where he came under the influence of Rabbi Berel Wein.

Besides being the head of the yeshiva, Wein served as a pulpit rabbi.  He also had a background as an attorney.  “The goal of the school was not to have everyone become  a rabbi,” Bogopulsky recalled. “The goal was to have everyone become a Jew who could contribute something to the Jewish people.

“I enjoyed seeing him in this role, helping people, and what made it click that I wanted to be
a rabbi I don’t know exactly, “ Bogopulsky said.  “I don’t know what day it was, or how it
happened, but I decided upon this life.”

Besides taking Judaic courses route en route to his ordination, Bogopulsky also took secular
courses, first at a community college and later in the evening at St. Thomas Aquinas College, a Roman Catholic institution in nearby Sparkill.

“I had a few priests for professors,” he said.  “They treated us yeshiva boys with utmost
respect.  Because of the nature of the courses that we were taking, there would sometimes be
intermingling of the sexes, and we said because of religious reasons we couldn’t, and that was that.  We didn’t have to violate any Jewish law, any  halacha. ... All Jewish holidays were respected.  We didn’t have any problem at all.”

Were any old-fashioned theological debates ever held between the Jews and the Catholics?

“Never,” Bogopulsky replied. “We weren’t there to debate.  We were there for the courses. 
The courses were in psychology -- interviewing techniques, death and dying, depression.  It
was actually very helpful for our eventual goal to become pulpit rabbis in communal life.  I am not a therapist by any means but I have a small background to listen and to know where to refer people.”

At the yeshiva, Rabbi Laibel Reznick, his Talmud teacher, became his closest advisor. “Rabbi Wein was the overall rabbi.  He was accessible any time you needed him, but he was such a busy man that my personal relationship with a ‘rebbe,’ as we call it was Rabbi Reznick with whom I would learn on a regular basis.

“Until today, I call him on a constant basis with questions that are beyond the scope of the
average rabbi.  His number is on my re-dial.  I can call him any time.  He is very accessible.”

Bogopulsky said that for pulpit rabbis, “there are many questions that come up or situations
that arise and you don’t open up the book and answer is there.  It is what is called the “fifth
part” of the Shulcan Aruch -- there are only four sections -- so the ‘fifth one’ is when you
really have to use your noodle to figure out how to deal with situations.

“It is important for every person to have a rebbe, a teacher, a mentor, and even the greatest
of rabbis have someone they can turn to at times. ... Some people look at it wrong: ‘the rabbi
doesn’t know that much; it is a fault in his character.’  But I give the analogy of a physician who was about to perform a major surgery ... you probably would feel more comfortable with a surgeon going over the material, opening up the book, rather than going to the ball game the night before.  So it is the same idea -- we would rather be sure, confident that we know the right answer, then given an answer off the top of our heads.”

Bogopulsky said his decision to become a pulpit rabbi was a determinant in the kind of woman he would seek for  a wife.

“Knowing that a person would be going out of the New York area to ‘out of town’ --anything out of New York is ‘out of town’ -- you had to marry someone who would be a partner in your work,” Bogopulsky said.

While he still was in yeshiva, he met Leah Rosen “who had just come back from learning in Israel, in a seminary, and six months later in February of 1989 we were married.  I continued learning in the yeshiva for 2 1/2 years in what is called a kollel, where a person gets a stipend from the yeshiva in order to continue their studies from when they get married. My wife...went to work before we had children and she taught at West Orange Hebrew Academy in West Caldwell, N.J.”

Their children are daughter Yehudis, 9; son Yisrael, 8 (who also is known as “Sruly”); son
David,7, and daughter Hadassa, 3.   A fifth child is expected soon.

Bogopulsky’s first job was as a Judaica teacher in the Jewish day school of Binghamton, N.Y.   He taught  the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students, while his wife taught the 5th graders.

After two years he “became an assistant rabbi at one of the oldest synagogues in the country"
-- B’rith Shalom Beth Israel in Charleston, S.C. -- established in 1854.

“There I started getting my experience a a pulpit rabbi,” Bogopulsky said.  “Rabbi David Radinsky who was my mentor at that time was a big help.  He was an excellent rabbi to learn from.  He is there now 30 years in Charleston.  He was very accommodating to anything I needed.

“He let me take on the roles of the rabbi and the rabbinate to explore, to do things to test
them out.  He never said -- as happens very often with a senior rabbi and an assistant rabbi --
‘You do just what I tell you to do; don’t overstep your bounds.’  He was not like that at all. 
Whatever I wanted to do-- give a new class, for example -- he didn’t feel threatened by my
presence being there.  He felt very comfortable in going away and letting me take over the
show and speak from the pulpit.”

Charleston’s Jewish community numbered about 4,500 but of these only about 20 families
were observant, Bogopulsky estimated.

“I think we made an impact then in helping a lot of families become more traditional as they
took on more of the commandments, the rituals and enjoying the family life of the Jewish home.  ...I tried to use myself as an example so people could see that you could be an observant Orthodox Jew, living a very nice comfortable life in America and that there is no contradiction.”

He stayed in Charleston for three years until he assumed the Beth Jacob pulpit in 1996,
succeeding Rabbi Eliezer Langer, who after 18 years there decided to accept a teaching
position in Israel.

Bogopulsky said his intense Jewish education combined with his experiences in communities
where Jews were in a decided minority helped him prepare for his present position.

“It gave me enough of the tools to teach and educate any type of Jew -- a learned person on a
high level, or back to the basics for someone who doesn’t know the Hebrew alphabet or anything about Judaism.”

Membership of the synagogue had dipped below 200 families prior to the beginning of Bogopulsky’s tenure.  The number has remained the same, but the demographics have changed since he arrived there, Bogopulsky said.  Now there are many more young families; more children are being born into the congregation, and the future looks bright, he said.

* * *
Within the framework of halacha, Bogopulsky has been working to strengthen not only the
Orthodox Jewish community but San Diego’s overall Jewish community as well. 

He helped to organize some off-the-record luncheon meetings between Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis to address communal concerns and to ease some tensions that developed as the “Who Is a Jew” issue became more heated in Israel.

Asked the circumstances he believed Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis can cooperate, he replied: “In areas of halacha there really is no room to bend.”  On the other hand, he said, there are areas where cooperation can bear fruit.  Among these are Holocaust memorials, celebrating the State of Israel, coming together to support the Hebrew Home, and providing for communal security, he said. During the height of the controversy over Jewish pluralism -- when some people were threatening to withdraw their financial support for Israel if non-Orthodox movements were not accorded more recognition -- Bogopulsky and Conservative Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel Synagogue worked with the United Jewish Federation to forge a “unity campaign.” In essence, they developed a mechanism by which donors to the United Jewish Federation could earmark their contributions for use by their religious movements in Israel.

The sanctuary of Beth Jacob Congregation

Bogopulsky also was involved in this years community Yom HaShoah commemoration at
the Lawrence Family JCC which included presentations and songs by representatives of the
various streams of Judaism.

Observant Jewish men are prohibited from listening to a woman singing a solo -- so the question arose “even at a function like this what happens if a woman cantor from another movement sings during the program?”

Bogopulsky responded that  “in the halacha, if there is group singing, it is permissible for the woman to be leading the singing.  Myself, personally, I sing as loud as I can.  I hear myself hopefully.”

He added: “I want to make any program one that will b comfortable for all Jews to attend. ..
from someone not religious to the most religious.   It takes time.  Just one example of something we initiated...there was at one point a poem read.  The poetry was beautiful, but I thought it was nice to take three Psalms, representative of the trials and tribulations of the Jewish people pouring our hearts out to God, to add some religious significance.”

Bogopulsky credited the late Phil Schlossberg, a Holocaust Survivor who was active in several congregations in San Diego, for encouraging Beth Jacob Congregation to participate in the JCC’s Jewish Book Fair.

“He really offered me the insight of saying that people want to her the Orthodox point of view, and you should be available to that, not close yourself off from it. ...We have to be in the light. It has to be known that we are in existence.  The book fair is something that we should support.”

The rabbi made an allusion to the biblical story of Jonah to express his feelings about the
overall Jewish community:

“When Jonah was on the  boat, they asked him ‘what are you?’  He answered ‘I am a Jew.’ 
That is the way a Jew answers a question of who are you.  You are not a doctor or a lawyer
or any of these; you are a Jew.  I believe, deep down, we really are.  We love each other. We
are brothers and sisters.

“Brothers and sisters fight,” Bogopulsky said.  “My own children fight. I have arguments
with my sister, my brother.  We do argue-- that is the nature of the beast -- but deep down we
do love each other and that is the message every one has to hear.

“We let our outsides sometimes get in front of our insides.”