David Bashevkin (or Dovid Bashevkin, born February 15, 1985) is an American Modern Orthodox rabbi, writer, adjunct professor, and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

host. He serves as Director of Education at

NCSY NCSY (formerly known as the National Conference of Synagogue Youth) is a Jewish youth group under the auspices of the Orthodox Union. Its operations include Jewish-inspired After-school activity, after-school programs; summer programs in Israel, ...

, an

Orthodox Union The Orthodox Union (abbreviated OU) is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs f ...

youth group.

Early life and education

Bashevkin grew up in

Lawrence, Nassau County, New York Lawrence is a village in Nassau County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village population was 6,483. The Village of Lawrence is in the southwestern corner of the Town of Hempstead, adjoining the border wit ...

, to parents from traditional Jewish backgrounds. He described his

oncologist Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''� ...

father and writer mother as being

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

Modern Orthodox. As a child, he wrote letters to the editor of '' Wizard'', a comic book industry magazine. After graduating from Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys, Bashevkin studied at

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

's Yeshivat Sha'alvim, later attending Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland, where he earned his bachelor's degree in

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic Studies in 2006. After receiving his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University (YU), Bashevkin graduated with a master's degree in Polish ''Hasidut'' in 2010 from YU's Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, having studied with Yaakov Elman. From 2013 to 2022, he studied for a Ph.D. in

Public Policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

and Management at the

New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers ...

's Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, where he focused on

crisis management Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and envi ...

Career

NCSY

Bashevkin began his academic career as an associate director of education at

, the youth division of the

, from 2010 to 2013 before becoming the group's director of education. As the leader of NCSY, he has directed many youth seminars and programs and has also developed curricula for staff and teens.

Academia

Bashevkin served as an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

from 2010 to 2011. He currently teaches courses on public policy, religious crisis, and rabbinic thought at YU in the Isaac Breuer College of Hebraic Studies as well as the

Sy Syms School of Business Sy Syms School of Business is Yeshiva University's business school. It offers undergraduate and graduate business programs at the Wilf Campus in New York's Washington Heights neighborhood, and at the Beren Campus in New York's Murray Hill neighb ...

Podcasts

Bashevkin developed a '' Tablet''

Daf Yomi ''Daf Yomi'' (, ''Daf Yomi'', "page of the day" or "daily folio") is a daily regimen of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries (also known as the Gemara), in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud is covered in sequence. A ' ...

podcast called ''Take One'' with

Liel Leibovitz Liel Leibovitz (; born 1976) is an Israeli journalist, author, media critic, and video game scholar. Leibovitz was born in Tel Aviv, immigrated to the United States in 1999, and earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2007. In 2014, he was Visi ...

. In 2020, Bashevkin launched the ''18Forty'' podcast to explore traditional Jewish topics in a contemporary context. The podcasts are organized by monthly topics, with each topic featuring 2–4 guests. Past topics havenincluded

Biblical criticism Modern Biblical criticism (as opposed to pre-Modern criticism) is the use of critical analysis to understand and explain the Bible without appealing to the supernatural. During the eighteenth century, when it began as ''historical-biblical c ...

, the "

off the derech Off the ''derech'' (, pronounced: , meaning: "path"; OTD) is a Yeshiva-English expression used to describe the state of a Jew who has left an Orthodox way of life or community, and whose new lifestyle is secular, non-Jewish, or of a non-Ortho ...

" phenomenon, and

Jewish mysticism Academic study of Jewish mysticism, especially since Gershom Scholem's ''Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism'' (1941), draws distinctions between different forms of mysticism which were practiced in different eras of Jewish history. Of these, Kabbal ...

, and guests interviewed have included Marc B. Shapiro, Joshua Berman, Shulem Deen,

Kelsey Osgood Kelsey Osgood is an American author. She is a graduate of Columbia University and the MFA program in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, l ...

, Ammiel Hirsch, and Gil Student.

Publications

Books

Bashevkin believes in the study of Jewish thought as a mechanism to find spiritual fulfillment through

Torah study Torah study is the study of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature, and similar works, all of which are Judaism's Sifrei kodesh, religious texts. According to Rabbinic Judaism, the study is done for the purpose of the ''mi ...

and everyday activities. His published books in this genre include the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

work - ''B'Rogez Rahem Tizkor'', ''Sin•a•gogue: Sin and Failure in Jewish Thoughts'', and ''Top 5: Lists of Jewish Character and Characters.'' He authored the NCSY

Haggadah The Haggadah (, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to reco ...

entitled ''Just One''. Many of Bashevkin's ideas draw extensively on the works of Zadok HaKohen Rabinowitz, a 19th-century Hasidic rabbi, especially the latter's thoughts on

sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

. Bashevkin has written humorously about

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

culture, which he referred to as "airplane food and not home-baked." One humor column in ''

Mishpacha ''Mishpacha'' () - Jewish Family Weekly is a Haredi weekly magazine package produced by The Mishpacha Group in both English and Hebrew. History ''Mishpacha'' is one of the four major English-language newspapers and magazines serving the Hared ...

'' magazine cataloged the idiosyncrasies and nuances of Jewish life. Bashevkin has written extensively on

Jewish theology Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to recon ...

, publishing articles on sin, failure, and Jewish doctrine and tradition, including the application of Jewish scripture in the 21st-century digital age.

Selected articles

Thoughts and Prayers Do Help
''Wall Street Journal'' (June 1, 2022).
#MeToo Should Include #SinToo
''Wall Street Journal'' (October 3, 2019).
Failure Comes To Yeshivah
''Jewish Action'' (Spring 2019): 62–64.
Rabbi’s Son Syndrome: Religious Struggle in a World of Religious Ideals
''Jewish Action'' (Summer 2017): 38–44.
Medium Matters: The Medium and Message of Torah in the Digital Age
''Shavuot-To-Go'' (2016): 6–9.
A Radical Theology and a Traditional Community: On the Contemporary Application of Izbica–Lublin Hasidut in the Jewish Community
''TorahMusings.com'' (August 2015): 54–68.
The Forgotten Talmud: On Teaching Aggadah in High Schools
''Jewish Action'' (Fall 2015).
Life is Full of Failure: Bio Blurbs Should Be Too
''First Things'' (May 8, 2014).
The Custom to Recite the Priestly Blessings After Birkat ha-Torah
''ha-Maor'' 68:1 (2015): 86-90 (in Hebrew).
The Pew Report’s Lesser-Known Cousin: The Phew Report
''Jewish Action'' (Summer 2014).
The Jewish Community Confronts Its Crisis Crisis
''Jewish Action'' (Summer 2013).
Perpetual Prophecy: An Intellectual Tribute to Reb Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin on his 110th Yahrzeit
''Seforim'' (August 19, 2010).
Jonah and the Varieties of Religious Motivation
''Lehrhaus'' (October 9, 2016).

Personal life

Bashevkin is a resident of

Teaneck, New Jersey Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. The town is know for their pancake throwing contest held ...

References

External links

*

(in Hebrew), ''B'Rogez Rahem Tizkor''
Articles and lectures
on YUTorah
Academia.edu pageTablet article rollMishpacha article roll@DBashIdeas / TwitterWhy Are You Here? Truth, Comfort, and Religious Motivation
Talk on My Jewish Learning
David Bashevkin on Sin and Failure in Jewish Thought
''The Tikvah Podcast'' with Jonathan Silver {{DEFAULTSORT:Bashevkin, David 1985 births Living people 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American rabbis Academics from New Jersey American humorists American Jewish theologians American male non-fiction writers American religion and spirituality podcasters Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish educators Jewish humorists Long Island University faculty Orthodox rabbis from New York City Rabbis from New Jersey The New School alumni Yeshiva University alumni Yeshiva University faculty Activists against antisemitism Writers from Teaneck, New Jersey