by Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
If you had to describe Rabbi Robert Wolkoff of Congregation B’nai Tikvah with only one phrase, “well traveled,” would certainly be appropriate.
The rabbi has led Jewish temples in Michigan, Georgia and as far away as Sweden before joining B’nai Tikvah in August.
Rabbi Wolkoff replaces Rabbi Michael Goldstein, who had been serving on an interim basis since the departure of Rabbi David Eligberg for another position in August of 2006.
While he has seen much of the country and the world, Rabbi Wolkoff says that he feels right at home with his new Finnegans Lane congregation.
”It has just been a great fit with the congregation,” he said. “We are really developing a very powerful symbiotic relationship. It’s just delightful.”
Born in Scranton, Pa., Rabbi Wolkoff described himself as being “typically Jewish growing up,” and says he had not always planned on joining the clergy. While he did engage in some religious practices as a youth, he says he had no idea what an important role his faith would play in his life.
”I wasn’t rebelling against my religion as a child,” he said. “I just didn’t realize that I would end up devoting my life to it.”
Rabbi Wolkoff says he realized what he wanted to do with his life while a student at Wesleyan University. In 1970, he took a trip arranged though the university to do an archeological dig in Israel. The rabbi says that the experience changed the direction of his life.
”I went into college thinking that I would study nuclear physics, and I ended up studying Jewish mysticism,” Rabbi Wolkoff said. “I remember an uncle of mine telling my father ‘this is your fault.’”
From Wesleyan, Rabbi Wolkoff went onto the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where he received rabbinical ordination.
He accepted his first position as a rabbi in Ann Arbor, Mich. While serving there he was offered a position in 1983 at a synagogue in Gothenburg, Sweden, and jumped at the opportunity.
”They were looking for the kind of rabbi that I am, and I was up for the adventure of it,” he said. “I can say that it was a very heady experience.”
The rabbi says that he witnessed some of the anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism that has become well publicized in Europe in his time there, but that he does not believe it was as bad then as it is today. Rabbi Wolkoff says he worked hard to reverse this thinking, and “scored a couple of hits,” in his fight against bigotry by helping to enlighten and open the minds of people.
While in Sweden the rabbi met his wife, Ruth-Ann, who at the time was on a business trip. The two married and the rabbi returned to America with her in 1993, where they lived in Appleton, Wis., for several years.
The couple have 5-year-old twins, Eton and Josef, and a baby girl, Dhalia.
In 1995, Rabbi Wolkoff joined Congregation Agudath Achim in Savannah, Ga., where he served until coming to B’nai Tikvah in August.
He says that his style has worked well with his new congregation.
”I have the intellectual muscle to do the job, I definitely know my stuff,” Rabbi Wolkoff said. “I also wear it lightly though, and most of the time I would rather listen than talk. I am not the kind of rabbi that feels the need to give a 90-minute sermon.”
Of his new home, the rabbi is equally enthusiastic.
”My wife and I are just loving New Jersey. We were amazed when we first got here at how much nature there is,” he said. “God willing, we will be here for quite awhile.”

