MEET

Aron Wander

How do we find joy, accept grief, and seek wholeness in a broken world? How do we grow and learn collectively and individually? What are our responsibilities to ourselves, each other, and the wider world? I don’t know that Jewish text has the answers, but I believe that it can always be a lens, mirror, and language through which we can ask and explore the questions.

I love learning, teaching, and swimming in a wide range of textual genres: Jewish mysticism, Talmud, halacha, Tanakh, and Jewish philosophy. As a teacher, my goal is to help others find themselves in the texts and to empower them to use their own experiences and wisdom as tools of interpretation. I also believe that text isn’t meant to stay on the page. Whatever we’re learning, I hope that it gives us the empathy, skills, and inspiration necessary to build a more just and loving world.

I’m currently in my fourth year of rabbinical school at Hebrew College, and I’ve had the opportunity to study at Yashrut with Rav Daniel Landes, Yeshivat Hadar, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Pardes Kollel, and the Conservative Yeshiva Kollel. Before starting rabbinical school, I worked as a community organizer. When I’m not in school, studying text, or teaching, I like to spend my time writing, engaging in activism, meditating, and wandering around the city looking for used books.