Widely traveled rabbi brings new energy to Temple Shalom

To give you a sense of Rabbi Daniel Kripper’s life, consider his visit to Aruba. In 2013, Kripper was living in his native Argentina when he was invited to the Caribbean island to lead a seder at Beth Israel Synagogue. Rabbi Kripper obliged – and then stayed in Aruba for six years.

“Travel makes my perspective richer, wider,” Kripper said in a recent interview.

He said that when he sees fellow rabbis who remained in Buenos Aires, he sometimes feels a disconnect.

“For me, there is such a large difference in our worldview, our experiences. I see the world with a macro-perspective,” he said.

In February, Kripper moved to Rhode Island to become the rabbi at Temple Shalom, in Middletown, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Kripper and his wife, Flora Brykman, live in Lincoln. This is not their first time living in the United States: The couple previously lived in Pennsylvania, where Kripper was president of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinical Association. One of their sons lives in Boston and the two others are in Colorado and Montevideo, Uruguay.

Temple Shalom immediately made a strong impression on Kripper.

“It was love at first sight. Love has no explanation. We hit it off,” he says.

Growing up in Buenos Aires, Kripper was always a dedicated Hebrew student, but he chose to study sociology at Buenos Aires University instead of pursuing the rabbinate.

Kripper moved to Israel in 1966. He was already fluent in scriptural and spoken Hebrew, but when he first interacted with a merchant, the man scoffed and said, “Please stop speaking the Hebrew of Shabbat.”

For three and a half years, Kripper immersed himself in modern Israeli life, including the “language of the street.” During this time, he became enamored of Talmudic scholarship and decided to study at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After he returned to Buenos Aires, Kripper was ordained by the Latin Rabbinical Seminary.

Kripper said his assistantship to Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer, a legendary human-rights activist in Argentina, was a formative experience for him.

“He was our Martin Luther King,” Kripper said. “He was a hero. I was his right-hand man at the seminario [seminary]. It was my greatest privilege.”

The arc of Kripper’s life has transcended borders and languages, including long stints in the U.S., Aruba and Uruguay. He has met and studied with many influential figures, including the writer and Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld. His roles have ranged from serving as a chaplain in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside Hospital to authoring several books.

One of these books, “Vivir con Mayuscula” – “Living Fully” in English – was published in 2018 (an English version is scheduled to be released in October). Kripper was on a book tour in 2020, when the pandemic descended and the tour was made virtual. This is how Kripper, who was living in Aruba, was invited to make a virtual presentation about his book to Temple Shalom. The Zoom presentation began an ongoing conversation between Kripper and the temple’s cantor, Fred Scheff.

Temple Shalom is a small congregation, and the rabbi position was vacant at the time. As the temple’s 60th anniversary approached, the congregation invited Kripper to become the rabbi and help reenergize the temple. Kripper and his wife were only too happy to move back to the U.S., where they could be close to their son in Boston.

“I think [Temple Shalom] has a lot of potential as a Jewish center,” Kripper said. “They’re very idealistic people, and they have strong motivation, which is what you need to make it grow. It’s a fresh start, reviving the old spirit.”

ROBERT ISENBERG (risenberg@jewishallianceri.org) is the multimedia producer for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and a writer for Jewish Rhode Island.