M itzvot n Maui

You can go to

paradise to

celebrate your

simchah.

38

CELEBRATE • 2006

mi

Lisa Alcalay Klug

The Jerusalem Post

B

y land he's a rabbi, by sea a whale researcher.
When David Glickman relocated to the South
Pacific more than 15 years ago to research
endangered humpback whales, the move took him well
beyond the ocean's realm. It also prompted this son of an
Orthodox cantor to become a rabbi on the Hawaiian
island of Maui.
Glickman, who was raised as an observant Jew, soon
became a lay leader among Maui's largely nonaffiliated
Jews. While there is no official count on the island, esti-

mates top out at a few thousand.
Glickman began leading High Holiday services and
teaching b'nai mitzvah students and Hebrew school. After
functioning in that role unofficially, he received private
ordination from the mainland and was hired by the
Jewish Congregation of Maui in Kihei. The shul had held
formal twice-monthly and High Holiday services since
1985. According to Beth Hatefutsoth, the Nahum
Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, the commu-
nity dates back 35 to 40 years.
Now that community offers the possibility for a tropical
Jewish wedding or bar or bat mitzvah.
Rabbi Glickman's current congregation of more than