AUGUST 26 • 2021 | 57

ERETZ

S

itting down with 
Rabbi Lee Buckman, 
60, founding head of 
school at the Frankel Jewish 
Academy, was the highlight of 
my week. He spoke passionate-
ly about his early introduction 
to Zionism, his work as an edu-
cator, and how much he enjoys 
meeting Israelis and hearing 
their stories.

Q: What are your early mem-
ories of visits to Israel? 
LB: My first visit to Israel was 
1978 with Ramah Seminars. It 
was then that I first began to 
realize that Israel was my home 
and that I wanted to make ali-
yah. Shortly after that summer 
in Israel, I read Hillel Halkin’s 
Letters to an American Jewish 
Friend, which convinced me 
that the future of Judaism and 
Jewish life was in Israel. About 
a year or two before I made ali-
yah, I read the book again, and 
by then I disagreed with this 
thesis because, after working as 
an educator/rabbi all my pro-
fessional life in America, I saw 
how vibrant Jewish life could be 
for kids and future adults, but 
that book got me thinking when 
I was 17 years old. 

Q: What years did you live in 
Detroit and what did you do 
there? 
LB: We lived in West 
Bloomfield from 1999 to 2009, 

and I was the founding Head 
of School at the Frankel Jewish 
Academy.

Q: Tell me about your family 
and who moved with you to 
Israel. 
LB: My wife, Rachel, and I have 
four boys. One of them of them 
served in Machal (a soldier who 
serves in the IDF as a non- 
Israeli) for a year and a half; our 
second son spent a year post-
high school on Young Judaea 
Year Course, our third spent a 
year at Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi, 
and our fourth son studied 
at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa and 
made aliyah.
We raised our boys bilin-
gually, and I spoke to them in 
Hebrew since their birth. Every 
Hebrew word was another con-
nection that deepened my love 
of Israel. Rachel also dreamed 
of making aliyah, and eventu-
ally we turned our dream into 
a reality. After our fourth son 
made aliyah, we followed him, 
and he helped us acclimate and 
learn the ropes. We’ve benefited 
from Nefesh b’Nefesh, which 
made making aliyah extremely 
easy, and we’ve also benefited 
from Skype and Zoom, which 
made communicating with our 
family very easy.

Q: When did you make 
aliyah?
LB: We made aliyah in 2017 

from Toronto. I was the head 
of school at the Community 
Hebrew Academy of Toronto at 
the time. When we announced 
our interest in making aliyah, 
they were surprised that we 
were choosing to leave the 
school, but not surprised that 
we were making aliyah, as 
Israel had always been a major 
focus of my vision as a school 
leader, also a prized value in 
the Toronto Jewish community. 

Q: What do you do profes-
sionally?
LB: I head up the Israel office 
of the Holocaust Claims 
Conference that funds educa-
tion, research, documentation 
and films related to the Shoah. 
We fund all the Shoah muse-
ums in Israel, the archives, 
teacher training, and student 
and soldier visits to museums, 
as well as films that are pro-
duced here. 
I love meeting the represen-
tatives of the institutions we 
support and learning about 
the incredible and important 
work that they’re doing. In 
addition, I am always learning 
about different aspects of the 
history of the Holocaust and 
personal stories of heroism 
and tragedy. It’s an incredibly 
enriching opportunity, and I’m 
blessed to be doing something 
important on behalf of the 
Jewish people. 

Q: What do you do for fun? 
LB: I run marathons and like 
to discover Israel through run-
ning (I also cross-train a lot). I 
enjoy working on my Hebrew, 
interacting with Israelis and 
collecting their stories. When 
I do, I fall even more deeply 
in love with the country that I 
live in.

Q: What do you miss about 
living in Detroit? 
LB: We have close fami-
ly in Detroit that we miss 
and friends who, because of 
COVID, we can’t visit. We’re 
looking forward to the skies 
opening up and people being 
able to fly again. 

Q: Do you have a message 
for anyone who’s reading this 
interview? 
LB: From afar, Israel seems 
fraught with problems and 
challenges. Some of those ineq-
uities are manifest in America 
today as well, but it’s easier to 
see others’ problems than solve 
one’s own. 
The beautiful thing about 
living in Israel is that these are 
my problems, our problems, 
the Jewish people’s problems. 
I enjoy trying to contribute 
to the solution. Living here, I 
get to see the complexity but 
also the diversity and beauty of 
Israel. That’s the greatest bene-
fit of having made aliyah. 

FJA Founding Head of School 
now heads Israel’s Holocaust 
Claims Conference.

Lee Buckman

AVIVA ZACKS CONTRIBUTING WRITER 

MEET THE OLIM

Rabbi Lee 
Buckman 
and family

