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