TORONTO — Eighteen years after retiring as director of education for United Synagogue Day School (USDS), Aaron Nussbaum is marking his “chai” year teaching adults on a volunteer basis at two Toronto synagogues.
Aaron Nussbaum
A native of Antwerp, Belgium, Nussbaum will celebrate his 80th birthday next month. He and his family spent the war years in unoccupied southern France, immigrating to New York just before his 13th birthday.
A Wednesday morning Talmud class that he teaches at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue arose out of a conversation with the late Rabbi Joseph Kelman, then spiritual leader of the congregation, when the two men saw each other at a wedding. Nussbaum also teaches a Thursday morning Bible class at Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue.
“It’s a way of giving back to the community,” he said.
Nussbaum has called Toronto home for the past 49 years, ever since he was hired as founding principal of USDS, now known as Robbins Hebrew Academy. Prior to that, he taught and was a principal in Jewish schools for 10 years.
An alumnus of the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), he completed two masters’ degrees before earning a doctorate in Hebrew literature in 1973. JTS awarded him an honorary doctorate in pedagogy in 1987.
As a student, Nussbaum, who was raised in an Orthodox home, was a member of Bnei Akiva (then called Hashomer Hadati), an Orthodox youth movement. As a teenager in New York, he attended Yeshiva University High School.
Currently a member of three Orthodox synagogues, Nussbaum likes to call himself a “traditional” Jew. He clarifies, demonstrating precision and a low-key manner that are familiar to his long-term students. “The term ‘orthodoxy’ means ‘correct thinking,’ he said. “I would put emphasis on ‘correct doing.’”
He said that JTS appealed to him for its “open and critical approach to Jewish text… and yet the seminary was a place of Jewish observance.”
At first, it seemed he was headed in a different direction, studying structural technology for two years at a community college in New York. He said he “fell into” education when he was teaching students in Hashomer Hadati.
Although Nussbaum spent most of his educational career as an administrator, over the years he has taught various aspects of Jewish studies at Toronto’s Midrasha L’Morim, York University and the University of Toronto.
“Teaching adults is great,” he said. “You allow yourself a lot of leeway to say things you wouldn’t say to kids.”
Some of the subject matter he addresses in his current classes may not be appropriate for children, but Nussbaum – a father of three, grandfather of eight and great-grandfather of two, who has been married 59 years – believes in being “as honest as possible with kids, always.”
Jewish education has improved over the years, he said, citing the increased use of modern pedagogic methods and better professional training.
“I just met two Jewish kids, and they like [their Jewish day] school, and that’s great,” he said.
Nussbaum enjoys the classes he teaches, too. “It’s really exciting, and it makes me go back to the sources.”
A lesson from the teacher: “We use our intellectual powers to investigate the Torah in all aspects (Torat Emet), and simultaneously the ultimate facet of Torah is Torat Chayim, which means you follow the laws and customs as they should be followed. It unifies us, it’s pleasant and it has social value.”
