Rent-a-Rabbi
EXECS PAY BIG FOR ON-THE-JOB RELIGION
By Catie Lazarus
(December 16, 2007)
Inside a windowed conference room at a large Wall Street firm, Scott Beck is discussing the Holocaust with his rabbi, Henry Harris.
Harris had recently returned from a trip to Poland. “It looks just like it did in ‘The Pianist’ and ‘Schindler’s List.’ Did you see ‘Schindler’s List,’ and do you remember the part when they are in Krakow?” he asked.
Beck, an executive director at the bank, nods as he sneaks a peek at his BlackBerry. “I got my eye on the market, too,” he says.
Beck and many other corporate titans have a regular “take your rabbi to work day,” when trading and the Torah go hand in hand.
For execs who care about their cause of igniting Jewish pride, a rabbi from Aish New York, a nonprofit educational center, will get religious with you anytime, anywhere. Everyone from Kirk Douglas to executives at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and major hedge funds are clients, the company says.
There is no set curriculum. Clients use their half-hour to hour sessions to talk about Torah verses, relationships – even how to make Jewish bread.
“If they can’t meet at their office, maybe a conference room is taken, we’ll just meet at Starbucks,” Aish’s Rabbi Stu Schiff says.
“Successful executives don’t have the time to devote,” says Schiff, sitting in Aish’s three-floor Upper West Side headquarters, a collection of plush event rooms, a library and a boardroom. “We’ll make cold calls, referrals, whatever it takes to inspire a Jewish New Yorker.”
The center has four rabbis on call five days a week for individual sessions in what Aish calls their Executive Learning Program. Jews of more modest means can attend group activities after work, such as speed dating and Shabbat dinners for singles.
One client, Martin Geminder, a managing partner at the hedge fund Catapult Partners, comments, “I’m involved in investment management, so taking an hour off is easy. It’s a luxury to have a rabbi come to you directly.”
“The sessions aren’t just about religion,” Geminder adds, saying he considers it more like counseling. “I can talk about anything. The sessions bring me soul and give a down-to-earth perspective in this material world.”
On a recent trip to his office, Harris instructs Geminder that “most decisions in life are not black and white, between good and evil. There are shades of gray.”
Both Beck and Geminder have shared their delight with colleagues, clients, friends and family with varying degrees of success.
He recalls that until his brother died on 9/11, he initially was “blowing it off. Now it’s a real blessing.”
Harris describes Aish’s Jewish education as a “great, viable product to market.”
