Rabbi
Continued from Page 13
Bogot with student Nadia Rahim
Photo courtesy of Pam Brobst
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He worked at a Methodist summer camp as a Jewish resource
counselor toward the end of high school, one of the fi rst times
he experienced the joy of teaching Judaism to those without a
lick of familiarity, and also one of the fi rst times he considered
teaching as a life. He worked as a youth group adviser for Oak
Park Temple and created an educational program for special
needs adults to learn Jewish values. He has degrees from Lewis
University, formerly National College of Education (B.Ed), the
University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, along with an M.Ed from the University of
Cincinnati and graduate degrees from HUC-JIR.

Oh, and he taught his youth group students how to do the
box-step waltz, but don’t ask him how he fi gured that one out —
he’s not much of a dancer, he said.

He worked at Gratz College for almost 15 years, a time he
considers deeply infl uential on his path.

“Th e years at Gratz College were unbelievably important
for me,” he said. “It off ered me an opportunity to do adminis-
trative work, be an assistant professor, teach education, be an
administrator and work with what was then called Th e School
of Observation and Practice” (a three-day-a-week conservative
Hebrew school). It was the time he spent there that prepared him
to take his fi rst national job as the director of curriculum devel-
opment for the Union of Reform Judaism, a position he held for
another 15 years.

In 1996, he and his wife, Mary K. Bogot, made aliyah, and
spent fi ve years in Israel, knowing they would come back; three
kids were in the United States, and just one was in Israel. In the
end, the lone holdout ended up back in the U.S. He was a profes-
sor in the New Immigrant English Teacher Education program
at Israel’s Beit Berl College. (Bogot’s wife of 46 years, who died
in 2016 aft er battling Parkinson’s, was a convert to Judaism and
published the memorably titled book How Do You Know the
Word Schlep? You’re Not Jewish!)
He’s written books on every facet of Jewish education and
spiritual life, almost exclusively as introductory and educational
texts. Just a small sample includes A Children’s Haggadah, My
First 100 Hebrew Words and Th e Aleph-Bet of Jewish Values. He’s
at work on another book now, too; the writing part is easy, it’s
just fi nding a publisher that remains the trick.

Th ere have been more teaching stops along the way — at
University of Pennsylvania’s Literacy Network as a Jewish studies
facilitator, and as a mentor for 30 teachers at Cheltenham High
School, along with adult education courses at Beth Am, Kol
Ami and Rodeph Shalom. But it is his current stop, Penn State
Abington, that has him truly animated these days. To be sure,
it’s the only place that non-Jewish students will stop him to say,
“Rabbi, I did something that was kedusha today.”
“Penn State, Abington is really home for me,” Bogot said.

He began teaching just one course, largely for Jewish students,
in the tiny Jewish Studies program, the only one in the Penn State
system outside of main campus. But as the course grew in pop-
ularity, demand grew right along with it; now, he teaches three
courses per semester to a diverse group of students. Students
from Iran, Colombia, China and other corners of the globe
read Sholom Aleichem, A.B. Yehoshua and Amos Oz, to the
delight of Bogot. Th e process of teaching universal humanistic
values through particular Jewish ones, Bogot said, is what has
motivated him for decades. And to do it for such a diverse group
of students at this stage in his life?
“Who would’ve thought that that could’ve happened?” he asked. ●
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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