Rabbi Matt Cutler: This is Rabbi Matt Cutler from Schenectady, New York. I'm talking with Roxanne who has six questions for me. And here you go.

Roxanne: Alright, so the first question is, what is your experience with being a Jew in upstate New York? And how large is the Jewish community there?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Sure. So I, you know, I have a great comparison because I have been a New Yorker for all but six years in my 61 years of life. I grew up on Long Island and went to Binghamton, and then I was Rabbi in Boston area. I was in graduate school for a year in Israel. Other than that, New York State. I lived in Manhattan for a couple of years. Our upstate community is significantly smaller than what we call downstate anything below the Mario Cuomo bridge. I would say in our population of around 700,000, there are probably somewhere in the ballpark of about 15 to 20,000 Jews in our region. The average the synagogues are smaller. For example, we're the largest connected congregation at 450 families. The big Albany congregation is at 750 families, which is compared to you in Manhattan, where you know, take that number added together and then times two, and that's just your congregation. So it's a very different feel. Um, growing up in gray neck, my high school graduating class, I think was over 80 some odd percent Jewish. My children's graduating class from high school, though? Maybe they were eight other kids or 10 other kids in a class of about 350.

Roxanne: Where's that?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Outside of Schenectady, a town called Niskayuna. Got it?

Roxanne: Um, if you don't mind asking, um, when you lived in Great Neck. What synagogue did you belong to?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: This is great. I went to Temple Emanuel. I lived around the corner from Temple BethEl Temple Israel. This is a wild story. My mom was in a wheelchair, and back in the early 1960s. The only synagogue that was handicapped accessible was this reformed synagogue and in different parts of town, which was not walking distance for me. So, it was kind of funny that, you know, someone asked me why am I reformed? Like I didn't have stairs in the congregation?

Roxanne: That's funny. Yeah. My dad grew up in Great Neck and my grandparents lived there and they've gone to Temple Israel.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Got it. Alright, so yeah, it's great because Great Neck is one of those perfect towns that has changed immensely from when your dad and I grew up there. You know, I graduated high school in 1981. And Great Neck was changing. You know, before then, it was an Eastern European immigrant group that moved out to, to the Long Island. Most of the people worked in the city. By the early 1980s, there was a mass influx of Persian Jews that were coming in as the Shah of Iran’s reign tumbled. And so these established congregations didn't know how to absorb them. And one of the major changes in Great Neck at the time was the synagogue presence. There were many Eastern European Synagogues, and the Persian Jews did not know which one to join. So they ended up building their own synagogues. It was a major change up here, you'll see. And this is something that totally blew me away compared to Great Neck. You know, you left Great Neck. I had I had we reformed synagogues, to conservative synagogues, and a half a dozen orthodox synagogues, all within, you know, maybe a mile and a half radius of my house. The next reformed synagogue west of me is in Utica, which is 90 minutes away. North, it's 30 minutes away. Albany is 20 minutes away. So we represent ready for this one, six team school districts in our in our religious school. Oh, wow. So you know, we had the big one. Myskina you know, and then we have school districts that are smaller, where there's one or two Jewish kids, but those are 16 different places we we have to negotiate with.

Roxanne: A lot. Oh, yeah.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Look at it for high holidays. You know, in Manhattan, and you know, in New York City schools, you get off of Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur war. Do you guys get two days Rosh Hashanah?

Roxanne: Um, I think so. Alright, I don't remember. I know I just know I take the days off. But Alright, so

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Here's the wild one. In my town, well, actually, I lived in this town called this Kuna, which is a suburb of Schenectady. Now, I live in the city of Schenectady. The practice outside of Myskina, which gives one day one day for Yom Kippur , the other school districts, you get either Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. And if one falls on the weekend, that's the one you would have gotten. So, you know, what ends up happening with a lot of our kids is they feel really stressed. Because the teacher will be like, Alright, there's a test on on Tuesday, which is Yom Kippur, but you can't. Well, you know, I have to go to take the test. Well, we'll let you take it the next day. Well, I can't study because I'm gonna be in synagogue. Well, you get it. There's a lot of reeducating that has to go on a faculty and how to deal with it. It's not a day off. It's a day to do things.

Roxanne: Well, yeah, I lived in London for three years. And they're like, my school was definitely like, a lot less Jewish. And I remember like, I would we didn't get the days off, and I'd have to take the days off. And then I mean, I was younger, so it was okay. But it was also stressful like that. I did miss the school.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Yeah. I mean, I do you know, I try to explain to the schools. I'm like, Look, you don't know the stress you're putting on a kid who says there's a project due on Tuesday, and I can't be there. And to make it due on Wednesday doesn't help them.

Roxanne: What’s nice is also my school like next week, we have Monday, Tuesday off for Passover. No, sorry, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then we're also not allowed tests on Thursday.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Oh wow. So my daughter is a school social worker. And she doesn't have off, you know, in her school in Schenectady. And so she's like, I can't come down for Seder so she's gonna be going to Seder with friends, but we usually come to Manhattan, right around the corner from where you are. Right. And so, over on York, seven, all right, that's what I'll be just waved at So yeah, so yeah, so that so upstate Jewish world is very different. In New York is eat in New York City it's easier to to be a part of the Jewish community without affiliated with the Jewish community. Does that make sense?

Roxanne: Yeah, definitely. Like, even like at my school, like, I know, I'm surrounded by like, a lot of other like Jews. And

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Like yeah, exactly. And so one of the major reasons, you know, people choose to affiliate with a synagogue is because they want their kids to have Jewish friends. And if you live in certain school districts, and there's one or two kids in the grade, that doesn't help. And so actually what's worked toward our advantage, some of the smaller synagogues, which only has like six or seven kids per grade, versus ours, which has, you know, 25 to 35 kids a grade, you you end up seeing people choose us because, well, their main reason is to have Jewish friends. Do you want your kid to have choice of 25 friends? Or six friends?

Roxanne: That's interesting.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Yeah. People drive to us. Like, it's wild. Like some, some kids like drive, like 40 minutes in each direction to come to our synagogue for religious school is wild.

Roxanne: Wow. Yeah.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Did I answer the first question? All right, what's the second? Okay.

Roxanne: Have you felt the change in attitudes about Jewish people in your community since the start of the war?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: The answer is yes. All right, I'm gonna be really candid with you. I'm watching a rise in anti semitism that I've never experienced. Sure. Recently this past week, the anti Defamation League came out with their 2023 audit. And they talked about a hunt. I forget the percentage of incidents that went up in that year, and how radically that increased since October 7. Wow. So one of the challenges we have a lot of people here don't, especially in the non Jewish world, who are not able to differentiate between Israel and Judaism. So we get blamed for stuff. But then when there's rallies and stuff, I said, Well, it's not against you. It's against Israel. And so there's a real, real tension. We are right now in the middle of dealing with a city, a resolution that some a group of people want to bring forward to, to spank Israel, for how they've been conducting the war. But the resolution does not mention October 7, in the atrocities, they don't talk about the growing trend of anti semitism. They just focus on the Palestinian perspective. And that is a huge issue with it, which I'm defending these days against.

Roxanne: Wow. I just it just, it just feels like it's just like missing the story missing so much.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Oh, yeah. It's a it's a slice of a pie. It's not wrong. It's just it's so much more complex. We do have incidences where teacher sent out an email to the entire school that if you're really an anti racist, you need to be anti Israel. Oh, and it was worse because her mother is on the school board for that city. And you know, was like, No, you can't, this teacher is not going to get fired, or there was no ramifications for it. We had incidences of kids wearing Star of David necklaces that got ripped up, ripped off the neck. We had an incident where a kid headed Israel flag back to on his backpack that got ripped up and flushed down the toilet. They took a video of it and posted on social media. Oh, here's my favorite one. In one town, the local newspaper ran an article by this kid who knows nothing about Israel. But he took the opportunity to take the first letter of the opening sentences as an acrostic to spell out the phrase Death to Israel.

Roxanne: Thats just like, unnecessary.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: And we all were like, well, we can't tell you how we punish them. But we know that it was there. But the kids still in school. We run into these incidences all over the place and were really dealing with non Jewish school boards and school officials who were just like, who were very dismissive of this. Wow, we are seeing a significant Increase of anti semitism in our community

Roxanne: Wow, that's really just it's different from like, me and like, you know, I don't I don't live that far away. It's like,

Rabbi Matt Cutler: it was two hours, two and a half hours north of you and it's a whole different world. It it's really wild. And that's why I was very excited to get your email to talk to you about this.

Roxanne: Yeah, it's really like, I mean, I like I wear my my Hebrew name necklace. I wear my like my Israel tag and like to school

Rabbi Matt Cutler: We have people that are that will wear baseball caps over their yarmulkes in our community, because they just don't feel safe wearing a yarmulke around town. Yeah, it's tough.

Roxanne: Definitely.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Well, what can we? Next question, maybe something more positive will come out of this one.

Roxanne: Okay. Have you been directly affected by antisemitism in the wake of events on October 7? What about before October 7?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Yes, to answer your questions. So 10 years ago, there was a writer for the local newspaper who went to Israel and wrote the series of articles. I got death threats. My daughter was in high school and we she couldn't be left at home alone. Because we were told that there were people who wanted to hurt me. Oh my god, I'm sorry. So now here's the rather humorous one in response to that. Somebody came into the synagogue and offered me (I kid you not You can Google this, this is this is true) a death ray gun. All right. And that it will kill the enemies, my the enemies of the Jewish people. My administrative assistant, turned around and like panicked and said, Yeah, Rabbi Cutler doesn't deal with that. You have to go to Federation. The guy went to Federation and the FBI did a year long sting. And and they arrested the guy. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's doing 25 years to life for domestic terrorism. Google, Schenectady, New York death ray. Rabbi Matt Cutler. You'll see all the articles on that.

Roxanne: Let me just write that down.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Stephen Colbert did a great bit on it on his TV show a few years ago. Okay, so that's been directly affected by anti semitism. Yes. That would now that was a bunch of years ago. Lately, we've had, you know, we stand with Israel signs ripped off our front lawn of the temple. I used to fly in Israel flag out of the out of that out of the windows of our house. And lately, I've taken it in. It's really been anti Israel stuff, not as so much as directly to me personally. I'm very conscious about it. I'll call my wife. And, you know, we have this is something that you like, oh, we always had that. Were you an armed guard? Okay. We never had an armed guard at our in our building for religious school or, or Shabbat or holiday services? Never. Now we do. Oh, yeah. So it's a concern. We have security here which is a very big deal. And actually, our temple budget for next year, for the first time is going to have a mandatory adjustment of $50 to the bill. That's non negotiable. That goes for security. Every family has to pay $50 no matter what to pay for the security guards, the cameras, etc. Wow. Yeah. Now, in Manhattan, too, you probably have a guard at your building all the time. We never had that before recently.

Roxanne: I know. I mean, I know we've always had security guards. But now there's like a police officer always outside synagogue all so? Yeah.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Yeah. So so so there is, you know what I was talking to my Christian clergy and they're like, What do you mean the doors are locked? Why don't you open the doors? But we can't. We just can’t.

Roxanne: Yeah, really interestingly, I interviewed one other rabbi, and he's in London so it's different but I just from him I heard like a very basically the opposite of what you're saying. Yeah.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: There's a heightened tension right now in our community. Yeah. All right, that's okay. Next.

Roxanne: Um, do you use any strategies to combat anti semitism both in the past few months, and throughout your life? Have you shifted any of your strategies?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Yeah, actually, some of the most important is this organization we created called Schenectady clergy against hate, we created it. And back in 2016, it was created by one of the local Imams and myself, and what it was done, okay, put it into context. It was designed in the post Trump election, because we were seeing a lot of white nationalism emerging. So Jews weren't safe, Muslims weren't safe, the Sikh community wasn't safe. And we were starting to see this Christian nationalism. The woman who lived right behind me, carried a green card. She was born in was born in Syria, but carried a French passport. She went to visit her parents in Kuwait, they wouldn't let her back in the country. They didn’t let her in for months because of the immigration ban the Muslim ban that Trump had. So it was a real problem. So we were we created this organization there. Now, the reason why this was so important, is it was by nature, it fostered friendships, among clergy of different faiths. And where it has been helpful is the strategy has been for us to lean into each other, rather than to pull away and be isolated. So in the days after October 7, that locally, the Imam and I have gone to various churches, and other houses of worship. Union College, which is in Schenectady, and other forums to talk on the same stage with each other in front of an audience, to show that the best way to handle this is not by yelling louder than the other. But by the art of listening. You what really changes hatred is when you learn who they are. When someone knows who I am, and knows what that we can share. I'm not a demon, I'm not a villain, we can partner. And that's where the real challenge is. Right now in our community. So where I'm feeling very frustrated is for 29 years in this congregation, I've worked on interfaith stuff that was designed by dialogue, and the art of not only speaking, but the art of listening to each other. So now we have a couple of Imams in town who are fairly new, they are working with Black Lives Matter. And unfortunately, the New York state church, New York State Council of Churches, to push through this anti Israel resolution in the city council. The guys who are writing it won't talk to me, because and I quote, I only talk to Jews, you know, the difference between Judaism and Zionism. And since Judaism and Zionism are taught, there, you are my enemy. And so that's anti semitism to me.

Roxanne: Yeah, that's, that's crazy that they won't even talk.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Right. So since they won't even talk and acknowledge my presence, it creates this rift. And so what I'm seeing now is everything we've been building up is slightly unraveling and we need to stem the tide on this. Actually as a matter of fact, as we speak, two ministers are going over to meet with these two Imams and to try to see if there's a way for them to come to the table and talk with me and talk to me and this other, the others conservative rabbi in town to say, hey, look, we're, you know, this war is going to end and we're still going to be in the same community, we have to learn how to deal with each other. Yeah. So, and it's gonna be a lot of it's good. The hard part is for me is when that conversation happens, I have to sit on my hands a lot. And I have to be respectful and listen, and hope they do the same to make to me, so we can hear each other. Yeah. So those are the skill sets is really dialogue and partnership. And I will also throw in, we tried very much do joint activities together, like backpack programs at the start of school year. Working, you know, what we used to call our congregation mitzvah day social action Sunday, where people would go out to various things, we're expanding this to all over the area for all houses of worship, in fact, this Sunday, which is Earth Day, we have got like, 40 outdoor projects scheduled, Please, God, it's gonna be nice weather. And we have over 100 people signed up for it.

Roxanne: Yeah, all right. That's, and like adding on to that. What kind of like strategies do you have for like, combatting antisemitism that you might tell to like a high school student or someone in your community?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Well, so we're doing this program called One to One. It is an opportunity for Jews to create these forums within school settings, where Jewish kids can teach others about Judaism in their schools, and to have Muslims talk about their religion, in the schools and, and other minority religions like Hindus and, and and Sikhs in, in Buddhist, to be able to share their, what their faiths are in a safe environment in a structured environment, where people are asked to listen, and to share.

Roxanne: That's actually really cool. I mean, I think like, I'd be interested in listening to that. Like, yeah, like, sometimes you don't, maybe you don't use don't know about another religion, because then just like nice to learn more about them.

Rabbi Matt Cutler: And we also had misconceptions about other religions, definitely. You know. So it's an important thing to happen. So, yes, to be able to teach those skills. And in our high school program we do. We do this program called packing for college. We start actually in 10th grade, it's, it's like four or five weeks in the 10th and 11th, and then intensive and their senior year, where we have to give kind of encouraged skill sets, because when you get to a college campus, you're gonna run into a lot of anti Israel stuff. How do you deal with that? How do you how do you choose where to go? What are the alternatives for you? How do you keep your Jewish identity, but still be part of a college campus? It's really kind of an art form. So yes, we do do a lot of teaching on that.

Roxanne: Um, that is it for the questions, but is there anything else that you want to add to that we haven't talked about?

Rabbi Matt Cutler: Yeah. I love where I live. I can I you know, I joke around and I call Schenectady, the center of the universe. It's just a wonderful place and a great community. We're hitting a rough time with anti semitism, like, you know where I'm in a bunker all the time. No, but it does rear its ugly head from time to time. And right now, I have to tell you in the last week, it's been all consuming, but prior to that and post this it will be just again, the sense of doing things in partnership. So, you know, I made this investment in this community and I'm not walking away. I care and I know that people care about me. We will figure this out together.