Rabbi journeys to Memphis and everywhere in between

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After spending the first 28 years of his life in New York, it’s safe to stay Abe Schacter-Gampel has grown accustomed to home.

After graduating June 15 from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, Schacter-Gampel will move far from home all the way to Memphis, Tennessee, where he’ll begin his new life as a rabbi.

“I am going to be working as a hospital chaplain in Memphis,” Schacter-Gampel said. Chaplains are there for the patients, and to walk with them in their suffering. To be spiritual and emotional guiders, and support the patients and their families.”

Schacter-Gampel comes from a family that wears their Jewish heritage with pride. His father is a professor of Jewish history at Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and both his uncle and grandfather were rabbis. 

Schacter-Gampels wife, Sarit Horwitz, also will begin a new chapter in Memphis as she becomes a rabbi at Beth Sholom Synagogue.

From a young age — and later as an SAR Academy student — Schacter-Gampel knew he, too, wanted to be a rabbi. 

“I think for me, it brought together so many passions,” Schacter-Gampel said. “Whether it’s the learning of Jewish texts, laws and ideas, (or) more importantly to connect to people and community. And that came into fruition when I went to NYU.”

He graduated from New York University in 2012 with a degree in classic and comparative literature. However, that wasn’t his only achievement there.

Schacter-Gampel was the president of the NYU Hillel, and brought the Jewish community together after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, raising money and awareness for the victims of the Caribbean nation. 

”He is willing to do one of the most noble things, which is spend time with people in really difficult situations,” said Tzachi Posner, a friend and classmate. “He is really going to dedicate his life to people who are in those special moments, and bring God into it.”

Posner recalls one time from rabbinical school where he and Schacter-Gampel were given the assignment of having to speak with Riverdale community members so they could get to know them and see what they are like. Posner was impressed with Schacter-Gampel’s ability to communicate. 

“I was a bit nervous,” he said. “I was anxious to get the conversation over with. Abe was so calm and all the more interested. He could have kept talking and listening for hours.”

His time at rabbinical school allowed Schacter-Gampel to focus on the specific goal of becoming a chaplain. That once again would allow him to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, Rabbi Hershel Schacter, who was a chaplain for the U.S Army.

”There is a feeling of carrying on a legacy,” Schacter-Gampel said. “It is passed down through the bloodline, and that is a tremendous and awesome responsibility. Especially in terms of awe, of like who I am and my purpose.”

Rabbi Asher Lopatin, the president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, was not surprised Schacter-Gampel chose the path of a chaplain.

“When he engages with you one-on-one, you are the whole world,” Lopatin said. “It does make sense that the he is helping people in life-or-death situations.”

Also helping was a new requirement at the rabbinical school for students like Schacter-Gampel to take on clinical pastoral education. Schacter-Gampel spent 400 hours at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

“The last thing I said to him was yesherkoach, which means may your strength be straight,” Lopatin said. “It is marching orders that you should could keep up these efforts and get stronger.” 

Abe Schacter-Gampel, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, SAR Academy, Tzachi Posner, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Asher Lopatin, Sean Browne

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