Riverdale Temple welcomes Rabbi Max Chaiken as associate rabbi for music

Rabbi Max Chaiken is Riverdale Temple’s newest associate rabbi for music.

Chaiken — who was born in Teaneck, New Jersey, and has built a career in leading song and worship spanning more than 25 years — has a vision for the temple. First, is to build a strong relationship with the congregation, Chaiken said. From there, they can introduce new melodies that make services feel fresh and lively, while still maintaining the deep emotional connection the congregation feels to music, they said. 

Chaiken, 40, will help Rabbi Thomas Gardner lead Friday evening and Saturday morning Shabbat services, the temple said, as well as festivals and special services. They will also support B’nei Mitzvah students at the learning center.

Aside from their position at Riverdale Temple, Chaiken is also finishing up a chaplain residency at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey, and recently started part time as a chaplain at Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center, also in New Jersey.

Chaiken’s professional path has unfolded alongside their own identity. 

Chaiken said they had two formative coming out experiences in their life. At 15, Chaiken told their parents they were gay, something they’d known since fifth grade and had confided in close friends about. More than two decades later — as language around gender identity evolved, and Chaiken’s own self-understanding deepened — Chaiken came out as nonbinary at 37.

“It’s important to me that people know I’m nonbinary, that I’m out and proud,” Chaiken said. “It’s also important to me that aspect of my identity … doesn’t impede my ability to create good music and do good work.”

Sometimes, Chaiken said, their work and identity exist in tension with one another.

It’s less socially acceptable for a nonbinary individual who is assigned male at birth to dress traditionally feminine, Chaiken explained. Professionally, it could be distracting. Personally, it could result in judgement. Chaiken described it as a continuous journey figuring out what it means to be themself in public.

Being the only out nonbinary rabbi at Riverdale Temple represents a broader cultural shift for Chaiken.

“We’re living in a time where we’re starting to build strength in a network of queer clergy who are increasingly able to help support each other,” Chaiken said. “And help shape their congregations and the movement to better live up to our values of inclusion.”

For Riverdale Temple members specifically, Chaiken said they don’t anticipate acceptance being an issue, as they’ve already been embraced with genuine warmth. The bigger problem is “they’re gonna try and set me up with their sons,” Chaiken joked.

Throughout their years of navigating identity, music has been a constant in Chaiken’s life. The first time they felt God’s presence was a musical moment at camp, Chaiken said, when they were 10 years old.

Chaiken recalled it was during a Torah service, when the congregation reached the Shema, or a communal declaration of faith. The memory of being surrounded by woods, rays of light breaking through the leaves as hundreds of voices joined together, is still so vivid Chaiken feels physical awe from it.

“Music can transport us,” Chaiken said. “It can bring us from our mourning to our dancing, our despair to our joy. It can give voice to that which we can’t have words for.”

They picked up the guitar at 15, and it has been their leading instrument since.

Chaiken’s journey to Riverdale Temple was unique. Jewish identity was always important growing up, Chaiken said, recalling years spent leading songs at Camp Harlam, an overnight camp in the Poconos. But, originally, Chaiken wanted to be a lawyer.

In 2009, Chaiken graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and public policy. Fallout from the 2008 financial crisis made it difficult to find entry-level work, but luckily, a rabbi Chaiken knew from Boston reached out offering a spot as a music educator at Temple Beth Shalom. Chaiken said they felt their call to the rabbinate was confirmed.

Looking for a change from the East Coast, Chaiken went to Los Angeles for a master’s degree from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where they were ordained as a rabbi in 2018. From there, they took on roles at Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood and Temple Emanuel of Andover in Massachusetts.

Chaiken moved back to Teaneck a few years ago to help take care of family before joining Riverdale Temple.

Shelley Ast, chair of the temple’s communications and marketing committee, said the choice between Chaiken and other candidates was easy. If the hiring team had a list of all the things they wanted, needed and liked in a cantor, Chaiken would check off every box, Ast said.