PRESS & ACCOLADES
RA Spotlight: Laurie Matzkin Merges Jewish Wisdom and Yoga
RA: Can you tell us more about how Jewish wisdom and yoga aligns?
LM: We have a very intellectual and spiritual but cerebral tradition. It’s easy to sit in the Beit Midrash and not think about the body that is housing your brilliant mind. What has become meaningful for me is the spirit of iyyun, a slower, deeper exploration – similar to when we’re doing a chanting practice, and we go deeper and deeper into one verse until we really embody it, until it’s really inside us and showing us a truth about our own experience. That’s the way I try to approach the parasha or text when building a Makom Yoga class.
JValley Magazine - November 2018
Rabbi Laurie Matzkin brings Mindful Jewish Journeys to APJCC and Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley
“As one of four pillars of Mindful Jewish Journeys, Rabbi Matzkin serves as a teacher coach with the APJCC Preschool teachers, providing professional development to enrich and expand Jewish content in the classrooms. Working with the teachers in groups of four during the 2018-19 school year, Rabbi Matzkin provides individualized attention and mentoring in the areas articulated by the teachers themselves.”
USCJ.ORG BLOG
How One Congregation’s Unique Approach to Programming Makes Services More Inviting
“It’s the second Shabbat of the month, and at Congregation Beth David in Saratoga, California, that means it’s Shabbat Yoga. At 9:30 a.m., Rabbi Laurie Matzkin teaches a class that mixes Jewish learning with guided meditation, breath work and asana practice. Shabbat Yoga is one of the four classes in Congregation Beth David’s program Netivot Haneshamah, or Pathways to the Soul. Its success earned a 2015 USCJ Solomon Schechter Award for Innovation and Impact.”
65 Faces of IES Abroad - Rabbi Laurie Matzkin, Vienna 1999
IES Abroad: Why did you decide to become a rabbi?
LM: I have always had these two sides – creativity and music, and spirituality and Judaism. While studying abroad, I was getting involved in the Jewish community in Vienna as much as possible. Even before Vienna, I had changed my degree so that I had a slightly smaller expectation on my practice hours as a flutist, and with that time I added a second Jewish studies course each semester. I didn’t want the isolation of 10-hour practice days. I wanted a more social life. Then, when I cut back, I realized I was not going to make it in the orchestra. My early dreams were to play flute in a Broadway pit orchestra or record on the Disney sound stage. But by the time I finished college, and after having conversations with leaders in the Jewish community, I knew that if I wanted to make a difference, I needed to go all the way and become a rabbi.
J. Weekly - AuguSt 2011
“Parshat Re’eh: Debt doesn’t have to be a crisis with the right mindset”
Although one doesn’t often equate Washington, D.C., with ancient Israel, the debt ceiling crisis and this week’ parshah have started me thinking about the meaning of debt — the spiritual and emotional impact of owing money. There are advantages to going into debt. Debt allows us to accomplish that which we would not otherwise be able to achieve, such as purchasing a home, starting a business or investing in education. The presence of debt in a society indicates that people are willing to lend to one another, which is what Rambam considers the highest level of tzedakah.