Picking up the rubble from the AMIA bombing of 1994, which targeted a Jewish community center building and was the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history, Rabbi Fabián Werbin knew he wanted to start anew.
“The unfortunate lack of justice in Argentina — there were two attacks and not one person in jail — led me to make a decision that I didn’t want to live in a country where nobody was convicted for terrorist attacks against the Jewish community,” Werbin recalled.
He’d been a rabbinical student when he rushed to try to find his loved ones and rescue victims of the bombing.
“I wanted to be a rabbi, and I wanted to live in a country where you could put the Israeli flag in your institution without fear that antisemitism would be an issue,” he said.
Seventeen years ago, Werbin emigrated to the United States in search of a better Jewish life. He is now the sole rabbi at Kol Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Rockville.
Werbin was raised in Buenos Aires in a household with “a lot of love for the Jewish tradition, Israel and the Hebrew language.” The oldest of three children, he attended Jewish day schools from the time he was four years old through high school.
“Jewish people were a minority, and it was a mixed experience,” Werbin said of his native Argentina.
He played soccer with non-Jewish peers who “in many cases, had antisemitic expressions.” Such sentiment was palpable, Werbin said.
“The proof was that in 1992, there was an attack and a bombing of the Israeli embassy, [and] in 1994, the bombing of the AMIA,” he said. “I was picking up the rubble from the AMIA for a couple of days, trying to rescue people, and that, of course, made a huge impact in my decision to find new horizons where I could live my Jewish life in a different way.”
After high school, Werbin studied biochemistry for three years in an attempt to follow in his father’s footsteps, “until one day, I was in an organic chemistry class and I discovered that I was not enjoying it — I [would] not enjoy the rest of my career.”
He had tutored children since the age of 15 and was “always closely connected” with the Jewish community and local synagogue: “It took me three years to discover where my
passion was.”
Taking an interest in Jewish studies, Werbin studied to become a rabbi, to the surprise of his parents.
“At the beginning, it was a little shocking for them, but at the end of the day, they were happy and proud of their son,” he said.
The process of becoming a rabbi is typically six years. Werbin took nine, between the University of Haifa, a yeshiva in Jerusalem and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“I was trying to gain not just the Conservative rabbinical school experience but other experiences as well,” said Werbin, who was ordained in 2003 from the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano in Buenos Aires. “I didn’t want to be one more rabbi in the factory of rabbis.”
After his ordination, he served as the head rabbi of a congregation in Barranquilla, Colombia. Werbin spent seven years as the head rabbi of a synagogue in Roanoke, Virginia, six years as an associate rabbi of Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County in Bethesda and two years as the associate rabbi of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Potomac before landing at Kol Shalom.
His rabbinical role embodies what Werbin enjoys: being with people.
“Being present for them, for the Jewish community, is important to me,” he said. “I try to be present in [community members’] lives in every type of moment, sad ones and the happy ones, the times they need a hug, a phone call, a text or email, or just being there silently and being supportive. That’s where I feel that I am at my best. The Jewish community of the Greater Washington area is amazing.”
Werbin loves the connection Kol Shalom has with the neighboring Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, where his wife teaches Hebrew to first graders.
“Even though we have only been here 10 years, we feel that we are part of an amazing community, and we have created amazing partnerships with Makom, the Jewish Federation, [CESJDS], JCADA, Hillel,” he said. “I feel [a] part of all these institutions. … We are lucky to stay here.”
Werbin stays busy at his home base. He recently opened a preschool at the synagogue and took a delegation of Kol Shalom members to Argentina this summer. Outside of leading the congregation, Werbin also finished one cycle of studying the Talmud.
“I am a lucky guy,” he said. “First of all, I have the support of my family, which is extremely important. And it’s unusual that a rabbi gets to stay in three synagogues within 15 minutes’ distance from each other.
“Every previous synagogue was an experience of growth, and I am thankful for those experiences. Now, I feel I have found a home where I can develop the projects that I like as the rabbi of the congregation. I can take all the learning that I acquired in those years and bring it to a very special synagogue that is called Kol Shalom.”
