By the age of 16, Rabbi Josh Gischner knew he wanted to become a rabbi.
“It was right around when my grandma passed away, and I learned why a lot of people need a rabbi or a cantor, and it was always death and mourning that led me to where I am,” Gischner said. “I also always loved Jewish education, and inclusion and accessibility work and justice work, and that all pointed me towards the world of Jewish education.”
The Silver Spring resident now does just that as a rabbi educator at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase.
“I direct the religious school and I get to be with families in the worst of times but also in the most wonderful of times: b’notei mitzvah, funerals and baby namings,” Gischner said. “I really love baby namings.”
Originally from Rockland County, New York, Gischner attended a Reform synagogue, where he volunteered at religious school and sang in the choir.
“I was raised a Reform Jew who was always a little bit more interested in tradition or cultural things than my peers,” he said.
Gischner was involved with NFTY, the Reform Jewish youth movement, in addition to teaching third graders at Sunday school. This career path is one he’s envisioned for much of his young adult life.
“I saw how my childhood rabbi and my mom’s childhood rabbi and my childhood cantor treated my family, in particular, my grandfather and my parents,” Gischner said, referring to the mourning period after his grandmother’s death.
At the shiva, his cantor directed her voice toward Gischner’s grandfather’s bedroom since he was too ill to leave his room. “Little things like that all added up to, ‘How do we support people when they’re having the worst days of their lives?’” Gischner said.
He learned pastoral care and counseling through rabbinical school.
“I always wanted to do that: to be a shoulder for people to cry on, to sit with people on the worst days of their lives, to be able to support them,” Gischner said.
He doesn’t only help congregants navigate death — it could also be breakups, divorce or what he calls “ambiguous losses,” such as supporting a family member who has dementia.
“I’ve also just always loved hanging out with kids and teaching and helping them to discover their own Torah,” Gischner added. “That’s the more happy side of what I do.”
In teaching tefillah, he recently taught a group of children about Aleinu, the “special prayer” at the end of services that encourages community members to make the world a better place. He also assumes “typical assistant rabbi” duties at the Reform shul, such as leading Saturday morning Shabbat services and life cycle events, teaching family programs and supporting social justice initiatives.
“When I think about justice initiatives for our kids and for the community, in the back of my mind, isn’t just, ‘How can we help people?’’ but it’s also, ‘How can we support [the kids] in learning not just about something, but actually making an impact?’” Gischner explained.
For instance, he’s helped redesign Temple Shalom’s eighth grade curriculum to help teens create meaningful mitzvah projects. The rabbi hopes that instead of solely recognizing problems in the world, that these youth will work toward solutions.
“Something I think about all the time is — especially with recent political shifts in the United States — how many of our kids feel like they don’t have any power because they don’t have a vote,” Gischner said. “And one of my goals with American politics is to remind the kids how much power they have in making change.”
He will also support kids’ learning by returning to 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy, a science and technology camp by the Union for Reform Judaism, where he was one of the camp’s first counselors 13 years ago.
Gischner values Jewish community and said he strives to foster a sense of belonging within the Temple Shalom community.
“There’s been far too many years in the American Jewish community where we haven’t really created communities that are for everyone, in particular, for disabled Jews, Jews of color, trans Jews, queer Jews, neurodivergent Jews,” he said.
This commitment to inclusivity and belonging is a personal one for Gischner.
“I have Tourette’s syndrome. I have always understood what it means to be different,” he said. “For me, it’s a disability where people don’t necessarily know I have a disability … until I share. I was always the person who, in different classes, was othered for different reasons.”
It’s for this reason that Gischner finds it so important to ensure that community members are aware of their privileges and biases and prioritize caring for others.
“Right now, in our moment in history, I think that the thing that people need to hear is that community is really important,” he said.
