Rabbi Joshua Hess 1 articles

Rabbi Joshua Hess is an Orthodox congregational rabbi, a youth counselor and an accidental writer. When he realized that his dreams of playing professional basketball weren’t meant to be, Rabbi Hess pursued ordination at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore. He later became the Rabbi of the DAT Minyan in Denver, during which time he pursued a Master’s Degree in Pastoral Care from the Iliff School of Theology. In 2009, Rabbi Hess ‘took his talents’ to Central New Jersey and accepted a post as the rabbi of Congregation Anshe Chesed in Linden, NJ. Rabbi Hess spends hours each week pouring over Biblical texts – and a similar number of hours reading the sports section. To merge his two passions, he started a blog, thefanaticrabbi.com, in which he which extracts religious lessons from the sports page. He also works for the New Jersey branch of the Jewish Student Union, a non-denominational organization, where he educates public high school students about Jewish ideals and values. He enjoys using sports themes to connect to his students, and as topics for his weekly sermons.