R' Yonason Goldson

After graduating the University of California at Davis with a degree in English, I took the only practical course open to me and began hitchhiking across the United States.  Returning home after five months, my resolve to enroll in a graduate program for social work gave way before a recurring bout of travel fever, and I set out to backpack across Europe, intending to circle the globe via Africa, Australia, and a return trip to Asia as follow-up to a previous trip around the world.  (But that’s another story.)

Burned out on travel and psychologically drained after half-a-year on ten dollars a day, I crossed the Mediterranean for the Land of Israel, supposing I would occupy myself picking oranges on a kibbutz before returning to the road.

A strong dollar had given a few million other young Americans the same idea, and there wasn’t a spot to be found on any kibbutz in the country — an unprecedented event. With dwindling funds and a weary constitution, I seized the first opportunity that presented itself:  seminary.

It took two months for my rabbi — a former professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University — to convince me to accept Torah observance as a way of life. I spent the next nine years learning the Biblical Hebrew, studying the accumulated wisdom of 3300 years, starting a family, and earning my rabbinic ordination. After leaving Israel, my wife, Sara Miriam, and I spent a year teaching in Budapest, Hungary. We spent two years teaching in Atlanta, Georgia, before moving to St. Louis, Missouri, where we have lived since 1996.

My articles on contemporary issues, currents events, education, childraising, history, and all aspects of Jewish thought have appeared in a variety of Jewish and popular journals. When unencumbered by the responsibilities of my day-job, I can be found as an adult lecturer, having been invited to address such organizations as the Kiwanis Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and Oasis, as well as Jewish audiences.