Nachum Shifren

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rabbi Nachum Shifren (born c. 1951), also known as the surfing rabbi, is an Orthodox Lubavitcher Chassidic rabbi and accomplished surfer. Active in conservative politics, Shifren was the candidate in 2010 of the California Republican Party in the California state senate's 26th district.^[1]

Biography

A native of southern California, Shifren grew up in the San Fernando Valley, where he learned to surf as a youth. He worked as a lifeguard in Malibu as a young man, a time in his life when he was not religious. He began his path to religiosity when he met an Australian rabbi who liked to bodysurf and performed sacraments at the beach.^[2] At the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Shifren went to Israel to volunteer on a kibbutz, and in 1977 he emigrated to Israel. Shifren served in the Israeli Defense Forces and received a degree in Combat Fitness Training at the Wingate Institute for Sports in Netanya, Israel.

Shifren received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California of Santa Barbara in Spanish and German Literature. He continued graduate studies in West Germany at the University of Goettingen. Shifren is fluent in Spanish, German, Hebrew, and Yiddish. He attended Toras Chayim Yeshiva in Jerusalem and Yeshivat Tomchei Tmimim in Kfar Chabad, Israel, where in 1990 he was ordained to the rabbinate. While studying in Israel, Shifren lived in the Kfar Tapuah settlement on the West Bank. When he returned to the United States, Shifren worked as a teacher in Los Angeles.

Far right links

Shifren served as driver for the radical far right Rabbi Meir Kahane and was a member of the Kach and Kahane Chai party banned from Israeli politics for inciting racism.^[3]

Shifren has been reported to have links with far right groups in Europe and is known to have marched with the far-right English Defence League.^[4]

In October, 2010, he travelled to England to speak at a rally. In his speech, he called Muslims "dogs" and told the EDL that "[h]istory will be recorded that on this day, read by our children for eternity, one group lit the spark to liberate us from the oppressors of our two governments and the leftist, fifth column, quisling press, and that it was the EDL which started the liberation of England from evil."^[5] Shifren's visit was criticised by representatives of a number of British Jewish organisations including the Board of Deputies and the Community Security Trust.^[6]

Surfing Rabbi

Numerous print and broadcast media have done stories about Shifren and his "Surfing Rabbi" persona. He founded Jewish Surfers International and the Surf & Soul newsletter. He frequently uses surfing imagery to make religious points. "There's no way a skier can get the same connection with the Creator," Shifren told Salon in 1999. "The ocean is the first act of creation, while snow is not an act of creation. Skiers don't have the mountain chasing them, but the mountain of a wave chases surfers. They struggle against currents as they ride waves that have been around since time immemorial."

He leads annual "Kosher Surf Camp" trips to Costa Rica. He has written two books, Surfing Rabbi: A Kabbalistic Quest for Soul and Kill Your Teacher: Corruption And Racism in Los Angeles City Schools.^[7] A movie based on Shifren is currently in development.

References

External links

Authority control	VIAF: 60889863

Persondata
Name	Shifren, Nachum
Alternative names
Short description	American rabbi and surfer
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.