Rabbi Daniel Korobkin—On Faith and Fellowship

“My heart is broken for the Jewish people, and I want to help in any way that I can.”

These words, from an elderly farmer in America, longing to help the people of Israel—God’s people—in their time of need inspired Rabbi Daniel Korobkin when he heard them recently. As the rabbi tells Yael Eckstein in this podcast conversation, “it shook so many of us so deeply… it was moving to see this kind of care.”

This friendship and shared faith—this fellowship—between Christians and Jews is what drew Rabbi Korobkin to The Fellowship—the decades of bridges built by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, of blessed memory, and continued today. Since 2021, Rabbi Korobkin has served on the board of IFCJ Canada, where he also serves as Senior Rabbi for Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto.

Being born and raised in the U.S.—where he also taught and served congregations before moving north—as well as learning from his mother’s experiences surviving the Holocaust as a young girl on one of the kindertransports has positioned Rabbi Korobkin to understand and appreciate not only The Fellowship’s supporters, but so many of the Jewish people in need we help.

And it is this life of experiences—from the U.S. to Canada, from synagogue to soup kitchen, from America to Israel—that Rabbi Korobkin shares with Yael in this inspiring conversation on shared faith, on what friendship and support Israel today, and how The Fellowship and our friends around the world are showing the Jewish people that they might be, as Balaam says in the Book of Numbers, “a solitary nation”—but while they are “alone, they’re not lonely.”

Episode Notes:

Born and raised in the United States, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin received his ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore. He also received his Master of Arts degree in medieval Jewish and Islamic thought from UCLA’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, and his Master of Science degree from the Johns Hopkins University School for Engineering at the Applied Physics Laboratory, then served as adjunct professor at Muhlenberg College.

In 2011, Rabbi Korobkin and his family moved to Canada, where he serves as Senior Rabbi for Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto.

Rabbi Korobkin’s mother survived the Holocaust as a young girl, and her experiences—of loss and survival—not only inspired her to write a book, but inspired her son to remember and serve those who lived through this dark chapter in Jewish history, people he continues to help serve through his work with The Fellowship in Canada, on whose board he has served since 2021.