Rabbi Eliyahu Fink dies in road accident on the Garden State Parkway

Rabbi Eliyahu Fink, a prominent and empathetic voice on contemporary issues facing Jews in the Orthodox world, died last Friday, March 21, in a car accident on the Garden State Parkway. He was 43.

Rabbi Fink, a married father of three, was a lawyer and the former rabbi of the Pacific Jewish Center (now known as the Shul on the Beach) in Venice Beach, California; when he died, he lived in Monsey, in Rockland County, with his family. Rabbi Fink wrote “Fink or Swim,” an independent blog, and later, in 2013 and 2014, he also wrote a column for the Jewish Press, a conservative newspaper that primarily serves the Orthodox community.

In his writing, Rabbi Fink compassionately addressed subjects like women’s participation in tefillin wrapping, assimilation, discrimination, and how the Orthodox world treats the LGBTQ community. He often took positions that were at odds with mainstream Orthodox Jewish thought.

In a January 2014 column responding to an op-ed by Yair Hoffman, a charedi rabbi based in Long Island’s Five Towns, Rabbi Fink pressed strongly against conversion therapy for LGBTQ people, and he had harsh words for those who equate queer Jews with pedophiles. “There is no moral equivalence between the two, and we should not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of equating the two under any circumstance,” he wrote.

“He was an early and leading voice in the blogosphere and [on] social media that was desperately needed at the time,” said Peninah Gershman, the mother of a gay son and a board member of Eshel, a nonprofit that promotes LBGTQ inclusion in the Orthodox world. “He helped me step out of my comfort zone and gave me hope for the future of the Orthodox Jewish LGBTQ+ community.”

Within the wider Orthodox community, supporting Jews who identify as LGBTQ+ has been a challenge for a long time. Three-quarters of American Orthodox Jews identify as Republican, and a recent study by the Orthodox Union suggests that the movement’s intolerance of LGBTQ+ people is a significant factor in why people leave the Orthodox community.

Mordechai Zac Levovitz, a founder of Jewish Queer Youth, a nonprofit group that supports Jewish LGBTQ young adults, described Rabbi Fink as “kind, brave, decent, and good” in a Facebook post. “Today, when we see Orthodox communities and schools being more welcoming to queer people, it is only because a handful of Frum [Orthodox] Rabbis between 2000-2015 stood up for us when most were too afraid,” he wrote. “Rabbi Fink was one of those Rabbis.”

Rabbi Fink, who also went by Eli, was an alumnus of Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, where he studied talmudic law. He was also a graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

In 2013, while living in Venice Beach, Rabbi Fink appeared in an episode of the National Geographic reality series “Church Rescue,” in which his synagogue got a major repair and he confroted his fear of the ocean. He moved to New York in 2018 and recently worked as a director of marketing at Aleph Beta, an online Jewish educational platform.

At his funeral, which was held in Suffern on Sunday, Rabbi Fink’s sons, Azzi and Manny, recalled his fondness for his family, his ice cream-making hobby, and his respect for “those that are the best at what they do,” whether it was Taylor Swift in music or Kobe Bryant in basketball.

“He was so unbelievable at sharing his feelings and thoughts and articulating it in a way that makes everyone feel special and good,” Azzi Fink said. “I know I’m going to strive to follow that example that you so effortlessly set for me.”

Authorities said Rabbi Fink had gotten out of his disabled Tesla Model Y on the Garden State Parkway near East Orange, and a southbound SUV hit and killed him.

In addition to Manny and Azzi, Rabbi Fink is survived by a third child, Romi, and his wife, Tova.

New York Jewish Week/Jewish Telegraphic Agency