Patrick Beaulier, known formerly by his professional name as Patrick Aleph, is an American writer,

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger,

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

er,

non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. Overview The term has been used in the context of various faiths including Jainism, Baháʼí Fait ...

rabbi and spiritual leader, educator, and retired

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

musician. He has been the lead vocalist for the bands The Love Drunks, Can Can, and Ice Bats. He is also the co-founder and creative director of PunkTorah, a non-profit website and Jewish outreach organization, and its subsidiaries OneShul.org and Darshan Yeshiva, an online

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

and

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are s ...

, respectively. He has written for ''

Jewcy ''Jewcy'' is an online magazine of Jewish pop culture and offbeat news. The site was launched on November 15, 2006. ''The Guardian'' has described ''Jewcy'' as "a cultural icon" and "at the forefront of a reinvention of Jewish identity by young U ...

'', ''

The Atlanta Jewish Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', and ''

The Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman.

'', and hosts the semi-weekly ''Rabbi Patrick Podcast''.

Early life

Beaulier grew up in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. His parents came from a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

background but raised him without religion. Despite this, he became interested in faith on his own and converted to Judaism through the Reconstructionist movement in his early 20s. He later said that his "decision to become a Jew was about

ethical monotheism Ethical monotheism is a form of exclusive monotheism in which God is believed to be the only god as well as the source for one's standards of morality, guiding humanity through ethical principles. Definition Ethical monotheism originated within J ...

. God demands of us a righteous life."

Music career

One of Beaulier's first bands was The Love Drunks, which released their self-titled debut album through

Alive Records Alive Naturalsound Records (also known as Alive Records) is an independent record label formed in 1993 in Los Angeles, California by Patrick Boissel, specializing in garage rock, punk, psychedelic, and blues rock. It grew out of Boissel's associ ...

in 2006. In 2007, Beaulier formed the

band Can Can with guitarist Mary Collins and drummer Josh Lamar, whom he met through the local music scene. As the band's songwriter, Beaulier incorporated subtle lyrical references to his Jewish faith. The band released two albums, ''All Hell'' (2009) and their

JDub Records JDub Records was a non-profit record and event production company that produced Jewish music and cross cultural musical dialogue. JDub, unlike most record labels, derived half its annual income from foundations and individual donors and the other ...

debut ''Monsters & Healers'' (2010), before going on hiatus in 2011. Can Can was featured in the film 1/20. During the hiatus, Beaulier and Collins formed a no wave side project called Ice Bats.

PunkTorah and rabbinical work

In April 2009, after an unpleasant experience at a

in Atlanta, Beaulier began recording his own divrei Torah on the weekly

parsha The term ''parashah'' ( he, פָּרָשָׁה ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian , Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Heb ...

and posting them on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

under the name PunkTorah, referring to his background as a punk singer. Following the popularity of the videos, he co-founded PunkTorah with Michael Sabani as a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit, under which he create
PunkTorah.org
a combination

, multimedia network, and

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...

aimed at disaffected Jews. Beaulier was also featured in a parshah video by Bimbam (formerly G-dcast.com) Beaulier and Sabani started a fundraising campaign in August 2010 to creat
OneShul.org
an expansion of the online distance

minyan In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( he, מניין \ מִנְיָן ''mīnyān'' , lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Jud ...

im they had been hosting via PunkTorah. That same year, they founded another PunkTorah subsidiary, NewKosher, through which they published ''Birkat Hamazon'', a bentcher incorporating

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main recipe. His ...

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

s, and

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

from Jewish writers like

Matthue Roth Matthew "Matthue" Roth (born June 30, 1978) is an American columnist, author, poet, spoken word performer, video game designer, and screenwriter. Beginning his career as a slam poet in San Francisco, Roth gained attention for his unusual blend o ...

, Leon Adato, and Michael Croland. Beaulier is the founder and

rosh yeshiva Rosh yeshiva ( he, ראש ישיבה, pl. he, ראשי ישיבה, '; Anglicized pl. ''rosh yeshivas'') is the title given to the dean of a yeshiva, a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primar ...

o
Darshan Yeshiva
a

virtual school An online school (virtual school or e-school or cyber-school) teaches students entirely or primarily online or through the Internet. It has been defined as "education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are se ...

training students for Jewish spiritual leadership. The yeshiva currently includes an online Jewish conversion course. After serving a Jewish congregation based in

Midlothian, Virginia Midlothian ( ) is an unincorporated area in Chesterfield County, Virginia, U.S. Settled as a coal town, Midlothian village experienced suburbanization effects and is now part of the western suburbs of Richmond, Virginia south of the James Rive ...

, Beaulier founded Kehillah, a Jewish congregation in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

which hosts events throughout the area's city and suburbs. In January 2019, Beaulier became the director of innovation for

Pluralistic Rabbinical Seminary Following is a listing of rabbinical schools, organized by denomination. The emphasis of the training will differ by denomination: Orthodox Semikha centers on the study of Talmud-based halacha (Jewish law), while in other programs, the emphasis ...

, an online rabbinical school. The school includes

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

and

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

rabbis educating and ordaining post-denominational rabbinical students.

Bibliography

*''Birkat HaMazon: A Community Bencher'' (2010) (with Michael Sabani) *''NewKosher Jewish Vegan Cookbook'' (2011) *''Ahava Rabbah: The OneShul Community Siddur'' (2011) *''PunkTorah: The First Anthology'' (2012) *''Choosing To Be Chosen: Essays By Converts to Judaism'' (2012)

Discography

With The Love Drunks

*''The Love Drunks'' (

Alive Alive may refer to: *Life Books, comics and periodicals * ''Alive'' (novel), a 2015 novel by Scott Sigler * '' Alive: The Final Evolution'', a 2003 shonen manga by Tadashi Kawashima and Adachitoka * '' Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors'', ...

, 2006)

With Can Can

*''All Hell'' (Self-released, 2009) *''Monsters & Healers'' (

JDub JDub Records was a non-profit record and event production company that produced Jewish music and cross cultural musical dialogue. JDub, unlike most record labels, derived half its annual income from foundations and individual donors and the other ...

, 2010)

References

External links

RabbiPatrick.comPunkTorah.orgDarshanYeshiva.orgJewishPluralism.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aleph, Patrick 1983 births 21st-century American singers 21st-century converts to Judaism American podcasters Converts to Reconstructionist Judaism American punk rock singers American Reconstructionist rabbis Jewish American writers Jewish bloggers Jews in punk rock Living people Musicians from Atlanta Vegan cookbook writers 21st-century American rabbis