By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
Rabbi Mike Uram, at center, leads a Jan. 21, 2026 discussion session with staff members from the Jewish Federation of Louisville, the Trager Family JCC, and the Jewish Heritage Fund. Uram is Chief Jewish Learning Officer with Jewish Federations of North America (photo by Mackenzie Lynch)
Mike Uram is one of those rabbis who turns informality to his conspicuous advantage. As Chief Jewish Learning Officer for Jewish Federations of North America, his quite-a-mouthful job title stands in potential contradiction to his way of what might be called “impetuous engagement” – presented within a decidedly warm, welcoming dynamic.
So, it was recently when he spent about 90 minutes leading an afternoon session for staff of the Trager Family JCC, Jewish Federation of Louisville, and the Jewish Heritage Fund.
A graduate of Washington University (B.A. in History and Religious Studies) who was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Uram spent 16 years as the University of Pennsylvania’s Hillel director and Campus Rabbi. He is a man with lots of energy, a good thing because he’s also a man with plenty to say.
Still, this “Nosh & Learn” wasn’t simply a monologue from a visiting rabbi. It was more of an active, often provocative dialogue between Uram and the large number of staffers who took time out of their regular responsibilities to listen, think, and hopefully come away with a renewed sense of Jewish possibility.
I’ve heard all manner of rabbinical presentations, whether here at the Trager Family JCC, in synagogues, public forums, etc. Indeed, for me one of the most satisfying aspects of working here is the opportunities to share in learning sessions like these. It reinforces my sense of personal Jewishness, and the worth of sharing with my colleagues.
There was a decidedly refreshing flavor to Uram’s visit. One could appreciate why he spent so many years as Penn’s campus rabbi, and what it must have been like to have him running Hillel. His methodology was to challenge, to drive discussion, but not in any discomforting way. He talked a lot – fast, full and sometimes furiously. But as much as he talked, he listened, attentively. And that made all the difference.
Uram acknowledged that we, as Jews, live in a world that – as he put it – is “weird.” Extremism is the prevailing tone, pushing aside the reasonable middle that most of us have tended to call home. We must grapple with the reality of Israel being regarded as a pariah state. Of people we once called reliable allies, now accusing us of either committing or condoning “genocide.”
Words, matter, many in the room agreed, as do definitions. The meaning of “Zionist,” Uram argued, has been so twisted and inverted that its historical origins have faded into obscurity.
How then, he asked, can we in the not-for-profit professional arena remain resilient amid a turbulent world? Maybe, he suggested, it comes down to refusing to give in to extremism, to recognize that we have to look beyond posturing – whether from The New Yorker or Fox News or social media tropes – and realize that truth lies in the anti-hysterical middle.
I was particularly struck by how Uram declared the worth of diversity, calling it an opportunity for us to reconcile the myriad contradictions that besiege us.
It was a bit like Havdalah, he said, alluding to the ceremony by which we transition from serene Shabbat to the prosaic work week. Uram spoke about how darkness is a metaphor for being caught up in the scary, unfamiliar components of life, and how the new week begins not with sunrise, but with stars in the sky.
How then, do you begin when everything feels like it’s going the wrong way? Simple: You find three points of light – and you move forward.
Amen to that.