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SPRING<br />
SPRING<br />
<strong>2023</strong><br />
<strong>2023</strong> |<br />
31<br />
31<br />
PILLARS OF FAITH<br />
Rabbi Michael Ragozin of Congregation Shirat Hayam of<br />
the North Shore.<br />
STAFF PHOTOS: SPENSER HASAK<br />
BY RYAN VERMETTE<br />
On Jan. 6, an antisemitic incident<br />
occurred in Swampscott near<br />
Redington Street and Forest<br />
Avenue, where a swastika was spray painted<br />
on one of the sidewalks.<br />
Six days later, the community rallied<br />
together at Linscott Park for a “No Place<br />
For Hate” rally, and at the forefront were<br />
two of the most prominent Jewish leaders<br />
in the town. Though the person responsible<br />
for the act attempted to create a rift in<br />
the community, Rabbi Michael Ragozin<br />
of the Congregation Shirat Hayam and<br />
Rabbi Yossi Lipsker of Chabad of the<br />
North Shore have dedicated their lives to<br />
bringing people together through their<br />
faith. As a result, they have learned to<br />
combat antisemitism not with violence or<br />
retaliation, but awareness.<br />
As antisemitic acts continue to rise<br />
in the United States, the incident in<br />
Swampscott brought the issue to a local<br />
level. Ragozin said that all antisemitic<br />
acts, including nonviolent ones, need to be<br />
condemned.<br />
“I think rising antisemitism is a<br />
problem in our country,” Ragozin said.<br />
“There are different forms of antisemitism<br />
which have different levels of impact for<br />
different people, but there’s no question<br />
that at the end of the day, the violent<br />
murder of Jews by antisemites happens. It’s<br />
a real issue that needs to be addressed.”<br />
Ragozin grew up in Seattle in a<br />
home where his family celebrated Jewish<br />
holidays, but did not practice the faith<br />
regularly. He attended a Jewish preschool,<br />
and in middle school he read the novel<br />
Exodus by Leon Uris, which led him to<br />
become a Zionist. As he went through<br />
college, he realized his circle of friends<br />
was mostly Jewish though, like Ragozin,<br />
many were secular in their practices. He<br />
was proud to be Jewish, but realized he did<br />
not know much about the Jewish faith, and<br />
decided that it was time to practice it fully.<br />
“From an early age I’ve had this sense<br />
of ‘Im Jewish and I'm proud to be Jewish,’”<br />
he said. “All of those things kind of<br />
culminated in my early 20s post-college<br />
realizing ‘I'm really proud to be Jewish,<br />
but I don't know anything about it and I<br />
should do something about that.’”<br />
From there, Ragozin learned the<br />
Hebrew alphabet at age 25, studied with a<br />
rabbi every Monday night, and then spent<br />
two years in Israel.<br />
Soon after, he became fully immersed in<br />
Jewish life and attended rabbinical school<br />
in Virginia. After completing school, he<br />
began applying to synagogues who were<br />
looking for rabbis. He found Congregation<br />
Shirat Hayam in Swampscott after his<br />
initial search spanned only four cities.<br />
Ragozin has been at the synagogue<br />
since 2015 and enjoys the tight-knit<br />
RABBIS, page 33<br />
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