My Story

“The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense that Energy is the fundamental concept in physics. . . The laws of social dynamics are laws which can only be stated in terms of power.” –Bertrand Russell

Social power, the ability to control your own and other's outcomes, can explain so much in social psychology. In college I spent years studying social power, eventually winning an award-winning thesis on the behavioral and emotional effects of gaining and losing power.

My background is one of both power and lack of power. While I grew up in a picturesque Americana suburb in New Jersey, I also was deeply rooted in an Orthodox community, which as its name implies, was very insistent on its orthodoxies. Growing up queer and with an awareness of a broader world within my own family and friends, I've always had a penchant for asking questions I perhaps was not supposed to ask.

I eventually went on to study at Yeshivat Shaalvim, a hesder Yeshiva in a remote town in Israel, and to college at Yeshiva University. As college came to a close it was clear what I wanted to do next and I enrolled in rabbinical school. I loved teaching Torah and, even more, felt called to serve the Jewish People. Becoming a rabbi wasn't a decision I ever actively made, my life led me to the point where it just made sense.

At the same time the world was changing. It was June 2015, right after a horrific massacre in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, when the Supreme Court of the United States legalized same-sex marriage across the country. Outpouring of support for communities of color and for the LGBT community was flowing from all directions. Who remembers that one week when a Republican governor took down the Confederate flag in South Carolina, everyone changed their Facebook profiles to rainbow, and the Obama White House lit up in rainbow lights?

But by 2019 a lot had changed. Donald Trump was now president and being "politically correct" (i.e. respectful and sensitive towards marginalized groups) was no longer the norm. The rainbow lights of 2015 had been turned into a darkness. Nazis and white supremacists now marched openly in the streets and radicalization was seeping in to all parts of our culture. Ordaining the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, something that felt so close in 2015 now felt far away. I was denied ordination, but with God's blessing and grassroots support from the community rallying behind me, was ordained as a rabbi by Yashrut under Rabbi Daniel Landes in May 2019.

Knowledge is power. My mission is not just to share knowledge, but to share power.

I primarily consider myself a teacher. Both literally in that that is my day job and what I love to do, but passing on the knowledge I have been privileged to attain to all those who will come is my life's calling, whether it's of Torah, social psychology, or Hebrew Language. I have seen firsthand what happens when knowledge and power are concentrated in the hands of the few. I am here to change that dynamic.

Professional Bio

Rabbi Daniel Atwood is a teacher, scholar, and speaker in the Jewish community. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yeshiva University in 2015, and was ordained as a rabbi in 2019 by Yashrut. Rabbi Atwood served as the rabbinic intern at Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation in Chicago, the NYU Hillel, and completed CPE training at Columbia University Medical Center (NYP). The first openly gay man ordained as a rabbi, Rabbi Atwood serves as an advocate and teacher for the LGBTQ Jewish community. Rabbi Atwood's real passion is education, and he proudly serves as a member of the Hebrew and Judaic Studies faculty at Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School.