Get to Know Rabbi Maddy!

Background

Rabbi Maddy grew up in northwest Indiana. She lived there from childhood up until college, when she moved two hours away to the University of Indianapolis. This was a very small private university of only 5,000 students. Due to the nature of her hometown and the size of her school, Maddy had only experienced Jewish community in an intimate setting. One of the highlights of Maddy’s undergraduate education was a two-week international studies program that brought her to Ghana. There, she studied microfinancing, but also fell in love with volunteer work at a local school. Maddy recalled, “that’s where I really started my love for service work, that went beyond the Jewish values my parents and my religious school education instilled in me. I already had that Tikkun Olam built into my psyche, but I think doing this trip was the first big thing I chose to do on my own.” From there, she decided that she wanted to use her business degree for nonprofits. This led her to work with Habitat for Humanity for a year, and then house building and administrative jobs with Americorps after that. Unfortunately, only making $1000 a month was not sustainable, but Maddy was able to find a marketing and communications job at a reform synagogue in Indianapolis. While she learned a lot in this position, she felt trapped behind a desk. She voiced her concerns about what to do next with her friend/director of this synagogue. When her friend pulled a Hebrew Union College folder off the shelf and said, “Maddy, I think you’re supposed to be a rabbi,” Maddy responded with a “whaaat, you’re crazy!” On one hand, Maddy vowed she would never go to school again, because quote, “school’s hard.” On the other, the more Maddy read through this folder, the more she realized that she did, in fact, want to be a rabbi. After a week of deliberation, Maddy applied to Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati, Ohio, for a masters in rabbinic ordination. Maddy described, ”I really didn’t think I’d go to grad school, but once I started thinking about this job, I already felt so passionate about doing a job I cared about, and not just doing a job. As much as it takes to be a rabbi and really give a lot of your life over to your work and your community, I don’t know if I would want it any other way. I like that my work is part of me and my life and not something that is over there on the side.”

Maddy stayed in Cincinnati for rabbinical school so she could have a relationship with her baby nephew (she’s his favorite Tanta). She knew that after receiving her degree, she could end up anywhere with this career. She was ready to leave her home state as she “felt pretty mid about the state of Indiana in general.” She also knew that pulpit leadership was not what she was looking for. So, she applied to Hillels all over the country, as well as some ADL and JCRC jobs. Maddy chose the position at UCSB because, “who wouldn’t want to come to Santa Barbara?” She further delineated, “as crazy as it sounds, I knew that the antisemitism on this campus was a problem, and I wanted to go somewhere where I can help work on that problem. Obviously I had no clue what I was in for the second year of my career… [Santa Barbara Hillel] had the things in the job that I was looking for, including the combating antisemitism piece. And I was in the right place at the right time to serve in a community where I was needed, and had at least some of the skills to be both supportive to students and strategic when it comes to what’s happening on campus.” Beyond this, Rabbi Maddy has expressed tremendous love for the Santa Barbara student Jewish community. She emphasizes diversity as one of her favorite aspects of our Hillel, as she had never experienced a community with this many Jews from all sorts of backgrounds. She also recognizes student grit and character, praising how “we have such strong leaders and such great communicators. It’s just really cool to know that people from this community are going to be all over the place, which means this energy is going to be all over the place.” Rabbi Maddy has loved working with college-aged students who embody the work hard play hard mentality that UCSB fosters. She sees it as a time for self-exploration, but also a time to dedicate oneself to their values. She deeply appreciates student contributions of time, effort, and passion in Santa Barbara’s Jewish life. She added a final note that,“the love and energy for Judaism and Jewish community here, I hope it's something you get to take with you and find in the next part of your life too.”

Interview Questions

What’s something you have an unpopular opinion or hot take about? 

“There is a strong debate about whether matzah balls should be dense or soft and fluffy. I really believe strongly in a dense matzah ball. I think if our plastic spoons here at Hillel break on a matzah ball, I probably want to high-five [chef] David Medina, and tell him how great he did that week. I’ll eat a fluffy matzah ball, don’t get me wrong, but I’ll be a little disappointed. A fluffy matzah ball feels more like wet bread to me, and a dense matzah ball feels more like a proper dumpling.”

What’s your spirit animal?

“I did feel like Chase was my spirit animal, my last dog. He was a Chiuaua terrier mix and who knows what else. Like Malka he came from Kreigslist in Indianapolis. Chase was itchy. I have psoriasis, so I’m itchy, and I felt like we had that in common. Chase had anxiety and I have anxiety, so I feel like we had that in common. And he really liked to sleep, as do I, so like, truly, not just dogs, but Chase, my first dog that was like, my dog.”

What’s the last thing you did for the first time? 

“That’s a hard question. But I wish I could say laundry. Like I’ll never have to do laundry again. Those are just dreams.”

Chanukah Questions

Do you have any Chanukah traditions?

”My favorite is so silly. If I’m on my own, because, you know, through school and things like that I’ve lived alone quite a bit, and so sometimes I’m not with a group of people every night of Chanukah. So if I’m not with a group of people I still light candles by myself and I always hold the dog which, until this last Chanukah, was Chase. I make the dog do prayers with me and then we take a picture. You can find pictures of me and Chase on Chanukah on my instagram @rabbimaddy.”

Tell us about your homemade potato latkes recipe!

“So, first of all, the story behind it is that my dad was like, the chef in the family. My dad wanted to cook, it was part of his passion in life. He didn’t make us suffer through hand shredding potatoes or anything, we would use the food processor. But shredded for sure, and usually matzah meal instead of flour because you have to do something with all the matzah meal that’s left before it expires and you get to the next Pesach. So Chanukah is when we’d use up the end of the matzah meal. And then just the basics like eggs, salt, pepper. Can I give you amounts off the top of my head? No, I’m pretty sure I just do it by feel. My brother and I usually do it together if I’m home. We’ll fight about whether or not its at the right consistency for a while, and then eventually we’ll start cooking them. He really likes to be the one on the oil, but that’s because he went to culinary school for a while and so he thinks he should be in charge of the kitchen. But yeah, my favorite part is eating them because they just taste like childhood and remind me of my dad, and they remind everyone of my dad. So they’re not just for us but for everyone.”

What is the weirdest gift you’ve ever given?

“Its weird, but also, kind of purposeful weird and silly. My best friend and I growing up, his name is Kevin, he and I used to get each other birthday presents from the dollar store. It was kind of a competition to see who would get a better grouping of random stuff from the Dollar store that would actually make you smile. Everything from childhood stuff like capsules to put in the bathtub that would turn into dinosaur sponges to, like, a horse head on a stick that you’d run around with as a child. And also, our favorite candy and stuff like that. And all the way through high school and maybe even college we did this. And then like, socks for Chanukah every year. It’s literally a tradition.”

How are you celebrating Chanukah this year? 

“I’m going home, and I’m going to be with my family for most of it. So I’m sure we’ll be making the latkes. We’ll definitely be doing a gift exchange, but you know, adults usually have one to four gifts and I’m an adult now, that’s kind of a bummer. Then like, Tovy, the only child, my ten-year-old nephew will have a mountain of gifts. Sometimes even the dogs get more gifts than the people because everyone brings something for every dog. Because we’re dog people. Shocking, I know.”