Sheldon Lutz

Born in Chicago to Austrian Holocaust survivors, Sheldon Lutz has lived in Nashville since 1995 and currently serves as the President of Sherith Israel, Nashville's Orthodox Synagogue. I don't like the term "Jews by choice" applied to converts. In America, we are all Jews by Choice. This is not Europe or the shtetls. You can walk right across the street to a church and they will welcome you with open arms... Anybody can have a good set of values. Ritual is the core of living a Jewish life. It is through ritual that we perpetuate and teach what it is to live a Jewish life. It is through ritual that we pass those values on, that we begin to see the underlying beauty and need and reason. If you're just a people with an odd affinity for corn beef; well, you can't pass that on.