Rabbi David Kudan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in Glencoe, Illinois. He is a graduate of Hampshire College and holds graduate degrees from Hebrew Union College and Harvard University. He was ordained a rabbi in 1987. Also as an undergraduate, Rabbi Kudan spent a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, focusing on both Modern Hebrew and Yiddish. The previous summer, he served as the assistant photographer at an archaeological excavation in the Negev. His final project at Hampshire College was an in-depth study of the first century of Yiddish publishing, focusing on the way that technological advances affects culture. After earning his BA,, Rabbi Kudan returned to Chicago, where he worked for a brief time in the field of stock options. During this time, he continued to study Yiddish and tutor students at his father’s synagogue in preparation for bar/bat mitzvah. At that time, the Rabbi and Barbara Abrams, (now Prof. Barbara Abrams,) renewed an old friendship, having first met on a trip to Israel at the age of 14. At the age of 23 they were married and soon Rabbi Kudan enrolled in the Rabbinic program at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. The young couple spent a year in Jerusalem, and afterwards, moved to Cincinnati, where both pursued their studies. The couple then again went abroad, this time to Paris, Rabbi Kudan was granted leave from the rabbinic program at HUC-JIR, to study Semitic Languages at the Catholic Institute of Paris and to serve as rabbinic intern at a liberal (WUPJ), Paris synagogue, while his wife pursued a degree in French Literature and Civilization at the Sorbonne. Over the years, Rabbi Kudan has served congregations in the New York, Boston, and Chicago areas. Rabbi Kudan also served as Reform Rabbinic Advisor and Director of Outreach at Harvard Hillel, and for a year enjoyed the unique privilege of serving as Rabbi in Residence at the Memorial Church at Harvard. While serving various congregations in the Boston area, Rabbi Kudan has made outreach to the unaffiliated a major thrust of his rabbinic work, and enjoys encouraging individuals and families to create personalized courses of study and rituals to mark life cycle events such as Bar and Bat Mitzvah, Weddings, and Conversions. Rabbi Kudan is active in interfaith dialogue and is committed to building bridges between the Jewish community and other ethnic and religious groups. Rabbi Kudan is frequently invited to local synagogues and churches to lecture and teach on scholarly topics within his fields of specialization, including the ancient Jewish lore of angels, the Dead Sea Scrolls, modern and ancient Jewish History. Rabbi Kudan has pursued graduate work in Aramaic, Ethiopic, and Hebrew Bible at New York University and at Harvard in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures in the field of Second Temple Judaism.
Rabbi Kudan’s wife, Professor Barbara Abrams is specialist in 18th Century French Literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, is the founder of the Program in Global and Cultural Studies at Suffolk University, and serves as Chair of the Department of History, Language and Global Culture there. The couple divide their time between Cambridge, and Gloucester, MA, and Cork, Ireland. They have two recently married children, Talia, who works in commercial real estate, and Ari, a software engineer, who lives in Turin, Italy. Rabbi Kudan enjoys travel, cooking, baking and organic gardening.
Rabbi Kudan and Professor Abrams are eager to experience the UJC and contribute to the vibrant Jewish life in Hong Kong and beyond. As interim clergy, Rabbi Kudan hopes to assist the congregation in assessing its needs, maintaining its traditions, and finding a “settled” long term spiritual leader to lead the community in its next phase of communal life.
