September 17, 2026
On Sunday morning, the “Voice of God” moved from this world to the next. Those who have ever attended a URJ Biennial or a NFTY Convention will certainly recall Paul J. Reichenbach’s voice introducing the next speaker or musician on the plenary stage. (One of the reasons I was looking forward to going to Biennial in December was to hear Paul’s voice, though I learned it was taken from him after suffering from ALS.) During his funeral, speaker after speaker referenced Paul’s renowned voice in this manner. While I could not see who was in attendance in person, as I joined via Barnert Temple’s livestream and scrolled through the names of the people attending online, what I found was a community of people whom I have come to know from across the Reform Movement. There were colleagues—rabbis, cantors, educators—there were former campers of mine from Eisner Camp, and countless others who gathered from the corners of the earth to remember Paul Reichenbach.
If you went to a URJ Camp, a NFTY event, URJ Kutz Camp, NFTY in Israel, or attended EIE/Heller High in Israel in the last fifty years, your life was touched by Paul Reichenbach. He spent 44 years working for the Reform Movement as Co-Director of Kutz Camp, the director of the Movement’s teen Israel programs, and then 17 years as the director of camping.
I first got to know Paul more personally in the summer of 1999, when, on the first day of Eisner Camp, he walked into the cabin where I was the counselor and helped his son set up his bed. Paul’s son would be my camper. Put it another way: the son of my boss’ boss was my camper. Pressure on! At the end of the summer, as the campers were departing, Paul thanked me for everything I had done for his son that summer. Years later, whenever I would see him, Paul greeted me with the warmest smile; he asked how I was doing and how my family was doing.
Paul was known by everyone as a detail guy. He knew where every NFTY in Israel bus was, and he did everything he could to ensure that every teen participant on those trips had a meaningful experience. When I traveled to Israel with NFTY in 1997, there was a bombing on Ben Yehuda St. When we returned to Jerusalem at the end of the summer, they did not allow us to visit Ben Yehuda St. But they brought the shops and shopkeepers to our hostel. It was probably Paul Reichenbach who made it happen. When a Katyusha rocket was fired at the north from Lebanon, it was probably Paul Reichenbach who moved us from the kibbutz where we were working a little further south, out of range of the rockets.
My brother Greg’s connection to Paul runs much deeper. Paul Reichenbach won a campership award from the Sisterhood at Temple Israel in Boston to attend Kutz Camp as a teenager. It changed his life. My brother won a campership award from Temple Avodah in Oceanside, NY, to attend the then-UAHC Eisner Camp in Great Barrington, MA. It changed his life.
Greg spent many summers at Eisner Camp, beginning as a rising 6th grader, becoming a counselor, head song leader, and Assistant Director. By September of 2013, Greg had just finished another summer as the Senior Assistant Director of URJ Crane Lake Camp in Stockbridge, MA, when he got a call on a Sunday afternoon from Paul. The “Voice of God” said, “Meet me tomorrow at 6:00pm at this location in Manhattan. Don’t tell your co-workers.” Immediately Greg called his boss, who said, it’s an opportunity of a lifetime.
Greg spent the rest of the day stressing and wondering what that opportunity could be. Not only was Greg working full time at camp, but he was also studying for a master’s degree at Baruch College. When Greg got to Paul’s meeting spot, he was offered the job of Camp Director at the new 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy. Sci-Tech was then a nonexistent camp that the URJ had won an incubator grant from the Foundation for Jewish Camping to create. It would be the URJ’s second incubator camp after 6 Points Sports. Greg brought the Sci-Tech vision to life, growing it in ways that the original visionaries might never have imagined. As a boss, Paul had high expectations, but as anyone who worked for him would tell you, he was an incredible mentor.
As a NFTY alum, NFTY in Israel alum, URJ Kutz Camp alum, and URJ Camp staff person and faculty member, Paul impacted my life in more ways than I can imagine. The vision he had for teen Israel experiences and Jewish summer camp experiences shaped the rabbi I have become. Our sympathies go out to the entire Reichenbach family, along with all those in the Movement who have lost a mentor and a friend. May Paul J. Reichenbach’s memory be for a blessing.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rick Kellner
Learn more about Paul J. Reichenbach through Rabbi Rick Jacob’s words from eJewishPhilanthropy.