Ari Goldman, former religion editor for the New York Times and now a professor of journalism at Columbia University, is the antithesis of the gonzo journalist. In an interview, he is thoughtful and insightful, just as in his reporting he sought to get into the skin of the people and events he was reporting on.

To sit with him in discussion is to have hope for the future of the profession of journalism – something that’s often in short supply when the airwaves are full of CNN and Fox trivialities.

Goldman was a scholar-in-residence at my synagogue in Vancouver, giving me the chance to interview him about his books, The Search for God at Harvard, Living a Year of Kaddish, and Being Jewish: the Spiritual and Cultural Practice of Judaism Today.

Search for God was written while he was on a sabbatical from the Times at Harvard Divinity School in 1985. His goal was “to understand how people practise religion, in order to be a better journalist.”

Did he fulfil that ambition? Yes, “it made me a better journalist” he replied. “It helped me search beyond the familiar, to understand others. That is true for any journalist telling other peoples’ stories. To do that, you have to let your ego go. I wrote 1,000 articles before I used the word ‘I,’ after 15 years.”

He added: “Maybe we should wait till we’re over 40 to start blogs, like waiting to study Kabbalah. You need experience – maturity behind the voice.”

Did it make him a better Jew? “Can’t answer that. I did see my Judaism in light of other world religions.”

Is the Harvard Divinity School – which in the 1980s was more an academic institute than a theological seminary – relevant in today’s religious tumult? “Today it is more a practical place for training pastors, more of a professional school.”

In Kaddish, Goldman writes about the year he spent saying Kaddish for his father.

“Do good things come out of death?” I asked. “Yes – when we can take a loss and give it meaning in a positive way.”

The year after his father’s death healed a breach in his life that his parents’ divorce had created. In the process of mourning his father, he no longer mourned his parents’ estrangement from each other. “Kaddish,” he affirmed, “makes you grow up.”

He’s currently writing a followup book based on Kaddish stories that he’s collected on his travels around the continent.

In Being Jewish, Goldman describes the wide variety of Jewish practices he has encountered in North America over the years. How, I asked, does he react to the oft-made assertion that the many personal choices individual Jews are making will lead to the downfall of American Jewry?

“I think it shows just the opposite,” he responded. “It shows the vibrancy and endurance of Judaism. It’s not strange to say, ‘Do what you can.’ Chabad has been saying for years, ‘Just do one thing,’ and 12 years after the Rebbe’s death, they’re still out there saying it. I say, ‘Do what you can.’ Make that one connection to Judaism.”

What about the current United States presidential campaign, which insists that contestants for the office reveal their inner religious convictions?

“It is fascinating. Everyone thought the Republicans had a lock on the religious right and the Democrats were the party of Satan. Is it harming American political discourse? No, it demonstrates that the issues are not so easy. The Democrats have raised gender and race as issues. The Republicans are still mired in religious issues.”

Goldman is a third-generation American Orthodox Jew. How does he feel about Orthodoxy in North America?

“I love [the Orthodox] world, but worry about the move to the right. It is almost a competition. More things are not kosher. To find where the law allows is much harder than just saying no – it takes a great scholar to say yes,” he said.

“Take Orthodox feminism. What was once beyond the pale is now normative. Orthodoxy is still healthy. In religion in general, there is a move to the right. No trend is in isolation. There is a healthy debate in the country about religion.”

What is the future of Judaism?

“Alone we are great, but as a community we can reach the gates of heaven.”