During his school years in South Africa he pursued his Hebrew and Judaic studies, and after his final year at school he volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces at the young age of 17.
With his Jewish education and his spoken Hebrew he embarked on his career within the world of academia. While at Leeds University in the north of England, he majored, inter alia, in Semitic Languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic and Ugaritic.
On his return to South Africa, and while working in the retail industry as a Textile Technologist, he continued with his academic work, completing another Honors Degree, this time specializing in Judaic studies at the University of South Africa.
Thereafter , spending some sixteen years on a moshav in the northern Negev desert where he spent many hours traveling to the well-known historic and archeological sites which abounded in his neighborhood. There, he raised three children, all of whom live in Israel today.
While in the Negev, he met up with the Karaite Jews who had arrived from Egypt in the 1950's and were hidden away from the general populace in far-off desert towns and settlements. This group had suffered gross injustice by the Israeli Rabbinic authorities and Richard made their history and plight the subject of his master's thesis "The Karaite Jews in Israel". This was the topic for his Master's Degree.
Returning to South Africa at the time of the demise of apartheid, Richard, having been awarded a teaching diploma by the ORT organization, spent some years teaching Hebrew at the prestigious Cape Town Jewish day-school. From there he went on to become the curator of the Cape Town Jewish Museum, where his knowledge of Judaica, art and textiles proved of great value.
With his ever persistent thirst for Jewish knowledge he undertook rabbinic studies with local rabbis and teachers. In 2000 he received ordination.
Spending some years on the pulpit of various congregations he published many historic articles in South African Jewish journals. This led him to be commissioned to write the history of the Jews of Namibia. This, and his article on this topic for the new Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora, are soon to be published.
Arriving in Denver, where his wife Elana had preceded him, he was offered a post at the University of Denver's Department of Judaic Studies. Within this department he was responsible for the administration of the Aleph Institute, which is an outreach section to the Jewish community and the citizens of Colorado. In addition to these functions, he assisted with the teaching of Hebrew and Yiddish. At present Rabbi Newman is researching two obscure South African Yiddishists for a doctoral thesis.
Since 2007 Rabbi Newman has been Rabbi of Temple Israel in Wynberg, Cape Town. He was ordained for a third time in 2009 by the Abraham Geiger Kolleg in Berlin, the city of his father's family. He is a recipient of the prestigious RJE-Reform Jewish Educator for his work in Jewish Education throughout the world.
Together, he and Elana have five children and lots of grandchildren.
