When Peter Auerbach describes the day a homeless man blessed him outside a gas station in Colorado, he doesn’t tell it like a miracle story—he tells it like a deal that came together. He remembers the weather, the conversation, the handshake. The man asked if he could bless him, and as Auerbach looked into his piercing blue eyes, he felt a calm he couldn’t explain. Minutes later, a perfect rainbow stretched across the sky. By the end of that same day, he received a call from a colleague offering him the chance to launch his first investment fund. “I’m a logical guy,” Auerbach told Rabbi Rami Goldberg on Biblical Money, “but I know that moment changed my life.”
Auerbach, managing director of Auerbach Funds, shared his journey of faith, family, and business on the Israel365-produced show, which explores the intersection of faith and finance. Israel365 works to build stronger ties between Jews and Christians in support of Israel—a cause that Auerbach says has become central to his worldview and his philanthropy.
He grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in a proud but secular Jewish home. Holidays were about family, not faith. “There was a lot of tradition, but not much talk about God,” he said. By his teens, he was already wrestling with questions of death and purpose. “I remember being at Disney World at 14 and thinking about what happens when we die,” he recalled. “That tells you how much I was searching.”
Faith found him slowly. Through study, reflection, and his connection with Chabad, Auerbach began to rediscover Judaism as an adult. He started wrapping tefillin, studying Torah weekly, and attending Chabad events. “They never asked me for anything,” he said. “They just said, ‘How can I help you?’ And because of that, I wanted to give back.”
The gas station encounter, however, marked a turning point. “This man was disheveled, down on his luck, but when he took my hand and started to pray, it was like everything around us stopped,” Auerbach said. “When I looked up, he was gone. And then I saw this rainbow—so vivid it looked painted in the sky.” That same day, he says, he received the business opportunity that launched his first fund. “You can call it coincidence,” he said, “but I’ll call it divine timing.”
Since then, gratitude and giving have guided Auerbach’s work. He is known for his quiet acts of charity—keeping cash in his car to hand out, buying socks and hand warmers for the homeless, and treating everyone with respect. “No one grows up wanting to be homeless,” he said. “The least you can do is look them in the eye and remind them they’re human.”
In our conversation, Auerbach also spoke about his concern over rising antisemitism and the erosion of moral clarity in the business world. “We’ve lived through a golden age,” he said. “But now we have to start telling our story again, loudly and proudly.” He praised Israel365’s work bringing leaders and influencers to Israel without political spin. “When people meet Israelis, they see who we really are—family-centered, compassionate, and strong.”
That belief in connection led Auerbach to launch what he calls the “Shabbat Challenge”—inviting non-Jews to join Jewish families for Shabbat dinner. “Just open the door,” he said. “Break bread. Show them what Judaism really looks like.”
Auerbach’s story isn’t about sudden revelation—it’s about alignment. “Faith, business, and family aren’t separate lanes,” he said. “They’re one road. When you get that right, everything else follows.”
Watch the full interview and more episodes of Biblical Money with Rabbi Rami Goldberg, part of Israel365’s mission to connect faith, finance, and the people of Israel.
