The High Holidays are fast approaching. As you walk into services this year, you are sure to recognize many new and old friends sitting around you, but you may find a new one leading the service. A handful of new rabbis have entered the community in the past year, while two rabbis in the Chicago area have joined new congregations. Here is your chance to get to know them all before the High Holidays roll around. Below is a short biography from each of the new rabbis and a few words about the one message of Judaism they feel strongly about and hope to impart to their new congregants.
New in town
Rabbi Alison Abrams
Temple Chai, Long Grove
Rabbi Abrams grew up in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago and was blessed to be part of a strong and thriving Jewish community. Her parents’ commitment to building a meaningful Jewish life inspired her at a young age. The experiences of her bat mitzvah and confirmation as well as camp and youth group all guided her journey to becoming a rabbi. She felt called to the rabbinate as a way to pass on the prophetic teachings of Judaism and help others find their path to a relationship with Torah and God. Rabbi Abrams graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Women’s Studies and was ordained as a rabbi by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles in May 2008. During her time at HUC, Rabbi Abrams served a student pulpit in the Santa Ynez Valley in California and taught at congregations throughout the Los Angeles area. She completed a chaplaincy internship at the Los Angeles County Jail and worked at Beit T’shuvah, a Jewish substance-abuse treatment center. Prior to coming to Temple Chai in Long Grove, Rabbi Abrams was the director of Faith Community Outreach at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.
Rabbi Abrams lives in Deerfield with her husband, Geoff Prass, who is a Jewish educator.
“I hope to convey the beauty and importance of prophetic Judaism—a Judaism based in text and relationship with God that serves as a source of justice. As Jews, our tradition teaches us that our prayers and study must be accompanied by deeds of loving kindness and I want to give people increased opportunity to express their Jewish values through just action.”
Rabbi Batsheva Appel
KAM Isaiah Israel, Hyde Park
Originally from Seattle, Rabbi Appel spent her youth moving around the country with her family. When she was nine years old she told her teacher she would like to grow up to be either an astronaut or a rabbi. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1982 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biological Sciences and Economics. And after nine years in the corporate world, she entered Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City where she received her Masters of Arts in Hebrew Literature in 1995. Rabbi Appel’s rabbinic thesis was titled, “Joseph in Egypt as Seen through the Lens of the Midrash.”
Rabbi Appel served as a rabbi-educator at Temple Emanu-El in Lynbrook, New York, where she ran a religious school with over 300 students and later as the associate Rabbi at Congregation Beth Chaim, a congregation of almost 800 families in Princeton Junction, New Jersey. In 2006 Rabbi Appel was named the Director of Rabbinic Services for the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life where she was the rabbi for more than 25 underserved congregations in an eight-state area in the southeastern United States.
“Ideally learning has the power to transform the learner and transform the world.”
Rabbi Mark Covitz,
Beth Tikvah Congregation, Hoffman Estates
Rabbi Mark Covitz was born in Boston, Mass., and grew up in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., in 1992 with a B.A. in Philosophy. Following his graduation, Rabbi Covitz spent some time in the entertainment industry before enrolling at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and beginning his first year of rabbinical studies in Jerusalem. Rabbi Covitz attended the Cincinnati campus of HUC-JIR, receiving a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters in 1997. He was ordained in 1999, having completed his thesis on “The Uses of Traditional Folklore in a Reform Setting.” While at HUC-JIR, Rabbi Covitz served pulpits at Four Courts Retirement Home in Louisville, Ky., and at Temple B’nai Israel in Parkersburg, W.Va. Prior to ordination Rabbi Covitz was hired as the full-time director of Camping and Youth at Shwayder Camp of Congregation Emanuel in Denver, Colo. While in Denver, he met and married his wife, Stacy. In 2002, Rabbi Covitz was called to serve Congregation Beth Yam in Hilton Head, S.C., where he remained for seven years. In 2009, Rabbi Covitz began his current work at Beth Tikvah Congregation in Hoffman Estates.
Rabbi Covitz has been married to Stacy since 2001 and they are the proud parents of Hannah, 15, Tatum, 12, Emma, 6, and Ariel, 3. They also tolerate a cat, Satchmo.
Surrounded by a talented staff, Rabbi Covitz is committed to sustained adult education, meaningful worship experiences, inspiring social action opportunities, and vibrant youth programming.
Rabbi David Levinsky
Chicago Sinai Congregation
Born in Chicago and raised in Northbrook, Rabbi David Levinsky spent his youth as an active member of Am Shalom in Glencoe. After his undergraduate work at Indiana University, where he majored in English and wrote an honors thesis on James Joyce, he moved back to Chicago, where he freelanced for the Chicago Tribune and published poetry. A desire to give back to his community drove Rabbi Levinsky toward the rabbinate and he began rabbinic school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Rabbi Levinsky then continued his studies at Stanford University, earning his Ph.D. in Religious Studies. At that time he also served as rabbi of Keddem Congregation in Palo Alto. His leadership role in this congregation clarified and strengthened his commitment to liberal Reform Judaism. Most recently, Rabbi Levinsky has worked as the director of the Taube Center for Jewish Life and the Interfaith Program at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. He led a program that provided a nonjudgmental environment where interfaith couples explored their spirituality, learned about Judaism, and made decisions about their religious beliefs and practices.
Rabbi Levinsky is married to Kate Phillippo, who is on the faculty in the Education Department of Loyola University. They have a 4-year-old son, Noam.
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“1) The social justice message of the prophets and the rabbis is the core of Judaism. 2) Jewish deeds only hold value inasmuch as they support that creed. 3) Jews and non-Jews have an equal claim to this ethical tradition. Why? Just actions can make our world a better place and ourselves better people.
Rabbi David Perkel
Ezras Israel Mechitza Minyan, West Rogers Park
Rabbi David Perkel is the rabbi of the Ezras Israel Mechitza Minyan in West Rogers Park. He, his wife, Beth (maiden name Pollack, originally from Skokie), and their son, Tzvi, moved to West Rogers Park in August of 2008, when he first joined Ezras Israel. Rabbi Perkel, originally from Atlanta, bravely left the South to study Intellectual History, Classical Studies, and English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a B.A. in 2004. Afterward, he studied in Yeshivat Har Etzion in Alon Shevut, Israel, and Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in New York. Aside from his rabbinical interests, Rabbi Perkel is currently a rising second-year student at Northwestern University School of Law. Rabbi Perkel has appreciated chances to interact with the Ezras Israel family and the larger Chicago Jewish Community as well, including speaking at functions such as for the Chicago Jewish Judges Association and numerous community lecture series. While all of these venues have been rewarding, Rabbi Perkel considers his most rewarding interface to be his Shabbat morning class on the thought of Rabbeinu Bechaya ben Asher, which he studies with many dedicated congregants every Shabbat morning before davening. He is also in the middle of drafting an index on Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin’s (the “Netziv”) commentary on the Torah.
“One of the greatest recurring themes in our sagely wisdom is best summed up in the words of Ben Hey Hey when he says: ‘Reward is proportional to exertion.’ In our current age where we are used to ‘instant everything’ from instant communication and instant gratification to instant coffee, we might assume that this new standard might also be valid for our religious and ethical lives and growth. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Our sages tell us that if we would like to find satisfaction or results in Judaism, we must be willing to dedicate the corresponding amount of effort toward such results. This causal relationship proportional to one’s work is an essential building block for the entirety of the Torah.”
** Rabbi Aaron Leibtag (not featured) is also joining Chicago’s Jewish community this year at Kehillah Jacob Beth Samuel in Chicago.
Same city, new pulpit
Rabbi Evan Moffic
Congregation Solel, Highland Park
After serving as assistant rabbi at Chicago Sinai Congregation from 2006-2009, Rabbi Evan Moffic joins Congregation Solel in Highland Park as its new Senior Rabbi. After graduating from Stanford University in 2000, Rabbi Moffic worked for a year at Religious Action Center in Washington. He then studied at HUC in Cincinnati, and was ordained in 2006. His wife, Ari, is the Rabbi-Educator at Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette, and they have two children, Hannah, 2, and Tamir, 3 months.
“A key thing about Judaism I hope to impart is that we are an open, inclusive and progressive people and faith. My hope is to open as many doors as possible at Congregation Solel, welcoming interfaith families, the unaffiliated and all those looking for meaningful Jewish learning and living.”
Rabbi Max Weiss
Oak Park Temple
Max Weiss and his family came to the Oak Park Temple community in 2009. The temple had conducted a national search to replace Rabbi Gary Gerson, who is retiring and assuming emeritus status, and chose Rabbi Weiss, who was at Beth Tikvah Congregation in Hoffman Estates for 8 years. Ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1997, he has served congregations in Wynnewood, Penn., and Hoffman Estates, Ill. Rabbi Weiss currently serves as chair of the Rabbinic Advisory Committee of Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, the Reform movement’s summer camp in the Midwest, and he is active in interfaith dialogue and community outreach programs. He has particular interest in lifelong Jewish education and is passionate about American Jewish history.
He and his wife, Leslie, who works as the liaison between the Community Foundation for Jewish Education and Chicago synagogues, have moved to Oak Park with their three children, ages 2, 6 and 8.
“Today, when entering the synagogue, most people seek connection, search for meaning beyond themselves, and strive to link themselves to a community and tradition that will enable them to lead lives that are significant and meaningful. The synagogue fills these needs when it embodies three values revealed in Pirkei Avot: ‘The world depends on three things, on Torah study, on worship of God, and on acts of loving kindness.’ A synagogue needs to embody and balance all three attributes in order to attain its full potential as a spiritual home for the Jewish community.”
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