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Rabbi Sarah Mack is the Senior Rabbi of Temple Beth-El. She has served Temple Beth-El since 2003 upon her ordination from the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Rabbi Mack also spent a year studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. A native of Seattle, WA, Sarah graduated from Brandeis University in 1996 with majors in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and English.

 

Rabbi Mack is the immediate past President of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island. Rabbi Mack has served previously on the boards of the Jewish Alliance, the Chaplaincy Center and JCDSRI. She sits on the executive committee of the RI Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty and on the board of the Center For Reconciliation. Rabbi Mack was selected by the Boston Consul General to travel to Israel with Colleagues from around New England in 2018. Rabbi Mack was chosen as an American Jewish World Service Global Justice Fellow in their 2019-2020 cohort.

 

Rabbi Mack is one of the founders of the Rhode Island chapter of Sisterhood Of Salaam Shalom. She has worked with community partners to encourage interfaith youth dialogue between Jewish, Muslim and Christian teens as well with the Breaking Bread program.

 

Rabbi Mack enjoys running, gardening and baking in her free time. She and her husband Jeffrey Isaacs love raising their two sons in the warm community found in the smallest state in America.

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Preston “Pesach” D. Neimeiser was born in Tallahassee, Florida the second son of two activists dedicated to the American labor movement. The Neimeiser family joyfully celebrated many holidays and life-cycle events at Temple Israel of Tallahassee, Florida – where they remain members to this day. From a young age he was moved by the melodies of our people and captivated by our stories.

After many summers spent at the URJ camp Coleman, he dove into the song leader track at the URJ Kutz camp in 2009. Following his studies during the Fall 2010 at Heller High (formally NFTY-EIE) in Israel, his love for Jewish history and peoplehood continued to grow thanks to a rigorous and experiential curriculum focused on Hebrew and Jewish History. Preston served on the boards of his youth group and regional NFTY and worked as a song leader throughout the years at synagogues and Hillels as well as at Jewish summer camps. As one of the inaugural fellows of the Nachshon project, he studied at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and had the opportunity to develop relationships with some of Israel’s top movers and shakers. He returned from Israel and implemented a program focused on Israeli music and poetry for Jewish youth at camp; and organized an Israeli Film festival on campus before receiving his bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Hebrew from the Florida State University.

Following both his first and second years of rabbinical school, Preston worked as an educator for NFTY in Israel sharing his love of Israel with teens from across North America. He encouraged them to take an active role in grappling with Israel to deepen their connections to their people. He served as a rabbinic intern at Kol HaNeshama in Jerusalem and as an educator and youth professional at Temples Emmanuel and Shaaray Tefila in New York City and Temple Beth-El of Great Neck. As a fellow of the JOIN for Justice seminary fellowship, he learned the tactics of grassroots organizing and partnered with the organization OneTable to host interfaith Shabbat dinners for aspiring clergy across faiths and denominations. Through the 92nd Street Y Innovation fellowship he endeavored to deepen his understanding of how effective institutional change is made and received mentorship from leading innovators in the Jewish world. He also deepened his learning with the Shalom Hartman Institute and ARZA as a rabbinical student fellow and served as the rabbinic intern at the home of Positive Judaism, Tamid: The Downtown Synagogue, for two years. Now a 5th-year Rabbinical student at HUC-JIR in New York with monthly pulpit responsibilities in High Point, NC and a multi-faith organizer with the New Sanctuary Coalition, he is an aspiring community builder with a passion and commitment to justice and the Jewish people. Rabbi Neimeiser was ordained  May 2021.

 

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Rabbi Leslie Yale Gutterman, Emeritus has served Temple Beth-El from 1970 to 2015, upon his ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. In 1974 when Rabbi William G. Braude retired, Rabbi Gutterman became the synagogue’s senior rabbi. A 1964 graduate of the University of Michigan, Rabbi Gutterman has been involved with dozens of civic organizations and has served as a board member of many preeminent institutions including: Butler Hospital, The Rhode Island Telecommunications Commission, The Providence Athenaeum, Hospice Care, Rhode Island Kids Count, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Interfaith Health Care Ministries, Brown University’s Board of Religious Overseers, and Bryant University.

Rabbi Gutterman was president of the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis, the Jewish Family Service and the National Rabbinic Alumni Association of Reform Judaism as well as the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities. He has served on the executive board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and taught at Providence College. For 20 years, Rabbi Gutterman wrote a monthly column for the religion page of The Providence Journal. He received a public service award from the City of  Providence on its 350th anniversary and the lifetime achievement award from the Rhode Island Council of Churches and in 2012 he was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. Rabbi Gutterman was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College and holds honorary degrees from the University of Rhode Island, Roger Williams University, Johnson & Wales University, Providence College, Rhode Island College and Bryant University. He is the proud father of three daughters and grandfather of three grandchildren.

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Cantor Judith Seplowin came to Beth-El as our cantor in 2000. She is a 1995 graduate of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) where she received a Master of Sacred Music, ordination and several awards of distinction. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Literature from Douglass College/Rutgers University and La Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. Cantor Seplowin also received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from HUC-JIR for her more than 25 years of service to the Jewish communityBefore serving at Temple Beth-El, Cantor Seplowin served The Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim of Sylvania (Toledo), Ohio for five years and also served congregations in New York City and Doylestown, Pennsylvania. In 1996, HUC-JIR invited Cantor Seplowin to reprise her master’s recital, “Synagogue Art Music of the Eighteenth Century,” for the annual Cantor Walter A. Davidson Concert.

She has appeared in concerts in Israel and in many cities throughout the United States. She has performed musical theater throughout the United States, Europe and in parts of Asia and Russia. As a student at the seminary, Cantor Seplowin performed with the Avodah Dance Ensemble as a singer/dancer. She has served as the cantorial representative of the Northeast Lakes Council Region of the Union of Reform Judaism, taught at the Beloit Kallah, and taught and performed at national and regional biennials of the Reform movement. Cantor Seplowin serves on the Committee on Ethics and Appeals of the American Conference of Cantors (ACC). 

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Fri, October 11 2024 9 Tishrei 5785