Senior Rabbi Meir Feldman
Mah yafeh ha’yom . . .  How precious is this day.  That’s the attitude by which we try to live at Temple Beth-El.  As Senior Rabbi, along with my wife, Rabbi Tara Feldman, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to become a member of and to serve in this historic community.  Twenty years ago, I was an associate at a Wall Street law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, and fifteen years ago, I was a lawyer, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.  If someone had told me then what my life would be like 15 years later, I would have never believed it.

 I grew up in a “typical” Jewish home in Columbus, Ohio.  It was a kosher home, and throughout my childhood we often had Shabbat dinners.  I hated Hebrew school.  When I left for college and then continued on to law school, Judaism was not a meaningful part of my life.  I did “Jewish” stuff only when I visited my family.  Funny thing is that despite graduating, with Honors, from Brandeis University and serving as a member of the law review at Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, I had no experience with Jewish learning, or Jewish living for that matter.  

The first stage of my Jewish journey occurred from the time I was 35 – 38 years old, immediately after I left my life as a lawyer.  Living on Venice Beach, I participated in many a Shabbat dinner; I began reading Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel; I visited Israel with dear friends; and, with Rabbis David Wolpe and Danny Gordis, I had my first encounter with serious Jewish texts.  Doubt in God, challenging authority, asking big questions, demanding that life has meaning, these were some of the critical and transformative moments of my Jewish learning.  I remember that in my application to rabbinic school I wrote, “. . . in my Jewish learning my intellect meets my soul.”

As a rabbinical student I had many special opportunities.  I served for one year as a CLAL [spell out] Intern, with Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform rabbinical students.  I had two Orthodox study partners who I hugely admire and appreciate today.  In fall 2001, I started a bi-weekly Friday night minyan called the Park Slope Minyan.  We gathered in a church.  For seven years, many young folks from Brooklyn created a very special community.  And, from 2002-2004, I had the wonderful opportunity to serve as a Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellow at the Upper West Side’s B’nai Jeshurun (BJ).  That was a truly formative experience for me.

 After leaving BJ and New York, Tara and I served in two separate Associate Rabbi positions at Temple Israel in Memphis, Tennessee, an outstanding 1700 family Reform synagogue.  We discovered that there is rich Jewish life beyond the Northeast.  We have many dear friends in Memphis and we remain dear friends with our former Senior Rabbi, Micah Greenstein.  Needless to say, we are deeply grateful for our time in Memphis. 

 We left Memphis in January 2008 and headed to Israel for an experience of a lifetime.  Our kids were in school, like “normal” Israeli kids.  The backyard of our apartment was one of the most special gardens in Jerusalem.  It’s called Gan Hashoshanim, the Rose Garden.  For Tara and me it was very special for our kids to feel so attached and comfortable in that place.  Our first meeting, in 1996, was in that garden.  Today, our kids feel like it’s home and to hear them speak Hebrew, like real sabras, brings us more joy than we ever could have imagined.

Senior Rabbi Tara Feldman
Rising early that morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a monument.  He then poured oil on its top. He named that place Beth El. Genesis 28:18-19

 My journey into Jewish life and ultimately to the rabbinate was not a straight path but one that began to open to me through rich and unexpected experiences and through contact with incredible teachers, my parents among them.

 Born to two non-Jewish parents, Judaism entered my life when my mother remarried a Jewish man and converted.  Suddenly, at the age of 11, I was thrown into Hebrew school and our beloved Christmas tree ornaments were no more.  Yet, this jarring shift in my life’s reality brought with it many gifts.

 My first Jewish memory is that of Shabbat candles.  I drew a picture of them, each flame surrounded by rainbows.  I was eleven.  My second Jewish memory was a Passover Seder.  I watched a man dip greens in salt water, uttering words I did not understand.  Then he closed his eyes and ate, chewing slowly and with intense concentration.  Without knowing a word of Hebrew, I understood for the first time what it means to make a blessing.

 My mother and stepfather joined Rabbi Lawrence Kushner’s Congregation Beth El in Sudbury, Massachusetts.  It was with Rabbi Kushner that I became a bat mitzvah.  I continued my Hebrew school studies through the 11^th grade.  My father is a philosophy professor who always encouraged me to question. With Rabbi Kushner, I had the opportunity to study philosophers like Martin Buber and Abraham Joshua Heschel.  I began to understand that Judaism enabled me to ask the Big Questions of life.  I, Tara Elizabeth Campbell, was embraced as a Jew at Congregation Beth El.  I knew I was a Jew to my core.

 After high school I went to Vassar College where I majored in Russian language and literature.  Living in Moscow for a semester in 1988 I had powerful interactions with Jewish refuseniks, but for the most part, my Judaism was dormant.  After Vassar, I biked across the United States to raise money for the Nature Conservancy and then headed off to Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to earn a Masters in Elementary Education.  My student teaching was for a Haitian bilingual school.  On a trip to Haiti, I encountered the ravaging poverty of children.  This was the tipping point, initiating a spiritual quest which ultimately led me to the waters of the mikvah.  I wanted to choose Judaism for myself, as an adult.  My spiritual search returned me, as well, to Congregation Beth El (the synagogue that had embraced me as a girl) to work as a teacher and youth advisor.

 One afternoon, I met Rabbi Kushner in the hallway for a moment between teaching Hebrew school classes.  “So, do you want to be a rabbi?” he asked.  Never once had I considered the idea.  His question stopped me in my tracks.  This was a Burning Bush moment for me. 

 Five years later, at the age of the 29, I flew out of Logan Airport, guitar in one hand, a bouquet of peonies from my mother’s garden in the other.  I was headed for Jerusalem.  After a year at Hebrew Union College in Israel, I continued my rabbinical training at HUC in New York and began working as a rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  During that time, Rabbi Kushner (whose influence seems to have crept into every corner of my life) orchestrated a shiduch (a match) between Meir and me.  We were married in 2000, a year before my ordination.  When we left Brooklyn in 2004 to become associate rabbis at Temple Israel in Memphis, Tennessee, our son Gavi was two years old.

 The years since leaving Brooklyn have been adventure-filled.  We were enriched by our encounter with Jewish life in the South, by the mentorship of Rabbi Micah Greenstein and of course, by the birth of our daughter.  Adina was two years old when we left Memphis one cold January night to begin a15 month stint in Jerusalem.  In addition to serving with Meir as a rabbi for the Reform movement’s Eisendrath International Exchange (EIE) high school semester in Israel program, I studied at Hebrew University as a Melton Senior Educators fellow.  Now our journey has taken us full circle, back to New York and back to another Beth-El, different from the one in which I grew up—but linked as well.

 The first time we walked up to the front door of this beautiful synagogue as a family, Gavi (now seven) didn’t notice any of the English words on the building.  He saw only the five beautiful Hebrew letters engraved into the side of the building. “Beit El!” he cried out in joy.  This is the joy that all four of us feel, Meir, Adina, Gavi and I, in having the blessing and privilege of entering the sacred home which is Temple Beth-El of Great Neck.  May we together through our learning and prayer, through our action and questioning, continue to make it truly, a Beit El, a house of God

Rabbi Emeritus Jerome K. Davidson, D.D.

Rabbi Jerome K. Davidson is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth-El of Great Neck. He serves on the faculty of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, of which he is both president of the Rabbinic Alumni Association and member of the Board of Governors. Rabbi Davidson is past president of the Synagogue Council of America and in his youth was national president of NFTY. In 1994 he was chosen by the New York Board of Rabbis as "Rabbi of the Year", the first Reform rabbi to receive this award.

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Leslie Abrams

Leslie brings a wealth of qualifications and experience to the position.  Until the time of her election as President, she was Executive Vice President and Secretary of the Temple.  Leslie has been a Trustee for many years and served several terms as Secretary.  Previously, she served as President of the Board of Jewish Education, co-President of Sisterhood, and chaired numerous committees including the Development and Nursery School Committees and search committees for clergy and senior staff.  She planned numerous events including the 75^th Anniversary Weekend and the tribute to Rabbi Davidson upon his retirement.  Leslie brings warmth, creativity, and deep knowledge of Temple Beth-El to her new position.

Leslie and Franklin Abrams joined Temple Beth-El in 1973.  They express great pride and love for their children, Courtney and Jason (who were educated at Beth-El from nursery school through Hebrew high school, including b’nei mitzvah and Confirmation), and new daughter-in-law Ewa, whose marriage to Jason was blessed at Beth-El and performed by Beth-El’s clergy.  Courtney is a sociologist, and Jason and Ewa are lawyers. Leslie says, “We have been blessed with a loving family and caring friends, and Temple Beth-El has helped us to appreciate these blessings and has given our lives greater depth and meaning”.

Leslie received a B.S. in Psychology from Long Island University and an M.S. in Special Education from Hofstra University.  Her professional life has included work as a teacher of disabled children, a legal assistant, and Director of Alumni Affairs at Queens College.  Leslie explains the connection between her work with college alumni and her work at Temple as follows: “Aside from event planning and fundraising similarities, both involve inspiring others to work toward a common goal.  Here, our goal is to assure a vibrant future for Temple Beth-El, and I intend to do all that I can to bring it to fruition”.

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Alan H. Goldsmith

Alan comes to Temple Beth-El with a strong background in his field.  He has served for more than 20 years as an administrator for Jewish organizations including eight years at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan and 12 years at the Central Queens YM-YWHA.  Alan has also held management positions at social work agencies.  He earned his B.A. at Brooklyn College, M.A. in Early Childhood Education at Long Island University, and M.S.W. and Jewish Communal Service Certificate at Yeshiva University, Wurzweiler School of Social work

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