Speakers and talent:
Rabbi David J. Meyer
Shabbat Topic: “Dayenu! Living A Life of Sufficiency”
Havdalah Topic: “The Road to Paradise: A Song About Shoes”
Rabbi David J. Meyer was called to the pulpit of Temple Emanu-El, Marblehead in the fall of 1992. Following thirty-one years leading the congregation, he retired as Rabbi Emeritus in July, 2023.
Ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1986, Rabbi Meyer served for six years as the Associate Rabbi of the historic Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, California. He later received his Master of Theology Degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1996. In May 2011, Rabbi Meyer was awarded the Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) from HUC-JIR.
Rabbi Meyer’s sermons and articles have appeared regularly in magazines and rabbinic journals, including The Jewish Spectator, Moment, The American Rabbi, The CCAR Journal, and the American Jewish Archives Journal. He is the author of an acclaimed textbook on Jewish ethics, The Rabbinic Driving Manual: A Jewish Guide to Driver’s Education.
Well-known in the field of contemporary Jewish folk music, he spent more than a decade as Music Director at the American Jewish University’s Brandeis-Bardin Campus in Southern California. Recently, he has teamed with Jon Nelson to release three full-length albums of original songs, “This One At Last”, “Road Without Shoulders”, and “A Song About Shoes”.
In addition to his pulpit and pastoral duties, Rabbi Meyer is active in a wide variety of community activities and organizations on Boston’s North Shore. He served for four years as Convener of the Marblehead Ministerial Association and is also a Past-President of the North Shore Rabbinical and Cantorial Association. In addition, Rabbi Meyer has served as a member of the Essex County Anti-Crime Council, on the Board of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, and of the Epstein Hillel School, and was among the founders of the MarbleheadCares Coalition.
For ten years, Rabbi Meyer was a member and captain of the Boston Children’s Hospital “Miles for Miracles” Marathon Team. He sits on the national U.J.C. Rabbinic Cabinet, and is a recipient of the prestigious Community Rabbinic Leadership Award. In 2006, Rabbi Meyer received the Leonard P. Zakim Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League, in recognition of his work “building bridges” of understanding between differing faith communities. In 2012, he received the Samuel S. Stahl Community Service Award from the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore. In 2014 he received the Annual Rabbinic Leadership Award from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) in Boston. In 2017 he received the Israel Unity Award from the State of Israel Bonds. And just prior to retirement, Rabbi Meyer received special commendation from the Town of Marblehead and the Marblehead Police Department in recognition of his years of service to the wider community.
Rabbi Or Rose
Kabbalat Shabbat Topic: “The Wisdom of Hasidic Storytelling”
Director, Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership Hebrew College, Newton, MA
Rabbi Or Rose is the founding director of the Betty Ann Greenbaum Miller Center for Interreligious Learning & Leadership of Hebrew College. Before assuming this position in 2016, he worked in various administrative and teaching capacities at Hebrew College for over a decade, including serving as a founding faculty member and associate dean for Informal Education of the Rabbinical School. Rabbi Rose was also one of the creators of CIRCLE, The Center for Interreligious & Community Leadership Education, cosponsored by Hebrew College and Andover Newton Theological School (2007-2017) and has taught for Hebrew College’s Me’ah Classic program.
In addition to his work at Hebrew College, Rose has taught for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships, The Wexner Graduate Fellowship, and in a variety of other academic, religious, and civic contexts throughout North America, and in Asia, Europe, and Israel.
A prolific author and editor, his writings have appeared in Beliefnet; the Forward; The Huffington Post; Interfaith America; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Patheos; MyJewishLearning; Religion News Service; The Times of Israel; Tikkun; Sh’ma; The Washington Post; as well as various scholarly publications. Rose is the senior Publisher of The Journal of Interreligious Studies, as well as co-editor of Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid’s Table, and the award-winning anthology, My Neighbor’s Faith: Stories of Interreligious Encounter, Growth, and Transformation. His most recent publications include With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps & Unexpected Learnings (Orbis 2023) and the co-edited volume, Rabbi Zalman Schachter: Essential Teachings. Rose is currently working on a contemporary multifaith commentary on the Psalms, tentatively entitled The Book of Psalms: Here & Now (Paraclete Press, 2023.)
Selected Publications and Presentations
“PsalmSeason: A Soundtrack for a Time of Upheaval” (with Rev. Paul Raushenbush)
“Psalm: 114—On Liberation & Connecting to the Earth” (with Ruth Messinger)
“Elijah the Prophet & Intergenerational Connection”
“Building Bridges of Compassion: Preparing for Passover & Easter Virtually”
“Life in the World House: Cultivating Leaders for a Pluralistic Age”
Rabbi Batya Ellinoy
Sunday Morning Topic: “We are calling to you, joy!”an interactive program
Rabbi Batya Elana Ellinoy brings her gifts as a prayer leader and teacher of embodied Torah to congregations around the Boston area and beyond.
She currently serves on the clergy team at Temple Sinai in Marblehead, MA and as a regular guest prayer leader at Temple Beth David in Westwood, MA. Rabbi Ellinoy also works with BaMidbar Therapy as their Rabbi-in-Residence. Her work has been featured in various venues including bamidbartherapy.org, 70 Faces of Torah, and Hebrew College’s Elul Together.
Rabbi Ellinoy is a certified practitioner in Somatic Experiencing®, a psychobiological approach to help resolve trauma and stress disorders. She received rabbinic ordination and her Master’s in Jewish Education from Hebrew College, focusing on the effects of Torah-informed nervous system regulation in a Jewish educational context. She is also a certified practitioner in Somatic Experiencing®, a psychobiological approach to help resolve trauma and stress disorders.
Rabbi Ellinoy’s background in experiential education, healing modalities, trauma healing, dance, embodied spirituality, and interreligious learning and leadership have influenced her personal Jewish journey and spiritual leadership with unique perspectives.
Itay Dayan Klezmer Quartet
Itay Dayan | איתי דיין
Clarinet | קלרינט
Currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, clarinetist and composer Itay Dayan is considered one of today’s most promising klezmer musicians. Drawing inspiration from different musical worlds, Itay played with various ensembles such as the Klezmer Conservatory Band, Meitar Ensemble and the Israel Klezmer Orchestra, with which he has toured internationally.
For the last few years, he has performed extensively in Israel and across the East Coast, playing concerts in Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington DC and North Carolina. Itay studied for his M.Mus at New England Conservatory and his B.Mus at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, graduating from both institutions with excellence.