Monthly Archives: ‍‍September 2011 - אלול תשעא / תשרי תשעב

Susan Pinsky Bleeks has spent her entire adult life involved in her twin passions of Jewish Education and Music. She & her husband Tom joined Temple Emanuel in 1979 and within a few years she started teaching at the Religious School. Two years later, she became the Education Director of the school – a role she maintained for the next 25 years until June 2009. In 1996, she was asked to be a Cantorial Soloist for the High Holidays, as well as Soloist for the Bnai Mitzvah services. While she retired from singing at the High Holidays in 2005, she… more

Born in Vitebsk, Belarus, Rabbi Farbman received his semicha (rabbinic ordination) at the Leo Baeck College, Reform Rabbinical Seminary in London. From 2001 to 2004, Rabbi Farbman served West London Synagogue of British Jews in London, UK  as Assistant Rabbi. Serendipitously, Rabbi Farbman’s friend and mentor in London was Rabbi Mark Winer, the former Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in its early, formative years! Rabbi Farbman holds a  B.A. and M.A. in Hebrew and Jewish Studies. From 2004 to 2007 Rabbi Michael Farbman returned to Russia and helped build Sha’arei Shalom Progressive Jewish Community in  St. Petersburg, Russia.  The story of Sha’arei Shalom and its success is… more

Rabbi Jerry Brieger is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanuel, having served as the guitar-playing spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel from 1977 to 2009.  A New York native, he graduated from City College with a degree in Electrical Engineering, then changed paths and was ordained at Hebrew Union College (HUC) in New York.  He then studied Talmud and Rabbinics in a PhD program at HUC in Cincinnati, where he also served as Music Director of the Temple Shalom Religious School. Rabbi Brieger also earned a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the… more

Laurel Shader, a member of Temple Emanuel since 1985, has been a High Holy Day cantorial soloist at TE since 1996. She has also been the music director/arranger for the Temple Emanuel house band since its debut in the fall of 2009. By day, Laurel is the chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Fair Haven Community Health Center. She lives in Orange with her husband, Jon Zonderman, and is the mother of two musical young adults, Anna and Jacob Zonderman. Anna Zonderman has been a cantorial soloist at Temple Emanuel since 2004. She also leads the children’s High… more