Two new deans chosen for Schechter Rabbinical Seminary

Golinkin named movement's supreme halachic authority.

By MATTHEW WAGNER
rabbis 88 (photo credit: )
rabbis 88
(photo credit: )
The Conservative Movement chose two new deans - a man and a woman - for Israel's Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, Schechter announced Sunday. At its June meeting in Jerusalem, the International Board of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary elected Rabbi Moshe Silberschein to serve as dean of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary and Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum to serve as associate dean. Silberschein, a veteran faculty member and lecturer in rabbinical studies at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, received ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1981 with a Master of Hebrew Literature. A year later he made aliya, and has since worked extensively in the field of Jewish education in both formal and informal frameworks both in Israel and abroad. An expert in Jewish liturgy (siddur and piyut), rabbinic literature and medieval biblical commentaries, Silberschein has taught at the Jerusalem University College, the Conservative Yeshiva, Young Judaea Year Course, as well as Neveh Schechter (today, the Schechter Institute.) He has served as the rabbi of the Jewish community of Japan and as High Holy Day rabbi and cantor for a number of congregations in the US. He and his wife Susan are members of Congregation Moreshet Avraham in Jerusalem. They have two children. Elad-Appelbaum, an example of the "new breed" of young Israeli spiritual leaders, received ordination from the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in 2005. Most recently, she directed the Makhillim Program to train Masorti community professionals in Israel and before that, the Marriage Project of the Masorti Movement's Bureau of Religious Affairs. From 2005-07, Elad-Appelbaum served as rabbi of Omer's Congregation Magen Avraham in the Negev. Today she is vice-present of the Rabbinical Assembly-Israel and chairs the Movement's Bureau of Religious Affairs. Rabbi Elad-Appelbaum publishes Jewish-Israeli poetry. She has a B.A. from the Hebrew University in Jewish Philosophy and an M.A. in Jewish Studies from the Schechter Institute. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband Yossi and their two daughters. In the coming year, she will serve Temple Israel Center, White Plains, New York, as assistant rabbi. Rabbi David Golinkin, President of the Schechter Institute in Israel, was chosen to serve as the supreme halachic authority. For the past four years Schechter's present dean, Rabbi Einat Ramon, who will return to research and teaching at Schechter, was also the supreme halachic authority. The decision to appoint Golinkin represents a change in policy. Rabbi Barry Schlesinger President of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel was involved in the decision-making process said that Golinkin was chosen because of erudition. "Rabbi Golinkin is a major Torah scholar who devotes all of his energies and passion to studying the Halacha and writing responsa," Schlesinger said. "He is the natural choice to be the mara d'atra [preeminent halachic authority] for Schechter."