Innovation in ritual and prayer, profound engagement in social action, leadership, scholarship, and a palpable love of Jewish life are hallmarks of Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s rabbinate. As the senior rabbi of Temple Israel of Boston, she leads the largest congregation in New England, forging close personal relationships within the congregation and the larger community.
Rabbi Zecher is outspoken on matters of justice and liberty, a tireless worker in interfaith partnerships, and an advocate of progressive legislation and policy. She is noted as well for personal warmth, deep humanity, quick wit, and humor. She is an engaging teacher who makes scholarship accessible and engaging.
Active as well in the national Reform Jewish Movement, she was instrumental in developing new prayer books for Shabbat and weekdays, as well as the machzor, which is used on the High Holy Days. Additionally, she served as Vice President for Leadership of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR).
A graduate of Brandeis University, she was ordained from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1988. She is married to Dr. David Eisenberg and has three adult children.
Rabbi Hara Person is the Chief Executive of Central Conference of American Rabbis. Previously, she was the CCAR's Chief Strategy Officer. In that capacity, she oversaw the Communications Department and served as Publisher of CCAR Press, and worked with leadership on overall organizational strategy. Rabbi Person was ordained in 1998 from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, after graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Amherst College (1986) and receiving an MA in Fine Arts from New York University’s International Center of Photography (1992). She served as Educator at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue from 1990-1996, and was the Adjunct Rabbi there from 1998-2019. Since 1998, Rabbi Person has been the High Holy Day Rabbi of Congregation B'nai Olam, Fire Island Pines, NY. Before coming to the CCAR, Rabbi Person was the Editor-in-Chief of URJ Books and Music, where she was responsible for the revision of
The Torah: A Modern Commentary(2005) and the publication of many significant projects, including the
Aleph Isn't Tough adult Hebrew series and
Mitkadem: Hebrew for Youth as well as several award-winning children's books. While at URJ, she was also the Managing Editor of
The Torah: Women's commentary, named the National Jewish Book Award Book of the Year in 2008. Rabbi Person is also the co-author of
Stories of Heaven and Earth: Bible Heroes in Contemporary Children's Literature and as well as co-editor of
That You May Live Long: Caring for Your Aging Parents, Caring for Yourself, and Editor of
The Mitzvah Healing. Her essays and poems have been published in various anthologies and journals, including
Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal,
upstreet,
Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture,
Women and Judaism,
The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, and
The Women's Haftarah Commentary. Links to her many OpEds are listed below. Rabbi Person lives in Brooklyn, NY, and is the mother of two young adults.
