Rabbi Jay Perlman
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Rabbi Jay Perlman is a Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom. Since his arrival in Needham in the summer of 2003, Rabbi Perlman has been dedicated to nurturing a warm, vibrant, spiritually meaningful community. He is proud to share in this sacred service with many outstanding clergy, professional, and lay leaders.
Rabbi Perlman is active in both the Needham and the Greater Boston Jewish community. He is an active member of the Needham Clergy Association, including having recently served as president. He currently serves on the New England Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League. He frequently dedicates two weeks during summer to serve on the faculty at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Eisner. Rabbi Perlman has served as a rabbinic mentor for both the Hebrew College Rabbinic Program and the rabbinical school at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He is a regular teacher for the URJ’s “Taste of Judaism” and “Introduction to Judaism” programs and is a member of the Needham Coalition for Suicide Prevention.
Before coming to the Boston area, Rabbi Perlman served at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis, MO. While there, he was awarded UJA Federation’s Rabbinic Award for outstanding community leadership. Rabbi Perlman was active in the development of innovative worship experiences, creative youth programming, and in working with the St. Louis Jewish deaf community. In addition, Rabbi Perlman was the founding Rabbinic Director of the Fleischer Jewish Healing Center of St. Louis.
Rabbi Perlman was ordained from the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1996. While at HUC, he was the recipient of a number of academic awards, including his selection as a Steinhardt Scholar for his work in informal education.
Rabbi Perlman is originally from the Boston area. He is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Brandeis University, where he received his B.A. in both History and Near East and Judaic Studies. Rabbi Perlman has participated in numerous study opportunities in Israel, including programs at the Hartman Institute, the Conservative Yeshiva, the Pardes Institute, Hebrew University, and through the World Zionist Organization.
Rabbi Perlman has a passion for teaching, learning, building bridges, and sharing the beauty of our Jewish tradition. He joyfully shares his life with his wife, Emily, and their children Liana and Jonah.
K-12 Learning At Temple Beth Shalom
Why is the 8th-12th GRADE LEARNING PROGRAM AT TBS Called Etzim?
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Etzim is Hebrew for trees!
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Torah is the tree of life to those who hold fast to it.
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Etzim need strong roots which are fed by Mayim and Shorashim. A sense of being rooted in Jewish tradition and community is a large part of what we provide for our teens.
- Etzim branch out in many directions, as does our program with many different ways of getting connected to meet the needs of our teens who have varied interests and abilities.
- Trees are fun to climb, ascending one branch at a time! Etzim allows our teens to grow from year to year through different age appropriate experiences, offering new opportunities, new travel programs, and continuously building new relationships.
- From atop a tree one can gain new perspective regarding their surroundings and our Etzim program helps our teens to gain new perspectives on their lives, their Judaism, and their world.
- Our family trees let us see clearly those to whom we are connected, and Etzim seeks to connect our teens more deeply with one another, with their families, and with our Jewish community.
- Etzim are made up of many parts but they also make up one whole, just like our teens, who are trying to sort through the many parts of their own identities, while also being whole. This is something we strive to teach our teens through our programming.
- Etzim provide the air we inhale with each breath (nefesh), as our Etzim program seeks to nourish each the soul (nefesh) of each teen