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 5th-7th Grade Learning Program at TBS called Shorashim?
"We should solve to raise our children to a life of Torah and good deeds, to bring them closer to their Jewish roots…"
Shorashim is the Hebrew word for “roots,” and we chose this as the name for our 5th-7th grade programs because:
- Roots take up water from the ground to sustain a tree’s growth, just as our 5th-7th graders take in all they learned in Mayim (K-4) and use it as they progress towards our teen programs called Etzim (8-12).
- Roots anchor a tree so it doesn’t fall over in the wind, and Shorashim seeks to provide learners with an ethical grounding to stand strong when the winds of injustice or intolerance push at them.
- Some tree roots run deep into the ground in search of water and nutrients, and our Shorashim program focuses on deepening our students' learning and their relationships with peers and educators alike.
- Roots absorb minerals and nutrients for the tree, and Shorashim nourishes students’ natural curiosities about their Judaism and our world.
- Root systems broaden as the tree ages, and our Shorashim learners expand their Jewish learning and begin applying it more broadly to life beyond the synagogue.
- Roots of one tree intertwine with those of other trees, and together they are stronger than any tree on its own. So too a major focus of our Shorashim program is building the youth community that will strengthen and support all our students.
- Just as Torah is called “a Tree of Life” in our tradition, Shorashim prepares our learners to celebrate becoming B. Mitzvah when they will engage and share from our Tree of Life in whole new ways.