Welcome to our community!

Rabbi Daniel Greyber will spend the next year as a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Israel for the 2010-11 academic year and, in July 2011, will become the rabbi of Beth El Synagogue. At the end of this summer he will have completed an eight-year tenure as the executive director of Camp Ramah in California and the Max & Pauline Zimmer Conference Center of American Jewish University. Rabbi Greyber was selected in 2006 for the inaugural Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, a program which provides experienced camp professionals business, management, and leadership skills required to enrich their camps and compete in the summer marketplace.   During rabbinical school, he founded The Neshama Minyan at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles and Minyan Nifla at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, soulful, egalitarian, Friday night services using the melodies of the late Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. While in rabbinical school, Rabbi Greyber also founded LISHMA, an innovative learning program of Ramah and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies (ZSRS) where young adult Jews spend the summer exploring traditional Jewish texts, prayer and practice in the beautiful setting of Camp Ramah in California.  As a result of the success of the LISHMA program, he was selected in 2001 as a recipient of the Joshua Venture Fellowship, which supports and trains emerging Jewish social entrepreneurs to transform their visions into action. 

While in his role at Ramah, Rabbi Greyber was an adjunct faculty member of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, teaching courses on liturgy, Halakhah and a variety of seminars about Judaism and the American rabbinate. Greyber served as a scholar-in-residence for programs of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and a variety of Conservative synagogues throughout the West, and as a teacher at conventions of the Rabbinical Assembly and Jewish Educators Assembly.  His writings have been published in Dancing on the Edge of the World: Jewish Stories of Inspiration and Love (Lowell House Press, 2000); Many Ways into God’s Palace: Essays in Honor of the 36 th Anniversary of the Library Minyan (Temple Beth Am, 2008); CJ Voices Magazine, Conservative Judaism, Midstream Magazine, the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles and other Jewish periodicals.

A gold medalist and Captain of the U.S. Swimming Team at the 1993 World Maccabiah Games, Rabbi Greyber holds a Masters in Speech and Communications Studies from Northwestern University and was ordained in 2002 at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of American Jewish University where received the Henry Fisher Award for outstanding achievement in Jewish Studies. He and his wife, Jennifer, and their three boys, Alon, Benjamin, and Ranon are eagerly looking forward to their arrival in Durham, July 2011!

To follow updates from Rabbi Greyber, become a fan of his facebook page, “Rabbi Daniel Greyber.”

Rabbi Frank A. Fischer was born in Germany and grew up on Long Island, New York. He received his BA in Sociology, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY 1957 and his MA in Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, NY 1962 where he was ordained the same year. Rabbi Fischer has been a member of the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) since 1974. He served as Hillel Director on various campuses including The University of Georgia, Brooklyn College, Hofstra University, Executive Director of Hillel for Florida campuses, Executive Director for Hillel in North Carolina (including, Duke, UNC, NC. State). He is currently on the faculty of the Ocher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University and is the co-chair of the Durham/Chapel Hill Federation’s Community Relations Committee. Rabbi Fischer will serve as interim Rabbi for Beth El September 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011.

Rabbi Steven Sager served as Beth El's spiritual leader from 1978 to 2010. He is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and earned a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Duke University in 1989. Rabbi Sager serves as a lecturer on the faculty of the Duke Divinity School. He has taught many classes including “Psalms & our Daily Lives” and “Poetry as Parshanut”. After 32 years, Rabbi Sager has now become Rabbi Emeritus (as of August 1, 2010).  Rabbi Sager plans to remain an active part of the Beth El Community as our Baal Batei Midrash.