Leadership

haravsm2.gifRabbi Asher Lopatin
rabbi@asbi.org

Rabbi Asher Lopatin, now in his 13th year as spiritual leader of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation, received his ordination from Rav Aron Soloveichik and Yeshivas Brisk and also from Yeshiva University in New York. He holds an M.Phil. in Medieval Arabic Thought from Oxford University as well as a BA in International Relations and Islamic Studies from Boston University. He has done doctoral work, also at Oxford, in Islamic Fundamentalist Attitudes Toward Jews. In that connection he has authored a chapter in Muslim Jewish Relations, titled: "The Uncircumcised Jewish Heart (in Islamic and Qur'anic Thought)." Rabbi Lopatin is married to Rachel Tessler of Detroit. The Rabbi and Rachel have two daughters, Shayna and Cara, and two sons, Judah and Gideon.

For more on Rabbi Lopatin, click here.


rkf-head-shot.jpgRachel Kohl Finegold
Education and Ritual Director
rkfinegold@asbi.org

Rachel Kohl Finegold is the Education & Ritual Director at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation, where she holds the Dr. Carol Fuchs Kaufman Rabbanit Chair.

Rachel serves as a religious and educational leader in the community. Among her various roles, Rachel directs our adult education program, the ASBI Torah Study Institute, coordinates our family education, oversees all of our Shabbat and holiday programming, and is the supervisor to our B’nai Mitzvah Mentor. Rachel also is the on-site coordinator of the Adam R. Straus Memorial Mikvah, where she is a resource for both logistical and halachic questions. You can also learn from Rachel as she often teaches classes to large groups as well as brides and grooms privately.

Click here to read more.

Rachel completed the Scholars Circle at the Drisha Institute in New York, an intensive graduate-level program in Talmud, Jewish Law, and communal leadership, and received her B.A. in Religion from Boston University. Rachel served as Congregational Intern at Ohev Shalom – The National Synagogue – in Washington, DC and has studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum and MaTaN in Jerusalem. Her numerous years as a staff member at Camp Nesher in Pennsylvania, as well as other camp settings in the U.S. and abroad, have given her a firm grounding in informal Jewish education.

Rachel is a member of the Advisory Board of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA), serves on the Spiritual Advisory Council of Midreshet Devora (a new modern Orthodox yeshiva for post-high school girls in Israel), and is on the Board of the Lakeview Action Coalition (LAC). She has taught the MaTaN Bat Mitzvah program, and has spoken at various Hillels, at the Spertus Institute, and at synagogues across the east coast.

Her favorite part of being the Education and Ritual Director remains her informal encounters with shul members over a cup of coffee or in chevrutah learning of a Jewish text. In her spare time, Rachel practices yoga (she has been a yogi for 10 years), plays piano, or lets loose at improv comedy. Rachel lives in Chicago with her husband, Rabbi Avi Finegold and their daughter Kinneret.


OFFICE ADMINISTRATION

Custodial

  • Barbara Pjetrushi

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

ASBI BOARD OF DIRECTORS

  • Adam Levine - Chairman
  • Julia Aaronson
  • Rudy Ash
  • Linda Cohen 
  • David Dreytser
  • Herbert Eiseman
  • James Faier
  • Jeremy Fogel
  • Paul Freund
  • Martin Goodman
  • Dr. Ira Halper
  • Toby Heizler
  • Alan Hepker
  • Sasha Kerlow
  • Ira King
  • Michael Leib 
  • Lorman Levitz
  • Ruth Lipman
  • Chaim Lubin
  • Elise Ecanow Mlotek
  • Michael Newberger
  • Scott Newberger 
  • Jacques Aaron Preis
  • Marni Rosen 
  • Howard Rosenburg
  • Jeremy Segall
  • Rabbi Melvin Shapiro
  • Alan Skidelsky 
  • Barry Spiegel
  • Sara Weinberg