Meet the Interim Rabbi Candidates
Tuesday, June 14 and Wednesday, June 22
7-9 pm in person and via Zoom
The Interim Rabbi Search Committee is very excited to bring you an opportunity to meet two excellent candidates for the 1-year Interim Rabbi position::
- Rabbi Braham David, from Temple Shalom in Medford
- Rabbi Daniel Schaefer, from Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline
Both completed several interviews with our committee, CBE staff and leadership, and now we are delighted to introduce them to you.
We invited each rabbi to a weeknight “Evening with the Rabbi" event with CBE. Rabbi David will join us on Tuesday, June 14th, and Rabbi Schaefer will join us Wednesday, June 22nd. Both events will be held 7-9 pm and will be offered in person at CBE and via Zoom. The sessions will be recorded and made available for those who can’t make it. After each session, a survey will be sent to the congregation asking for your feedback..
For Zoom login, congregants should look for the latest Star-lite or recent emails, or visit this members-only page while logged into this site.
At each “Evening with the Rabbi,” the Interim Rabbi candidate will conduct a short service, give a d’var Torah, and have time to answer questions submitted ahead of time from the congregation. These questions will be collected in advance so that we can better facilitate the discussion. You can submit questions HERE by Sunday, June 12th. Please understand that we won’t have time to get to every question but will do our best to cover all topics.
More information about each candidate can be found below. If you have any questions or feedback for us please email interim@bethelohim.org.
The IRSC Team,
Sue Wachter, Chair
Cantor Sarra Spierer
Sue Abrams
Elaine Braun-Keller
Allison Forseter
Rick Green
Judy Kramer
Jess Rosenblatt
Beth Schrager
Oleg Volinsky
Rabbi Braham David
Rabbi David has served at Temple Shalom of Medford since 2003. He is very active in the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, and is a member of Keshet Rabbis, a list of Conservative rabbis who support the LGBTQ+ community. Rabbi David is also the director of the Jewish Discovery Institute, a joint venture of the New England region of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly. The Jewish Discovery Institute (JDI) offers programs and workshops focused on keruv, the welcoming of interfaith families into Conservative congregations. The JDI also offers a program for those seeking conversion to Judaism (gerim).
Rabbi David was born in Paisley, Scotland, and grew up in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He is the son and son-in-law of Reform rabbis but found his own spiritual home in the Conservative movement. Rabbi David completed his undergraduate studies at Indiana University in 1991, majoring in History with an Area Certificate in Jewish Studies and a minor in East Asian Studies. He then spent a year studying at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
Upon his return, he entered the Davidson School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he received a Master of Arts degree in Jewish Education in 1997, focusing on Jewish day school education. Rabbi David entered rabbinical school and was ordained in 2003. While at the Jewish Theological Seminary, he had diverse experiences, including internships at nursing homes, hospitals, a Jewish Day school, Hebrew schools, a synagogue, Hofstra University Hillel, and Camp Ramah in New England.
Rabbi Daniel Schaefer
Rabbi Daniel Schaefer has been an Assistant Rabbi at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline since 2018. Prior to his ordination, he served as the student Rabbi of the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center and the Bethlehem Hebrew Congregation, as well as the Director of Graduate Student Engagement at MIT Hillel. Rabbi Schaefer grew up in Connecticut before attending Stanford University, where he studied History and Jewish Studies. His award-winning honors thesis, American Judaism Reconsidered: Religion & Nationalism in the Thought of Irving Reichert, explored visions of American Judaism before World War II. At Hebrew College, his final project, The Way of the Wilderness, focused on connections between nature and Torah in the book of Numbers. After college, Rabbi Schaefer worked as an entrepreneur and ghostwriter, taught at a wilderness school, and served in AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, before returning to rabbinical school. In addition to Hebrew College, he has studied at Mechon Hadar, the Hartman Institute, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Hebrew Union College.
Rabbi Schaefer is passionate about Torah study, experiential learning, spiritual exploration, and building a multi-generational Jewish community. In his free time, he loves spending time at Walden Pond, in the White Mountains, and cheering on the Boston Celtics.