Rabbi Irwin Zeplowitz

Rabbi Irwin Zeplowitz (also known as “Rabbi Z”) was born in Niagara Falls, New York. Following his schooling at the University of Toronto, he studied at Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Jerusalem, Los Angeles and Cincinnati, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 1984. After spending five years as a rabbi in the Chicago area, Rabbi Zeplowitz went to Hamilton, Ontario in 1989 to serve as the Rabbi of Temple Anshe Sholom, Canada’s oldest Reform congregation. In July 2003 he assumed the position of Senior Rabbi at The Community Synagogue in Port Washington, New York as part of a completely new clergy “team”.

Rabbi Zeplowitz is the Immediate past Chair of the Alumni Association of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and is a member of the Board of Governors of HUC-JIR. A member of the United Jewish Communities Rabbinic Cabinet, he is a strong supporter of joint communal activities and dialogue. He served for a number of years as Chair of the Joint Commission on Sustaining Rabbinic Education of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and HUC-JIR. He is on the rabbinic cabinet of ARZA (the Association of Reform Zionists of America) and has traveled to Israel regularly, including time he spent there on sabbatical with his family studying at Yakar and the Hartman Institute. He is past president of Canadian region of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and served on the editorial board of the CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly. He has a particular expertise in the area of medical ethics, and lectures regularly on bioethical issues (including offering testimony to the Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Health). 

Issues of social justice have always been important to Rabbi Zeplowitz, and he was instrumental in establishing a Muslim-Jewish teen dialogue group in Canada. He has also worked on issues of poverty and homelessness, been involved with congregational sponsorships of refugee families from Bosnia and instituted a Christian, Buddhist, Jewish dialogue group. Rabbi Zeplowitz also formed and chaired the Coalition of Canadian Liberal Rabbis for Same Sex Commitment Ceremonies, which presented legal briefs before the Supreme Courts of British Columbia and Ontario. He is currently working on a program to board homeless families in a consortium of religious institutions in Nassau County.

Rabbi Zeplowitz has lectured and taught in a wide variety of advanced adult learning settings — teaching for Kolel: The Adult Centre for Liberal Jewish Learning (Toronto, Canada) and as a regular lecturer for JLearn, the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School (Long Island, New York). He has spent over 20 years teaching at summer camps of the Reform movement and has taught at several adult summer retreats. He has served as a scholar in a number of synagogues, has appeared on radio and television, and has spoken in numerous community settings. He has had articles published in journals and newspapers on Jewish law, spirituality and politics, including a series on the book of Exodus for the Union for Reform Judaism website.

Rabbi Zeplowitz is married to Anne, who is a Speech and Language Pathologist, and has three children — Abigail, Deena and Nathan. He resides in Port Washington, New York. He is enjoys gardening, travel, theater, skiing, exercise and reading.

You can write Rabbi Zeplowitz at rabbiz@commsyn.org. 

Rabbi Danny Burkeman

Rabbi Danny Burkeman was born and raised in London, England. As a teenager he was active in the British Reform Jewish-Zionist youth movement RSY-Netzer, spending a year with them in Israel before attending Cambridge University, where he received a BA in History and Theology. Following university he worked as an educator in the British Jewish community and studied for his Masters in Jewish Christian relations (which he completed in 2008).

Rabbi Danny’s rabbinical training had an international feel to it, with a year at Leo Baeck College, in London, a year at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Jerusalem, and three years at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles. While in Israel he met Micol Zimmerman (an American Jewish education student) and they were married two weeks before his ordination in May 2009.

Following ordination, Rabbi Danny and Micol moved back to London where he became an Associate Rabbi at West London Synagogue (Britain’s oldest Reform congregation). There Rabbi Danny fulfilled a variety of roles as part of the clergy team. He expanded their young adult provision, establishing a series of new programs and a young adult group, which received coverage in the British Jewish press. He also led the development of the Synagogue’s online presence through Twitter and Facebook, setting them up to broadcast services on the internet.

Rabbi Danny is currently the Vice-President of Arzenu (the International Federation of Reform and Progressive Religious Zionists) and is a member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism Executive Board, attending and presenting at their conferences, most recently in San Francisco in 2010. He enjoys writing, and has been published in several European journals, the book A Passion for Judaism, and in The Jewish News of England (a weekly national newspaper) for which he writes a regular column.

Rabbi Danny and Micol are excited to be joining the Community Synagogue, and settling into Port Washington, and he is especially excited to be living so close to the sea. Despite coming from England, he enjoys watching American Football, though ‘real’ football (soccer) is still his number one sport. You can read more of Rabbi Danny’s writings by visiting his blog: www.rabbidanny.com  

Cantor Claire Franco

Contrary to popular belief, Cantor Claire Franco did not always know that she wanted to be a cantor. In fact, it happened quite by accident. Although she played piano, sang and performed in theater throughout her life, she studied finance and English literature at Florida State University and the University of South Florida. A chance encounter with a religious school educator, some music teaching and a Friday night service led her to her calling and more literally to the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) first in Jerusalem and then in New York. It was there that she realized that this profession would allow her to combine all of the things that she loved: music, teaching, Judaism and interacting with people.

While at HUC-JIR in New York, Cantor Franco served as the student cantor at Temple Shaaray Tefila in Manhattan. Upon her investiture in 1996, she went to Temple B’nai Shalom in East Brunswick, New Jersey where she served as the cantor for 7 years. Cantor Franco joined the clergy at The Community Synagogue in 2003.

Cantor Franco currently serves as the Vice President of Placement, Continuing Education and Conventions for the American Conference of Cantors-the professional organization for Cantors in North America. Additionally she is the immediate past president of the Alumni Association of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music; the institution from which she received her Masters in Sacred Music and her investiture as Cantor. She has authored articles for the Union for Reform Judaism on prayer and can be heard on many of their recordings. In November of 2010, Cantor Franco performed in concert at the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli dei Martiri in Rome. This concert will be featured in a documentary “To God’s Ears” released later this year.

But her proudest and most important accomplishments are her happy marriage to Alan and their three girls; Lael, Eden and Emory.