Rabbi Cara Weinstein Rosenthal joined the Melville Jewish Center on August 1, 2024 as our spiritual leader.
Rabbi Cara Weinstein Rosenthal is a dynamic, engagement-focused rabbi who has dedicated her rabbinate to creating Jewish communities that are warm, vibrant, and inclusive. Rabbi Rosenthal’s rabbinic work focuses on outreach, family and adult education, social action, and relationship-building. She is passionate about creating innovative synagogue programs that speak to the spiritual, intellectual, and social needs of today’s Jewish community and that offer a multiplicity of ways to engage with synagogue life.
When Rabbi Rosenthal was first ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2003, she was drawn to the pulpit rabbinate, and served as Rabbi for Congregation B’nai Israel in Freeport, NY for three years. After this initial position, Rabbi Rosenthal followed her interests in education and outreach down a path that led her to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, where she served as the organization’s Family Engagement Specialist for over 10 years. In this role she guided congregations across North America in creating original programming tailored to the needs of families with young children as well as interfaith families.
After serving in this capacity for over a decade, Rabbi Rosenthal was inspired to return to her first love, the pulpit rabbinate, bringing with her the skills and insights that she gained through her work with the wider Jewish community. She joined Temple Beth Sholom in Roslyn Heights in 2013 initially as their High Holiday Rabbi-in-Residence, and eventually as their Associate Rabbi. Aside from her role as a spiritual leader, Rabbi Rosenthal spearheaded original programs such as “Cooking with the Clergy” and the TBS Holy Hikers group. She also revitalized TBS’s Social Action Committee and led the congregation in learning about and advocating for issues such as racial justice, reproductive rights, inclusion, and support for Israel.
Rabbi Rosenthal’s motto for Jewish living and learning comes from Psalm 100, which reminds us to “serve God with joy” – “ivdu et Hashem b’simcha.” This teaching is at the heart of Rabbi Rosenthal’s goal to create a joyful, welcoming, and warm synagogue community in which each individual feels at home.
Rabbi Rosenthal is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where her coursework focused on Psychology, English, and Religious Studies. She resides in Melville with her husband, David, and their children, Sara, and Eli. Rabbi Rosenthal loves Indian food, can often be heard quoting song lyrics, and proudly considers herself “The World’s Okayest Hiker”. She is thrilled to be joining the Melville Jewish Center as the congregation’s Rabbi and spiritual leader, and becoming an integral member of both the Melville Jewish community and its surrounding areas.
Cantor Leah officially joined our Melville JC family on August 1, 2023.
Dr. Leah F. Cassorla was born in Israel and raised both there and in the US. The third of four siblings, Cantor Leah is currently studying for dual ordination as Cantor-Rabbi at the Academy for Jewish Religion, which will make her the 9th generation of rabbis on her father’s side. With an equal lineage of military service on her mother’s side, Cantor Leah served at the Naval Academy in the US and in the National Service program in Israel. As an adult in Israel, she
had the opportunity to study jazz at Rimon School of Music, the only worldwide partner to the Berklee School of Music in Boston, MA. Cantor Leah has worked as an educator in higher education as well as in religious education for more than two decades. She works hard to bring compassion, curiosity, and joy to her teaching, modeling for her students the love she has for lifelong learning and for Judaism, both of which were fed from a young age by her studies at the Phoenix Hebrew Academy, as well as her father’s pulpit, where she was given the opportunity to teach and to practice Hazzanut (prayer leading). It is in leading prayer and in teaching that Cantor Leah finds her greatest joys. Cantor Leah is accompanied by her therapy dog, Boobah, a 10 (ish) year old, one-eyed, Lhasa-Apso-Shih-Tzu mix her students often turn to for comfort and calm.
Cantor Leah Cassorla was featured in Newsday. Read here.
Rabbi Jacknis brought his love of Judaism and unique blend of warmth and spirituality to South Huntington Jewish Center in the summer of 1993, and quickly became known, both inside the synagogue and throughout the surrounding communities, as being welcoming, responsive, insightful and compassionate. During his tenure he fostered a renewed feeling of unity and enthusiasm in the congregation. Shabbat services, especially, were infused with his special spirit. He brought a variety of new initiatives to SHJC.
We wish Rabbi Jacknis and his beloved wife, Suri, a retirement filled with good times, good health and love of family and friends.
Our synagogue is honoring the legacy of the Jacknis family with the naming of our library and youth lounge The Rabbi Ian S. And Suri Jacknis Library and Youth Lounge. For more information, click here.
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