Rabbinical Candidate Interview Weekends
The Rabbi Search Committee has be active and very busy for the past 6 months. Many of you participated in the survey that we sent out and with the in person and the online Town Hall Meetings. Now the hard work is coming to fruition.
We have interviewed several rabbinical candidates and narrowed our selection to the top candidates.
Over the first few weeks of January, we will be welcoming different rabbi candidates to CNT to lead Shabbat Services and to meet with the community. We would love for you to join either in-person or on Zoom. Please see the schedule below for relevant times, links, and locations
We have interviewed several rabbinical candidates and narrowed our selection to the top candidates.
To date, we have two confirmed weekends:
We are hosted Rabbi Tal Sessler the weekend of January 7th-9th.
We are hosting Rabbi Mathew Marko the weekend of January 14th-16th.
Please try to attend services or participate in any manner that you can. Your feedback is an essential part of the process, and will help us to finalize our recommendation.
Thank you,
Bruce Levine, Chair of the Rabbi Search Committee of Congregation Ner Tamid
Daniel Klerman, President, Congregation Ner Tamid
Rabbi Search Committee Members: Adam Feingold, Warren Sterling, Steve Rome, Sebastian Kessel, Edna Hyatt, Michelle Finkel
Katie Hubert Vanderhal, Amy Ball, Steve Gold and, Jerry Sisk.
Rabbi Tal Sessler
We hosted Rabbi Tal Sessler the weekend of January 7th-9th.
Thank you for joining us. Please CLICK HERE to take a brief survey to share your input about Rabbi Sessler.
Zoom recordings:
Friday, January 7th Shabbat Services - CLICK HERE to view the service.
Saturday, January 8th Shabbat Services - CLICK HERE to view the service.
Tal Sessler bio:
Rabbi Tal Sessler was educated in Tel Aviv, London, Paris and New York. He holds a doctorate in philosophy, and is also the author of four books dealing with philosophy and contemporary Jewish identity. A public speaker and spiritual leader, Rabbi Sessler served leading communities in the East and West Coasts, and is currently the Dean of the Rabbinical School at the Academy for Jewish Religion.
Rabbi Mathew Marko
We hosted Rabbi Mathew Marko the weekend of January 14th-16th.
Thank you for joining us. Please CLICK HERE to take a brief survey to share your input about Rabbi Marko.
Zoom recordings:
Friday, January 14th Shabbat Services - CLICK HERE to view the service.
Saturday, January 15th Shabbat Services - CLICK HERE to view the service.
Mathew Marko's bio:
Rabbi Mathew Marko has been serving as Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel of Greenville, SC for 6 years. He hails from Brooklyn NY and spent 20 years in Los Angeles. His career adventures have included acting professionally at the Hippodrome State Theatre in Florida, various theaters in New York City, and The Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, development and fundraising, teaching students as a much-demanded substitute teacher in LA’s school district, and the proprietor of a fine carpentry and custom furniture shop in Los Angeles. This is all precedent to realizing his calling: Torah, Jewish community, tradition balanced with spiritual modernism, social justice and Israel.
Rabbi Matt has also been combining his love of Torah and creativity in teaching nagarut/woodshop at Camp Ramah for the past 9 years, as well as custom crafting sacred synagogue furniture in his spare time.
Rabbi Matt holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater Performance from the University of Florida at Gainesville with a minor in Hebrew. He earned his Master of Arts in Rabbinic Literature and rabbinic ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.
Rabbi Matt’s other interests include scuba diving (certified instructor), sky diving, bicycling, motorcycling, playing music, traveling the world, and being a creative kosher chef of international cuisine (what he dubs “kosher treiff”).
Rabbi Matt owes his success to the support of his best friend and wife Marie. Marie and Matt are absolutely thrilled at the possibility of permanently relocating back to beautiful southern California.