Rabbi Deborah Zecher serves as senior rabbi and leader of music at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire in Great Barrington, MA.  She has been with Hevreh since 1992 and feels privileged to have shared in the growth and development of this wonderful and welcoming community.  She is a graduate of Brandeis University and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York in 1982.  Rabbi Zecher has also served congregations in Scarsdale, NY, Washington, DC and Germantown, MD in addition to working as a chaplain at American University and Williams College. 

Rabbi Zecher is currently a member of the Board of Governors of HUC-JIR and serves as president of the Rabbinic Alumni Association of HUC-JIR.  She previously served as Recording Secretary of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and was also a member of the Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now the Union for Reform Judaism).  She is a member of the Commission on Worship, Music and Religious Living and currently serves as the co-chair of the Music Think Tank for the Commission.  In 2003, Rabbi Zecher was honored to be chosen as one of the sh’lichei tzibor (leader of worship) for the URJ Biennial Shabbat morning service, the first time a rabbi was chosen to share musical responsibilities for this service.   She is a past national co-coordinator of the Women’s Rabbinic Network and served several terms on the board of the Women’s Interfaith Institute of the Berkshires.  Rabbi Zecher is a past president of the Southern Berkshire Interfaith Clergy Association.  She especially enjoys her work as a mentor to several rabbis and rabbinic students in programs sponsored by the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Hebrew Union College.

She is an associate member of the American Conference of Cantors and studies voice privately with Marjory Fuller.  Together with Hevreh’s choir, Rabbi Zecher appears on Shira vaShevach:  Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving, a CD of Shabbat and Festival Music.  Rabbi Zecher is the creator and one of the performers of Broadway Bible, a musical show featuring well-known Bible stories and Broadway songs.

Rabbi Zecher lives in Lenox, MA with her husband, Rabbi Dennis Ross and their three children, Joshua, Adam and Miriam.

 

Rabbi Ari Rosenberg has joined Hevreh as the new Assistant Rabbi.

Rabbi Rosenberg graduated from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati on May 31, 2008.  As a student, Rabbi Rosenberg served pulpits at Beth Isaac in Trenton, Michigan; Ohev Israel in Newark, Ohio, and Anshe Emeth in Piqua, Ohio.  While in Cincinnati, he was the Junior Youth Coordinator for "Tzur Shalom," a joint program between Rockdale Temple and Temple Sholom.  He also has had summer internships with both Rockdale Temple and Temple Sholom.

Rosenberg served a term as co-president of "ARZA" on campus at HUC, and was involved with "Rabbis for Human Rights-North America."

He grew up in Waterford, CT and attended Temple Emanu-El, where his father, Rabbi Aaron Rosenberg, has been the rabbi for 28 years.  He received his undergraduate degree from Rutgers in 1996.  

Rabbi Rosenberg is married to Dana Katz and has two children.
 

Paula Hellman - Educational Director and Family Educator

Paula has been active in jewish Education for the past sixteen years.  Before assuming the position of Religious School Director at Hevreh in 1997, she taught religious school at Temple Anshe Amunim in Pittsfield and at Hevreh (when Hevreh's school first began).  She was Elderhostel Coordinator and instructor at the Eisner Camp Institute Elderhostel program for eight years.

Paula brings her joy and love of Judaism into her relationships with parents, teachers and students at Hevreh.