Rabbi Barry L Schwartz was ordained at the Hebrew Union College in New York in 1985 and served previous pulpits in Amherst, New York, Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He began his career in Israel, as rabbi of the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa.
Rabbi Schwartz is actively involved in Jewish environmentalism. He was a founding member of the Washington, D.C. chapter of Shomrei Adamah, the first national Jewish environmental organization. He serves on the grassroots advisory committee of COEJL, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and helps lead the Environment Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Rabbi Schwartz is a prolific writer, the author of three books, a prize winning short story, and articles that have appeared in the Journal of Reform Judaism, American Jewish History, and the Hebrew Union College Annual. His latest textbook, Jewish Heroes, Jewish Values, (1996) is currently used in over 300 religious schools nationwide. A previous text Jewish Theology: A Comparative Study (1991) explores Jewish denominational thinking. Honi The Circlemaker – Eco-Fables From Ancient Israel (1993) is a series of folktales for children.
Rabbi Schwartz enjoys hiking, cycling and photography. He is an avid tennis and table tennis player. He is married to Deborah A. Schwartz, an occupational therapist specializing in hand rehabilitation. Their three children are Nadav, Talia, and Noam.
Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz Congregation Adas Emuno 254 Broad Avenue Leonia, NJ 07605 201-592-1712 RabbiSchwartz@adasemuno.org
Jennifer Katz-Goldstein joined Congregation Adas Emuno in 2006 following seven years as the Religious School Director at Temple Israel of the City of New York in Manhattan.Prior to that, Jennifer was the Director of Israel Teen Programs at the JCC Association in New York City.In addition, Jennifer has over 16 years of experience in informal Jewish education which includes teaching in religious schools, working at Eisner Camp (one of the Reform movement summer camps) and serving as a youth director.
Since at Adas Emuno Jennifer has re-structured the curriculum and begun a confirmation program for students in grades 8-10.She has the pleasure of teaching/supervising confirmation which includes bi-monthly classes along with community service in the form of assisting in teaching or helping in the religious school.
Jennifer believes strongly that the religious school should “be a place where our children have positive Jewish experiences, we are not about memorizing names, dates and Hebrew lines. We want our students to enjoy being here and leave happy, inspired and feeling good about being Jewish!â€
Jennifer is a graduate of the State University of New York at New Paltz where she earned her B.A. in History and of Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work where she earned her Master's Degree in Social Work.
Student Cantor Luke Hawley
Luke Hawley is currently in his final year of studies at the Hebrew Union Colllege/Jewish Institute of Religion School of Sacred Music in New York, and lives in Astoria, Queens. He grew up in Northbrook, Illinois and lived in Chicago for about twenty years after studying Art History in college. Luke studied at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem for two years before entering HUC. Previously he had a career as systems analyst working for companies such as Motorola and Sears. For the past three years he was the student cantor for the Garden City Jewish Center in Garden City, Long Island.
