MEMBERSHIP

Who can join?

Rabbis and cantors residing in North Carolina who are members of the established rabbinic and/or cantorial organizations listed below* are eligible for membership in the NCJCA.

Why join?

To join together with North Carolina clergy colleagues to promote the interests of Judaism and the Jewish people in North Carolina and throughout the world, to serve as a collective voice of the North Carolina Jewish clergy community, and to find support and lend support in professional and personal growth.

How do I join?

Click Here for application. Dues are based on a sliding scale of $36-$180 based on free will. If you'd like to make a donation to the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association to help support our programming, checks made out to the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte can be sent to: Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, 5007 Providence Road, Suite 101, Charlotte, NC 28226. You may also donate via credit card online (please add 3% to cover processing fees): jewishfederationcharlotte.givingfuel.com/ncjca.

Steering Committee

Rabbi Lucy H.F. Dinner, Raleigh, NC

Rabbi Lucy H.F. Dinner is Senior Rabbi of Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, North Carolina. In addition to serving Temple Beth Or’s vibrant congregation, she works with local and national organizations that promote social justice. Dinner is the Vice Chair of the Reform Movement’s Commission on Social Action and the Chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis Committee on Peace, Justice and Civil Rights. She serves on the Board of the Triangle Martin Luther King, Jr Committee, and the State of North Carolina Commission on Martin Luther King, Jr. She is past secretary of the board of international hunger relief's Rise Against Hunger, and past president of the Greater Carolina Association of Rabbis. She is co-chair of the multi-faith Unity in Prayer monthly gathering and has been a master teacher in the Melton Adult Education Initiative. Her Torah commentary have been published in The Women’s Torah Commentary and the URJ’s Ten Minutes of Torah. Rabbi Dinner has received recognition from several groups, including: the Jewish Federation of Raleigh Cary, the NAACP NC Chapter, the YWCA Women of Achievement, and the Women’s Club.

Rabbi Andy Koren, Greensboro, NC (Co-Chair)

Rabbi Koren became senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel, Greensboro, in 2021 after serving as director of religious education since 2003. He is a former executive director of NC Hillel (1993-95). In addition to his social justice, interfaith, educational, and civic work, he serves on the steering committee of the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association.

Rabbi Judy Schindler, Charlotte, NC (Immediate Past Co-Chair)

Rabbi Judy Schindler has served North Carolina as a rabbi since 1998. She is rabbi emerita of Charlotte’s Temple Beth El, Sklut professor of Jewish studies and director of the Stan Greenspon Holocaust and Social Justice Education Center at Queens University of Charlotte.

Rabbi Eric Solomon, Raleigh, NC

Rabbi Eric Solomon has served North Carolina as a rabbi since 2005. He is senior rabbi of Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh, serves on the City of Raleigh Human Relations Commission and on the Interfaith I-CARE Team of the Raleigh Police Department.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, Winston-Salem, NC

Charlie Cytron-Walker became the new rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Winston-Salem, NC on July 1, 2022, where he continues working to bring a sense of spirituality, compassion, and learning into the lives of the community.
He is a past President of the Southwest Association of Reform Rabbis and served on the steering committee of Peace Together. In 2022, he was honored as a Hero Against Hate by the Texoma Anti-Defamation League and currently serves as a Special Advisor to the ADL.
He previously served at Congregation Beth Israel (CBI) in Colleyville, TX since 2006. On January 15, 2022 Rabbi Charlie and three CBI congregants were held hostage by a gunman in the CBI sanctuary. After an 11-hour standoff, all the hostages were able to escape when Rabbi Charlie threw a chair at the gunman, distracting him long enough for everyone to get out of the building. Since then, he has spoken at the White House, testified before Congress, and has been published in numerous news sources.

cytronwalker@gmail.com

Rabbi Daniel Greyber, Durham, NC

Rabbi Greyber serves Beth El Synagogue in Durham, NC, a Conservative and Orthodox synagogue. Rabbi Greyber is author of Faith Unravels: A Rabbi’s Struggle with Grief and God. Formerly a Jerusalem Fellow at the Mandel Leadership Institute, faculty member at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles, and Executive Director of Camp Ramah in California.

Cantor Shira Lissek, Charlotte, NC

Cantor Lissek became cantor of Temple Israel in July 2018 after serving as Associate Cantor of Park Avenue Synagogue in NYC since 2013. Cantor Lissek earned a Masters in Music from the Manhattan School of Music, and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Indiana University School of Music. Prior to Park Avenue Synagogue, she served as Hazzan and music director of Congregation Mount Sinai in Brooklyn Heights for six years.

Rabbi Emily Losben-Ostrov, Wilimington, NC

Rabbi Emily Losben-Ostrov serve as the spiritual leader of Temple of Israel in Wilmington. Prior to that, she served as Rabbi of Anshe Hesed in Erie, PA for three years. She served as the Rabbi of Sinai Reform Temple in Bay Shore, New York (Long Island) for seven years following her ordination from HUC-JIR. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Xavier University and a Master’s Degree from HUC-JIR in “Hebrew Letters.”

Rabbi Batsheva Meiri, Asheville, NC

Rabbi Meiri has served as the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth HaTephila in Asheville, North Carolina since 2008. In 2009, she was honored with the title of Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute after 4 years of intensive summer and winter study retreats in Jerusalem. Since then, Rabbi Meiri has turned her rabbinic focus both personally and professionally to Jewish spirituality and meditation.
Rabbi Melissa B. Simon is the Senior Jewish Educator and Rabbi at UNC-Chapel Hill, providing students with rabbinic support, facilitating students’ meaningful Jewish experiences and playing a central role in crafting the Jewish educational vision for UNC Hillel. Prior to joining the North Carolina Hillel team, Rabbi Simon was the Jewish Chaplain and Hillel Director at Muhlenberg College and the Director of Lifelong Learning at Shir Tikvah, a Reform synagogue in Minneapolis, MN.

Rabbi Melissa Simon, Chapel Hill, NC

Rabbi Melissa B. Simon is the Senior Jewish Educator and Rabbi at UNC-Chapel Hill, providing students with rabbinic support, facilitating students’ meaningful Jewish experiences and playing a central role in crafting the Jewish educational vision for UNC Hillel. Prior to joining the North Carolina Hillel team, Rabbi Simon was the Jewish Chaplain and Hillel Director at Muhlenberg College and the Director of Lifelong Learning at Shir Tikvah, a Reform synagogue in Minneapolis, MN. Rabbi Simon received Master’s Degrees in Jewish Education and Hebrew Letters and was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. While a student at HUC-JIR, Rabbi Simon was named a Mandel Fellow, studying visionary leadership and Jewish education. Rabbi Simon received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College. Rabbi Simon served as the Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinic Intern and Director of Children’s Education at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York and the Rabbinic Intern at Dension University in Ohio. Rabbi Simon has been named a Selah Fellow with Bend the Arc and a Rabbis Without Borders Fellow with CLAL. She is passionate about Jewish education, social justice, inclusive Jewish communities and empowering young people.

Rabbi Matthew Soffer, Durham, NC

Rabbi Matthew Soffer is the Senior Rabbi of Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, N.C., where he leads a community of over 650 families through the cycles of an engaged,
pluralistic, and modern Jewish life.

As a writer, musician, and community organizer, his rabbinate is informed by the belief that friendship and love are Jewish values, life is precious, and Judaism exists for the purpose of improving the human condition - both individually and systemically. Rabbi
Soffer has provided years of pastoral care as well as ritual innovation and he is devoted to mining ancient texts for meaning with an embrace of challenging questions.
Rabbi Soffer was ordained by HUC-JIR, where he earned an M.A. in Hebrew Literature
and was in the inaugural class of the Tisch Rabbinical Fellowship. He graduated Phi Beta
Kappa from Muhlenberg College with a degree in English Literature. His formative Jewish
learning developed at URJ Camp Harlam, where he experienced Judaism as a way of living meaningfully, rather than a conventional religion.

Prior to joining Judea Reform Congregation Rabbi Soffer, was the Senior Associate Rabbi
of Temple Israel of Boston, the largest Reform Temple in New English, where he directed the Riverway Project, led its social justice work through its community organizing arm (“Tikkun Central”), and founded and directed the Village for Families with Young
Children, a project that has touched thousands of families with the blessings of Judaism.
Rabbi Soffer joined Judea Reform Congregation in 2019 as its Senior Rabbi. His
leadership blends humor, compassion, and creativity. He currently serves on the Strategy
Team of DurhamCAN, the Board of Jewish for Good (Jewish Federation), and is on the Board of the North Carolina Jewish Clergy Association. He is committed to building
personal and communal interfaith relationships that empower and enrich progressive coalitions in the South.

Rabbi Soffer diversifies the experience of Jewish practice through musical composition, performance, and even his stand-up comedy troupe called Three Rabbis Walk into a Bar.
He has been recognized by Newsweek/Daily Beast as one of “10 Rabbis to Watch,” and
he was selected as one of the Religious Action Center’s “50 Faces of Justice.”

*Members in these organizations are eligible for membership: Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbinical Council of America, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Clergy and Alumni of the Academy of Jewish Religion, CA, Alumni Association of Hebrew College Rabbinical School and Cantorial School, International Rabbinic Fellowship, OHALAH (for rabbis who received ordination from the ALEPH Institute), The American Conference of Cantors, The Cantors Assembly, The Association of Rabbis and Cantors, Alumni of the Academy of Jewish Religion New York, and the Tel Aviv Cantorial Institute.