Rabbinical Advisors

RABBI JIM MORGAN

Rabbi Jim Morgan joined the Worship and Study Minyan as rabbinic advisor in January 2012. He received his Rabbinic ordination from Hebrew College in Newton, where he focused on developing a vision for pluralistic Jewish communities and spirit-filled davvening (praying). He also holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Yale University, where he wrote his dissertation on early 19th-Century Russian poetry.

Rabbi Jim also serves as Community Rabbi and Chaplain for Center Communities of Brookline, a part of Hebrew SeniorLife (HSL). He is also the Russian-speaking Chaplain at HSL’s Long-term Chronic Care Hospital in Roslindale. In all of his roles, Rabbi Jim teaches Torah; leads prayer; performs pastoral duties; and creates Shabbat, holiday, and other programs. Previously, he served as Spiritual Counselor for the Elder Service Plan, a PACE program at Harbor Health Services in Mattapan and as Director of International Partnerships for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, where he facilitated collaborative programs in Israel and Ukraine as well as Boston-based Israel engagement.

Please contact Rabbi Jim at RabbiJim@WorshipandStudy.org.

Rabbi Norman Janis, Emeritus

Rabbi Norman Janis was one of the founding members of the Worship & Study Minyan and was its rabbinic advisor from 2000 to 2011. He earned a PhD from the Harvard Linguistics Department with a dissertation on the cantillation of the Hebrew Bible, and he has served as Dean of Rabbinical Student Life at Hebrew College. He was a long time friend, student, and colleague of Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold, the founder of our congregation. You can learn more about Rabbi Janis at his website: https://www.normanjanis.com/

Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold of Blessed Memory, Founder

Director of Harvard Hillel from 1958 until 1990, Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold founded our congregation in the late 1960s and served for many years as its rabbinic advisor. Upon retiring, he became Director Emeritus of Harvard Hillel and continued as an active member of our congregation until his death in 2016. Rabbi Gold was raised in a traditional Orthodox home in Poland, where he studied in the Preparatory of the famous Yeshivat Chachmey Lublin. He received his rabbinical ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Rabbi Gold’s first book, Tradition and Contemporary Reality (1990), is a compilation of his sermons and talks. His second, The Life of Jews in Poland Before the Holocaust (2005; pbk 2013), recalls the vibrant and vital community in which he grew up.

Beginning in 1976 and continuing until 2012, when he was 88 years old, with the assistance of Jane Myers, Rabbi Gold recorded 25 songs and nigunim (melodies) that he remembered from his youth. Many of these tunes had not been recorded elsewhere. If not for Rabbi Gold’s survival and his prodigious musical memory, this music may have been lost forever.

These recordings of Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold have been edited and compiled on a CD, together with commentary by Jane Myers, along with the text and translations of the Yiddish and Hebrew songs. CDs can be purchased by contacting Jane at janemyers18@gmail.com.

With help from Christa Whitney of the Yiddish Book Center, Jane created a website, rabbibenziongold.com, an extensive and rich resource to support learning and discussion about the life and legacy of Rabbi Gold. This website includes archival photos, his writing and teachings, audio and musical recordings, his vision for Jewish life at Harvard, and much more.