Temple Shalom Senior Rabbi Michael Feshbach is proud of the depth and diversity of our congregation, and remains committed to creating a Jewish community open to exploration, connecting to the wider world, and supporting the spiritual journeys of its members. A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, he came home to the Washington area and our congregation in 2001.  His High Holy Day responses to the terrorist attacks of that September were his first full-house introduction to the congregation.

Over the course of his career, Rabbi Feshbach has achieved recognition as a contemporary Reform Jewish scholar through online columns and "Ask a Rabbi" responses, both for the Union for Reform Judaism and in the early days of America Online. His numerous publications and articles include Obedience to Which Commander: An Examination of a Jewish Soldier's Right to Disobey Immoral Orders (with Peter Schaktman); In God's Image: Judaism and Homosexuality; A Name for Ourselves: On Infertility, Meaning and Hope; and In Every Generation: A Jewish Approach to Questions of Genetic Research, Testing and Screening, and Gene Therapy.

Before coming to Temple Shalom, Rabbi Feshbach served congregations in Boca Raton, Florida; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Buffalo, New York. At Temple Shalom, Rabbi Feshbach has expanded programming while assuring that the congregation maintains a sense of warmth and intimacy.

"A synagogue can be a space for the stillness that follows the storm, the voice which speaks in silence," says Rabbi Feshbach. "It should be a place for openness, of inclusiveness, welcoming Jewish families in all the varied forms in which they come today. My hope is to help create a space where energy and ideas flow together, to be a place where a thousand flowers bloom."

Rabbi Feshbach is married to Julie Novick. They have three children: Benjamin, Daniel and Talia.

Email the rabbi: rabbifeshbach@templeshalom.net

Cantor Lisa Levine is one of the leading contemporary composers and most accomplished cantors in the entire Reform Movement.  Her compositions are sung in worship across North America.

Cantor Levine's depth of spirituality and broad liturgical musical knowledge are exceeded only by her boundless energy and enthusiasm.  Current and prospective Temple Shalom congregants alike are especially attracted to "Cantor Lisa's" loving work with children, her highly successful outreach worship service for interfaith couples, her caring approach to pastoral services and her Yoga Shalom Jewish yoga worship experience.

Since her investiture in 1989, Cantor Levine has served as cantor for congregations in Dallas, Des Moines, Kansas City, Baltimore and Stamford.

"My vision of worship for Temple Shalom includes three major elements," says Cantor Levine.  "Joyful music in many different styles and modes, inclusion of bands, orchestras or small ensembles, youth, teen, adult and professional choirs - the more people, the better! - and cantors and rabbis who move off the bima and into the congregation to get people engaged, excited and involved."

Cantor Levine and her husband, Andy, are the parents of Emily and Louis.

Email the cantor: cantorlisa@templeshalom.net.

After serving Temple Shalom as Senior Rabbi for 21 years, Rabbi Emeritus Bruce Kahn retired from the full-time pulpit in 2001. Ordained in 1974, he began his rabbinical career serving two years on active duty as a chaplain in the United States Navy - an affiliation he continued as a member of the Naval Reserve, from which he retired in 2002 at the rank of captain.

In October 2003, Rabbi Kahn responded to the call of duty - and the shortage of military rabbis - by traveling to the Persian Gulf to lead Yom Kippur and Sukkot services for Jewish personnel stationed in Iraq. 

"Shalom is still my favorite word," says Rabbi Kahn. "It is derived from the word meaning wholeness. It defines religion - the quest for wholeness. It is the hub of a synagogue's wheel of being. And it describes my purpose in becoming a rabbi - to try to be a faithful servant of God who each day attempts to help people as individuals and in community move toward wholeness of being as Reform Jews."

Rabbi Kahn's inspiring commitment to service to God and country lives on within the Temple Shalom family, as children of Shalom have become both Reform rabbis and military officers.