Join us as we celebrate 50 years in the rabbinate of our members from the RRC class of 1975.
On Wednesday, December 4, 2024, we will honor Rabbi Lee Friedlander, where he will reflect on his 50 years in the rabbinate with a public virtual presentation. At the conclusion of the presentation, we will present Rabbi Friedlander with a signed and numbered art print commissioned for this occasion.
The entire RRA membership, Reconstructing Judaism’s Board of Governors, RRC Faculty, RRC student body & larger Reconstructionist community are invited to join us for these free public programs and celebrations.
Rabbi Lee Friedlander is a native Philadelphian who was raised by secular Jewish parents and was educated in an Orthodox day school. These contrasting experiences have informed his wide-tent approach to Jewish life. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (’75), he has served as the Reconstructionist Movement as “Readings” co-editor (along with Deborah Brin) of the Reconstructionist Prayerbook series, and as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. It was under his presidency, thanks to the work of Executive Director Bob Gluck, that the Association fully enfranchised gay, lesbian and transgender Jews in all ritual and liturgical practices including marriage – the first Jewish denominational movement to o so, and more than twenty years before it was legally sanctioned by the Supreme Court.
Connecting people to one another and to the culture and history, and to the folkways and customs of the Jewish People has been the guiding directive of Lee’s rabbinate. For him, belonging is Judaism’s first principle. He understands that despite vast differences in observance and belief, what has kept Jews together throughout the millennia is a sense of fellowship and responsibility for one another. Lee fosters that spirit of community and obligation in all his work while bringing the fulness of Jewish expression – art, music, food, poetry – to every service and seminar. He feels fortunate to have brought so many people together in these ways at the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore on Long Island since the beginning of his tenure in 1981.
Lee is father of daughters Sara and Ruthie, father-in-law of Matthew and Steven, and grandfather of Helaina, Isaac and Tallulah. He is a man who is truly happy with his lot.
