Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson
His work includes anti-death penalty advocacy, gay/lesbian inclusion, and interfaith dialogue. In November 2009, Rabbi Davidson was honored for his interfaith efforts by the American Jewish Committee and the Westchester Jewish Council. His doctoral work will compare the story of Noah in Rabbinic, Christian and Muslim sources.
Prior to his arrival at Temple Beth El in 2002, Rabbi Davidson served for five years at Central Synagogue in New York City, advising that synagogue’s award-winning Social Action Committee. He serves on the board of directors of the Kavod Tzedakah Collective. He is a member of the Hebrew Union College President’s Rabbinic Council and the Clergy Advisory Board of Interfaith Impact of New York State, and a past board member of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America.
Rabbi Davidson was born in Great Neck, New York. He graduated from Princeton University in 1990, received a Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles in 1995, and was ordained at the New York campus in 1997. He is married to Cantor Mia Fram Davidson. They have two daughters, Helena and Mikaela.
Rabbi Davidson can be reached at 238-3928 ext. 223 or via email at rabbistudy@bethelnw.org.
In the News:
Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman
Rabbi Mitelman is the Associate Rabbi of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester. Ordained by HUC-JIR in Cincinnati in 2007, Rabbi Mitelman received The Cora Kahn Prize from the Cincinnati faculty for the most outstanding sermon delivery and oratory. While at HUC-JIR, he was the student rabbi at B’nai Israel Synagogue in Grand Forks, North Dakota and Temple Oheb Shalom in Sandusky, Ohio. Over the summers, he interned at the Union for Reform Judaism in the Department of Jewish Family Concerns, co-editing a book on congregational inclusion; gained pastoral experience at Westchester County Medical Center; and worked with teenagers at Kutz and Eisner Camps.
In addition to his practical experience, Rabbi Mitelman is also an enthusiastic scholar. He was selected by CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, to be one of twenty “Rabbis Without Borders,” a national program that seeks to position rabbis as American religious leaders and spiritual innovators who contribute Jewish wisdom to the American spiritual landscape. He was also chosen to be one of twelve rabbis in the initial group of the Balfour Brickner Fellowship, a joint program with CLAL and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism that aims to integrate Jewish textual tradition with modern social and political issues. Additionally, he represented HUC-JIR at an international interfaith study conference in Krakow, Poland entitled “Building Towards the Future: Jewish-Christian Relations in Cultural Context.”
A native of Westchester County, New York, Rabbi Mitelman grew up in Briarcliff Manor, belonged to Woodlands Community Temple in White Plains, and graduated from Hackley School in Tarrytown. A Religion and Jewish Studies major at Princeton University, he graduated in 2000 with multiple prizes for scholarship in Judaic and Biblical Studies. He is a voracious reader (especially books on science, psychology, history, and politics), and ever since he went to his first game at age seven, he has been an ardent Yankees fan.
Rabbi Mitelman can be reached at: gmitelman@bethelnw.org or at 238-3928 ext 212
From the Desk of Rabbi Mitelman
Cantor Dana S. Anesi
Cantor Dr. Dana S. Anesi is the Senior Cantor of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester. She was born in Brooklyn, NY, and grew up in Freehold, New Jersey. While in high school, she was an active member of her youth group, and a songleader for the Jersey Federation of Temple Youth - part of the youth movement of the Union for Reform Judaism. She has been a camper, staff member, and faculty member at the URJ’s Kutz Camp; a staff and faculty member at the Eisner Camp-Institute, and served on the faculty for a URJ Summer Kallah. She graduated from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s School of Sacred Music in 1980, served Temple Beth Torah in Dix Hills, NY for 2 years, and has been the cantor at Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester in Chappaqua, NY since 1982.
Cantor Anesi is immediate past chair of the HUC-JIR Council of Alumni Associations, and in 2008 became the first non-rabbinic alumnae/nus to serve on HUC-JIR’s Board of Governors. She is a past president of the Cantorial Alumni Association; a current member of the School of Sacred Music Advisory Council, and for several years chaired the Joint Cantorial Placement Commission for the URJ, which oversees the placement of cantors for the Reform movement. She received an honorary doctorate in 2005 from HUC-JIR, and earned her Doctor of Ministry degree in April, 2010, also at HUC-JIR, along with a certificate in Clinical Education for Pastoral Ministry, and is a member of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.
Cantor Anesi has one child, David Troupp, who is an attorney in New York City and is married to Agueda Foz-Garrido Troupp.
Cantor Dana Anesi can be reached at 914-238-3928, ext. 213 or via email at danesi@bethelnw.org.
Cantor Bruce Ruben
Adjunct Cantor
Cantor Bruce L. Ruben, Ph.D., is the Director of the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music (DFSSM) at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). He has taught Jewish history courses at HUC-JIR and the history of Jewish music at The Julliard School. For fifteen years he served as an adjunct professor of history at Hunter College, where he taught courses on World History, Modern Jewish History, and the Holocaust. From 1982-2006 he served as the Cantor of Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City, where he organized special music programs with professional and volunteer choirs, wrote liturgical music and commissioned and premiered new works by leading composers, taught adult education courses on the history of Jewish music, history, and liturgy, and developed innovative services for increased congregational participation. He fostered interfaith relations as a leader in the Yorkville Christian-Jewish Council, and was active for many years in community activities at a neighborhood senior citizen center.
Cantor Ruben can be reached at 914-238-3928.