Senior Rabbi: Steven M. Bob
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Rabbi
Steven M. Bob has served as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim since 1981
and has played a key role in making Congregation Etz Chaim the warm welcoming
community that it is. His delight in Torah, his sense of humor and fun, his
love of teaching and learning, and his ability to connect with congregants of
all ages are some of the gifts he brings to his role.
Rabbi Bob
was ordained in 1977, after earning his B.A. at the University of
Minnesota and his M.A. at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He received
the Doctor of Divinity degree from the Hebrew Union College in 2002.
In addition
to his activities at Etz Chaim, Rabbi Bob is currently an adjunct faculty
member at Wheaton College and Elmhurst College, where he is also a founder of
the Holocaust Education Program. He is a leader of the faculty of
Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute and a recipient of the Samuel Cook Award for
Lifetime Achievement in Youth Work.
Rabbi Bob’s book, “Go to Nineveh, Commentaries of Rashi,
Abraham Ibn Ezra, David Kimchi, Isaac Abarbanel and the Malbim to the Book of
Jonah, Translated and Explained” will be published in November by Wimpf and
Stock. He is
recognized as an expert on Yom HaShoah.
Rabbi Bob's
involvement and leadership in the wider community include chairing the DuPage
Interfaith Resource Network. He also served as Recording Secretary of the
Central Conference of American Rabbis. Rabbi Bob is a Past President of the
Chicago Association of Reform Rabbis as well as the Elmhurst Ministerium. Rabbi
Bob is a member of the Board of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Ha'aretz
named Rabbi Bob as one of the 36 American Jews who helped shape the 2008
Presidential election. Rabbi Bob is the founder of the Fourth Day Initiative,
an interfaith solar energy project.