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Norman Mark Klein, the rabbi of Sinai Temple since August 1, 1995, was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1985. He was rabbi of Temple Ohav Shalom, Allison Park, PA, in the north hills of Pittsburgh from 1985 to 1991, and the rabbi of Temple Rodef Shalom, Waco, Texas, from 1991 to 1995. Rabbi Klein came to the rabbinic school with an interest in literature, having done graduate work at Indiana University, Bloomington (A.B.D. in the Ph.D. program of the English Department), his thesis work on the subject of the interaction of character and place in contemporary novels set in exotic places. His rabbinic thesis focused on a contemporary Israeli novel. Under Rabbi Klein's tenure at Sinai Temple, the congregation has instituted, among other things, Mitzvah Day (social action in the community), Mitzvot Committees (acts of loving-kindness within the community), a congregational trip to Israel, and a variety of minyanim so that there is now a service every Shabbat morning as well as Erev Shabbat. Just elected as second vice president of the MWARR (Midwest Association of Reform Rabbis), Rabbi Klein is also active in CARR (Chicago Association of Reform Rabbis), the Chicago Board of Rabbis, and ecumenical organizations in Champaign-Urbana. Andrea Klein, Ph.D., Rabbi Klein's wife, is a clinical psychologist, and they have two children, Samuel and Sarah.
Rabbi Neuman is a survivor of six Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and Mauthausen. Neuman was a slave laborer for the Nazis and German munitions companies during a portion of his four years in various camps. Neuman's parents, six sisters and a younger brother all perished in the Holocaust. Rabbi Neuman was liberated at Ebensee, Austria by American soldiers of the 11th Armored Division in May of 1945. He arrived in the United States in 1950 with no family, no assets, and little knowledge of English. Thanks to a scholarship from the the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, Rabbi Neuman was able to earn a bachelors degree from the University of Cincinnati, and Bachelor and Master of Arts and Hebrew of Letters degrees from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where he was ordained as a rabbi. Rabbi Neuman served as a pulpit rabbi in the Republic of Panana, Alabama, Iowa, Illinois, and California over the course of 28 years. For twenty-five years, Neuman served as an auxiliary chaplain in the United States Armed Forces. In 1985, Rabbi Neuman was awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree from Hebrew Union College. Rabbi Neuman has also been active in interfaith and civil rights activities, serving as President of both the Cedar Rapids Conference of Clergy and the Champaign-Urbana Ministerial Association. He participated in the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama with the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rabbi Neuman also served as Chief Rabbi of the German Democratic Republic from 1987 to 1988. President Ronald Reagan appointed Rabbi Neuman to a six-year term on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in 1985. Rabbi Neuman is the author of a memoir, THE NARROW BRIDGE: Beyond the Holocaust, published by the University of Illinois Press. |
Isaac Neuman is Rabbi Emeritus at Sinai Temple. Rabbi Neuman was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland in 1922. He studied at three European Talmudic Academies, Eitz Chaim in Kalisz, Emek Halacha in Warsaw, and Yeshivat Chachmei in Lublin, before the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939.Copyright © 2003-2006 Sinai Temple. All rights reserved. This Web site is published by Sinai Temple, Champaign, Illinois. |