Born in Buenos Aires in 1962, Rabbi Bergman holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutics from the University of Buenos Aires, and three Master’s degrees: in Education from The Hebrew University, in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Jerusalem, and in Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Jerusalem.

He was ordained at the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary of Buenos Aires in 1992, and HUC-JIR in Jerusalem in 1993. He is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbi (CCAR) and a graduate of the Jewish Agency’s Jerusalem Fellows program.

Founder of the Arlene Fern Community School in Buenos Aires, Rabbi Bergman is well-known for his innovative and inspirational socio-educational and religious projects with Fundación Judaica. He serves as Rabbi at Templo Libertad, Argentina’s first Synagogue.

Rabbi Bergman began his career as a community leader at Emanu El, epicenter of Argentina’s Reform Movement. In 2011, he became the first rabbi ever elected to public office in Argentina and served as representative of the City of Buenos Aires. In 2013, he was elected to represent the city at the nation’s congress and in 2015, President Mauricio Macri named him Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, a position he held until the end of President Macri’s term in 2019.

Named one of the world’s 100 most influential leaders in the fight against climate change, Rabbi Bergman has received numerous international distinctions and awards. He has authored seven books, is a distinguished speaker on issues of social justice and human rights, and a strong exponent of civil discourse.

Charlie Bresler is the co-founder of The Life You Can Save.

After earning a PhD in Social and Clinical Psychology from Clark University, Charlie became Director of Behavioral Medicine for The California School of Professional Psychology, Fresno (CSPP-F), where he was a full-time professor and founder of a teaching clinic for treating anxiety & stress disorders. He was recruited to The Men’s Wearhouse where he became head of human resources, stores, and marketing and ultimately President. He stepped down in order to fulfill his long-standing desire to work directly on social and economic issues.

In 2013, Charlie became volunteer Executive Director of The Life You Can Save, a non-profit dedicated to reducing extreme poverty and its devastating effects on over 700 million people globally. Through his financial support and leadership, Charlie has helped TLYCS’s Founder, Peter Singer, develop the organization from the ground up. In February, 2021, Charlie stepped down as Executive Director, but remains an active major donor, and Board member with a focus on fundraising, marketing communications and strategy.

Charlie lives in Washington State with his wife Diana, a family physician, who partners in supporting The Life You Can Save.

He welcomes discussion and questions at:

 charlie@thelifeyoucansave.org

Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. He grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill and his PhD from Harvard. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has also taught at Stanford and MIT. He has won numerous prizes for his research, his teaching, and his books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature, The Sense of Style, and Enlightenment Now.

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Humanist of the Year, a recipient of nine honorary doctorates, and one of Foreign Policy’s “World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He was Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for The New York Times, The Guardian, and other publications. His twelfth book, to be published in September 2021, is called Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters.

Peter Singer is one of the world's most influential living philosophers.

Author, co-author, and editor of more than fifty books on a range of topics, he is best known for Animal Liberation, often credited with starting the modern animal rights movement, and for The Life You Can Save, which led him to found the charity of the same name. His other books include Practical Ethics, The Most Good You Can Do, and, with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek, Utilitarianism: A Very Short Introduction.  

Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946 and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States, and Australia, in 1999 he became Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. In 2005, TIME named him one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.

(Photo credit: Alletta Vaandering)

Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Carole Sterling has dedicated many years to leading and volunteering for significant Jewish organizations in Canada, North America, and the world.

Before joining the World Union for Progressive Judaism as Chair in 2015, Carole served as President of the Canadian Council for Reform Judaism, Chair of the Women’s Campaign for UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, Chair of the URJ Biennial in 2011. She is an active board member of Rachael’s Centre for Torah and Mussar, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, the Union for Reform Judaism, and ARZA Canada.

A graduate of the Wexner Heritage Program, Carole has been recognized for her leadership with numerous awards including the Granovsky Award for Campaign Excellence, the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto Young Leadership Award, and the United Israel Appeal Leadership Award.

A graduate of McGill University, with a BA and Diploma in Secondary Education, Carole currently resides in Toronto with her husband, Jay, and their family. They are also active members of Holy Blossom Temple.

Adam Azari is the founder and head of the Jewish Effective Giving Initiative.

After closely following the Effective Altruism movement for several years, Adam realized that Progressive Judaism could play an important part in the fight against extreme global poverty and decided to dedicate himself to helping rabbis and Jewish leaders save and substantially improve lives in the developing world.

Adam grew up at the Beit Daniel congregation in Tel Aviv, and he holds a Master’s degree in Philosophy from Tel Aviv University. In the past, he has worked as an editor, a teacher, and a caretaker for mentally disabled people.

Yael Splansky is the Senior Rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto’s first synagogue.

From the Boston area, she came to Toronto in 1998 after ordination from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. She became the thirteenth Senior Rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in 2014. Under her leadership, the congregation enjoys a Renewal of Space and Spirit.

Rabbi Splansky is a past chair of the Reform Rabbis of Greater Toronto and currently serves as a Vice President of the Toronto Board of Rabbis. She sits on the President’s Rabbinic Advisory Council of Hebrew Union College and recently served as a Vice President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Currently, she enjoys a four-year Rabbinic Study Fellowship with The Shalom Hartman Institute of Jerusalem.

Her husband, Professor Adam Sol, is an award-winning poet who teaches Literature and Creative Writing at The University of Toronto. Together they raise their three sons.

Rabbi Splansky has the unique privilege of being a fourth-generation Reform Rabbi.

Joshua D. Greene is Professor of Psychology and a member of the Center for Brain Science faculty at Harvard University.

Much of his research has focused on the psychology and neuroscience of moral judgment, examining the interplay between emotion and reason in moral dilemmas. More recent work studies critical features of individual and collective intelligence. His current neuroscientific research examines how the brain combines concepts to form thoughts and how thoughts are manipulated in reasoning and imagination. His current behavioral research examines strategies for improved social decision-making and the alleviation of intergroup conflict. Other interests include effective altruism and the social implications of advancing artificial intelligence.

His honors include the Stanton Prize from the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and Harvard’s Roslyn Abramson Award for teaching. He has been voted a “Favorite Professor” by several of Harvard College’s graduating classes.

Greene studied philosophy at Harvard (A.B., 1997) and Princeton (Ph.D., 2002), where he worked with David Lewis and Gilbert Harman. From 2002 to 2006 he trained as a postdoctoral researcher with Jonathan Cohen in the Neuroscience of Cognitive Control Lab and at the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior, which is now the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.

Greene is the author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them.

(Photo credit: Stephanie Mitchell, Harvard University)

Rabbi Shoshanah Conover is the 8th Senior Rabbi of Temple Sholom of Chicago in its 152-year history.  She earned a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dean’s List, Cum Laude. Her love of the Jewish people and Jewish texts, as well as a strong commitment to social justice, led her to rabbinical school. 

Rabbi Conover is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute.  She serves on the Steering Committee of the Chicago Status of Women and Girls Working Group and is 

in the founding cohort of the Aspen Institute’s Powering Pluralism Network, a national network of faith, civic, and academic thought-leaders who seek to weave a stronger fabric of civility in our national dialogue through institutions of faith.

Rabbi Conover was honored to receive AVODAH’s Partner in Tzedek Award and the Chicago Board of Rabbis’ Rabbi Mordecai Simon Memorial Award as well as being a featured speaker at the Women’s March on Chicago 2017.  She enjoys co-hosting a podcast on Jewish and Israeli films called The Chosen Films.  Her poems and essays have been published in numerous collections including A Life of Meaning: Embracing Reform Judaism's Sacred Path, Seven Days, Many Voices: Insights into the Biblical Story of Creation, and Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority.  

Rabbi Conover is grateful to work in and for a community in which she is proud to raise her two sons Eli and Ben with her husband Damien. 

Rabbi David Gelfand is the Senior Rabbi of Temple Israel in New York City, where he has been serving since 2007.

Previously he was Rabbi of The Jewish Center of the Hamptons where he initiated the highly acclaimed “Hamptons Jewish Summer Institute,” a unique, creative forum for Jewish learning, spirituality and culture. Having begun his career at Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, NY, he also served synagogues in New Jersey (Har Sinai) and Ohio (Fairmount Temple). For over a decade, after helping found the Interfaith Alliance, Washington, DC, the largest interfaith organization in the USA, promoting dialogue and civility, he served as a national officer. He also is a member of the National Council of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and has been active in a number of Zionist & Israeli organizations and institutions.

Rabbi Gelfand has received the World Union for Progressive Judaism's “International Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Pursuit of Justice,” and he Co-Chair of WUPJ's national Rabbinic Circle, a member of their International Assembly, and a leader of their North American Advisory Board. He currently serves on the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Board of Governors, their President’s Rabbinic Council.

He and his wife, Kathy, a stylist and jewelry designer, and their four children reside in NYC & East Hampton. 

Rabbi David Lyon is the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Houston.

A native of Chicago, Illinois, Rabbi Lyon was ordained Rabbi in 1990, at HUC-JIR, Cincinnati. Upon ordination, he served as Assistant Rabbi and Associate Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel, Houston, Texas, 1990-1997; rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Zedek, East Lansing, Michigan, 1997-2000; rabbi of Temple Shalom, Dallas, Texas, 2000-2004; and, in June 2004, he returned to Congregation Beth Israel to serve as Senior Rabbi.

Rabbi Lyon enjoys the full complement of rabbinic duties in a robust congregation of 1650 families with emphases on inclusive participation in education, worship, interfaith outreach, and Israel advocacy. In Houston, he serves on the board of United Way of Greater Houston, Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, Jewish Community Legacy Project (JCLP), and the Advisory Board of Holocaust Museum Houston. He serves on the Executive Committee of IMGH’s Multi-Faith Council, and on the ADL’s Coalition of Respect.

In national leadership, he is Vice President of the CCAR Board (Central Conference of America Rabbis) and chairs its Professional Development Committee; and, is a Board member of the Jewish Community Legacy Project (JCLP).

Rabbi Lyon writes a weekly blog to his congregation, and can be heard on KODA 99.1 FM, every Sunday morning at 6:45am. He is the author of the book “God of Me: Imagining God Throughout Your Lifetime” available on Amazon.com.

Rabbi Lyon is married to Lisa, and they have four grown children, Jeremy and his wife, Mimi; Adam, Abby and Emma; and, their dear grandson, Ronen.

Rabbi Jonathan Blake is the Senior Rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple in Westchester, NY.

As rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple, a position he has served since 2003 (Associate, 2003-2011; Senior, 2011-Present), Rabbi Blake shares his love of God, Torah, and Israel through education, preaching, writing, public advocacy, and sacred relationship with the congregational community.  

Rabbi Blake is a prominent commentator on Judaism and spiritual life.  He has appeared in The New York Times, GQ Magazine, the documentary films 51 Birch Street and 112 Weddings and has authored numerous essays and articles for print and online publications.  He regularly shares reflections on his blog, rabbiblake.org, and as a host of the podcasts Everything is Connected and The Clergy Pod.    

He currently serves on the Boards of UJA-NY and Zioness, as the Co-Chair of the Annual Giving Campaign of the CCAR, and on the President’s Rabbinic Council of HUC-JIR.  He is also a chaplain of the Police and Fire Departments of the Village of Scarsdale.  

A summa cum laude graduate of Amherst College (1995) and ordained from HUC-JIR (Cincinnati, 2000), Jonathan’s journey to the rabbinate began in a loving and vibrant Reform Jewish home in Allentown, PA and included three years of rabbinical service to Temple Beth-El in Providence, Rhode Island, upon ordination, before moving to Westchester to serve WRT.   

An avid singer and lover of music, Rabbi Blake is married to performing artist Kelly McCormick, whom he met singing at Shabbat services in Cincinnati.

Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz is the Senior Rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach, a congregation she has been serving since 1994.

In 2006, Rabbi Pomerantz launched The Open Tent, a Jewish engagement initiative to make Judaism accessible to Jews outside of the synagogue. To date, thousands of Jewish lives have been touched through The Open Tent's Jewish childbirth classes, arts programs, an organic food collective called Yaroq and a young adults' group called The Tribe.

Rabbi Pomerantz was the first female president of the Rabbinic Association of Greater Miami in 1998. She has been recognized by the Jewish Museum of Florida with their Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award, by the City of Miami Beach as "A Woman to Know" and as a "Woman of Valor" by the National Council of Jewish Women. She currently serves on the Clergy Advisory Boards of Hazon, Big Tent Judaism and the URJ Camp Coleman.

Rabbi Pomerantz was ordained from the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 1989. In May, 2014, Rabbi Pomerantz received a Doctor of Divinity degree, marking twenty-five years in the rabbinate. She is married to Adam Snitzer and they have three children.

Rabbi Ben Spratt (he/him) is the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City.

Rabbi Spratt is the 11th Senior Rabbi in Rodeph Sholom’s distinguished 179-year history. He previously served as the congregation's Senior Associate Rabbi and the Rabbi in Residence of Rodeph Sholom School. His Jewish journey took him from the Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and Renewal worlds to becoming ordained from the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, and eventually landing him as Rabbi here, one of the country’s renowned Reform congregations.

It is with a passionate drive that he works to build and shape community beyond existent boundaries. In 2009, Ben helped found CRS’s Shireinu, an inclusion initiative for Jewish families with special needs that now serves as a spiritual model for synagogues and churches around the world. With prominently featured articles in the New York Times, The Jewish Week, Autism Speaks, Huffington Post, Jewish Journal, and Times of Israel, the Shireinu program has also received numerous national awards and grants including the Union for Reform Judaism’s Exemplar Award for Inclusion and the UJA-Federation of New York’s First Place Synagogue Inclusion Award. Ben serves as co-chair of Inclusion and Disability Awareness for the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

In 2014, he co-founded Tribe, a joint initiative to engage Jewish Millennials through grassroots leadership and a community of empowerment. In 2016, Rabbi Spratt and Cantor Shayna De Lowe collaborated to reimagine the future of a large legacy congregation, planting the seeds of Minyan, a Jewish small-group-based approach to human flourishing through connection. In 2017, he was co-editor of a special symposium edition of the CCAR’s Reform Jewish Quarterly Journal on Millennial Engagement and sparked the New Day Fellowship to foster connection between Muslim and Jewish Millennials.

Peter Berg became the fifth senior rabbi of The Temple since 1895 in July of 2008. He is thrilled to serve this diverse and multi-generational congregation as a spiritual leader. Rabbi Berg is passionate about Jewish learning and meaningful worship, and he is an advocate for social change.

Prior to coming to The Temple, he served as rabbi of Temple Beth Or in Washington Township, New Jersey and as the Associate Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas. Additionally, he served Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains, New York as a rabbinic intern and at Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia, as its Youth Director. 

Over the years, Rabbi Berg has spent a great deal of time working with advocacy groups on issues including but not limited to:  poverty & homelessness, criminal justice reform, preventing the human trafficking of minors, civil rights, religious freedom, ending mass incarceration, gun safety,  hate crimes, the environment, combatting antisemitism, and strengthening the U.S.- Israel relationship. 

He has served on numerous communal and advisory boards, including:  The American Jewish Congress, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Mental Health Association, Dallas for Children, the Westwood Area Clergy Association, The New York Service for the Handicapped, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) National Council, The Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta (FAMA), The American Jewish Committee, and The Jewish Family and Career Services (JFCS) He served as  national  Program Chair for the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) also served on the editorial committee for the CCAR High Holy Day prayer book, Mishkan haNefesh. 

Rabbi Berg currently serves on the Board of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Anti-Defamation League, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students (GEEARS), Faith In Public Life, OUTCRY: Faith Voices Against Gun Violence, Three Star, Home First, Georgia Interfaith Public Policy Center, The Atlanta Community Foundation, and the Commission On Social Action for Reform Judaism. He is Immediate Past President of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association. 

Rabbi Berg serves on the advisory Boards of:  The American Jewish Archives (Vice-Chair), The Jewish Fertility Foundation, JumpSpark Teen Initiative, The Islamic Speakers Bureau, and the Grady Hospital Foundation. 

A native of Ocean Township, New Jersey, Rabbi Berg holds a degree in Education and Human Development, with a focus in human services, counseling, and Judaic Studies, from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He earned his M.A. in Hebrew Literature and his rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem, where he was a Steinhardt Fellow. Rabbi Berg also holds a certificate in Chemical Dependency and Spiritual Counseling and is a trained Disaster, Fire, and Police Chaplain.  He serves as a Chaplain for The Georgia State Patrol. 

In 2009, Rabbi Berg was inducted into the College of Preachers at Morehouse College.  Rabbi Berg was a member of the 2012 Leadership Atlanta class and is an active member of the Downtown Atlanta Rotary Club.  He was recently re-appointed to the Georgia Holocaust Commission by the Lt. Governor. 

In 2013, Rabbi Berg was named by Newsweek and The Daily Beast as one of the top 50 most influential rabbis in the United States of America.  In 2016, he was named by Georgia Trend as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians and in 2019 and 2020 as one of Atlanta’s Most Powerful Leaders. 

Rabbi Berg lives in Atlanta with his wife Karen, a teacher and tutor, and their three children. 

Rabbi Marla Hornsten is a rabbi at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

Rabbi Hornsten came to Temple Israel in July of 2000 after her rabbinic ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish institute of Religion, having attended both the Los Angeles and New York campuses. 

Over the years that Rabbi Hornsten has been at Temple, she has led a variety of early childhood, youth and young adult programs. In the religious school, she currently oversees the 7th grade Monday Night School program and coordinates the graduating senior class as well. She is well known for her “cooking elective” which weaves Jewish law and tradition with rugelach and challah. “Rabbi Marla” as she is affectionately known, also leads Bunk 45, a camp style youth group for 4th and 5th graders. 

Rabbi Marla advocates for women and women’s equality and roots for women every chance she gets! She is proud to have created a variety of women’s programming including a monthly Rosh Chodesh women’s spirituality group, mikvah tours and immersion experiences. She has written many healing services for both men and women using the mikvah and considers herself the unofficial “mikvah lady” at Temple Israel. 

She is also committed to preventing domestic abuse in families and to guiding couples in establishing healthy relationships. To that end, she served as a co-chair for the Clergy Task to End Domestic Violence for Jewish Women International, based out of Washington DC, and on both JCADA (Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse) and the OCCCADV (Oakland County Coordinating Council Against Domestic Violence) locally.

Currently, Rabbi Marla is the Co-Chair of the Coalition for Black and Jewish Unity, serves on the Board of Directors for Jewish Family Service, and is on the convention committee for the CCAR—the Central Conference of American Rabbis.  She is the past President of the Michigan Board of Rabbis, and also  previously served on the board of the Women’s Rabbinic Network. 

In her life previous to Temple Israel, Rabbi Hornsten earned a B.A. in European Studies from Scripps College, an M.A. in Modern European History from the Claremont Graduate University; and an M.A. in Hebrew Letters from the HUC-JIR. Her rabbinic thesis was titled, Claiming Hagar: A Search for Identity in Rabbinic Midrash, which combined her love of text with her commitment to women and women’s identity.

Rabbi Hornsten is a native of Mercer Island, Washington, and makes frequent trips to the Pacific Northwest to visit her family. In her spare time, she enjoys the outdoors, keeping fit, being a soccer mom, cooking, knitting and crocheting which she learned from her grandmother, reading, playing violin, and watching Star Trek reruns among many other things.

She met her husband, Dr. Sheldon Stern, at Temple Israel (a match made by her fellow clergy) & they have 4 amazing children:  Erica, Jessica, Benji & Danny.

Hollis Suzanne Schachner is the Cantor of Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, MA.  

Cantor Hollis grew up in Miami, Florida, where she was a musical theatre major at the New World School of the Arts and studied in the jazz and vocal performance departments of the University of Miami, where her crowning achievement was fronting a Joni Mitchell Ensemble before graduating with double majors in Music and Judaic Studies. She was the Cantorial Soloist at Temple Israel of Greater Miami, where her voice was heard weekly throughout South Florida on a live Shabbat radio broadcast. During her studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion she served Temple B’nai Israel of Woodbury, Connecticut for three years until her Cantorial ordination in May, 2001. 

Cantor Hollis is a founding board member of the organization "Uprooted: A Jewish Communal Response to Fertility Journeys," and a past board member and frequent teacher at the Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Paula Brody & Family Education Center, and serves as a Cantorial Coach in the School of Jewish Music of Hebrew College. 

Cantor Schachner is still a great big musical theatre nerd who also loves throwing pottery on her kick wheel, cooking, reading, traveling and camping. She and her husband, Cantor Jeffrey Stock, are the proud parents of Gavriel and Liat who are blessed to have had the gift of growing up as children of Temple Shir Tikva.

Rabbi Azari was appointed as the Senior Rabbi of The Beit Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism in 1991. Under his leadership the Daniel Centers grew to include three Kehilot throughout Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and later opened the Mishkenot Ruth Daniel – Guesthouse and Seminar Center.

Rabbi Azari received his undergraduate degree in Jewish History and Political Science from Haifa University and received his rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. He continued his studies at Hebrew University, San Francisco University and the Graduate Jewish Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA.

Rabbi Azari served as the Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism from 1986-1989. He served twice as the chairperson of the Israeli MARAM (Israeli Council of Progressive Rabbis), and is a current Board Member of the Jewish Agency in Israel, serving as Deputy Chair of the Evaluation and Measurement Committee.

In 2017 Rabbi Azari received an Honorary Doctorate from Hebrew Union College.  He also received the International Humanitarian Award from the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and Women of Reform Judaism at the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial in 2017, recognizing his contributions  to Progressive Judaism in Israel and around the world. He is the first Reform Rabbi to receive such a prize.

Rabbi Azari has published two books, the first taking an in depth look into Israel Independence Day, its customs and traditions, as they have evolved in Israeli society. The second book is an edited collection of articles introducing Reform Judaism to Israelis and Hebrew readers. He has spoken at hundreds of congregations and conferences in North America and Europe.