Shalom from the President
Welcome to our website for Temple Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek in Lima, Ohio. We are located in Northwest Ohio, midway between Toledo and Dayton off I-75 (North & South), and between Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and Mansfield (East and West). We are a small but thriving congregation reaching out to you to join us and help us grow! We would encourage some younger families with children to join us, and we warmly welcome all those Jewish families who move to our area. We are a welcoming community to all - regardless of race or sexual orientation and we are handicap-accessible. We have a few families in mixed religious marriages who are warmly welcomed and do actively participate. Rabbi Howie Stein serves us from Pittsburg two weekends a month and for all of the High Holy Days, plus major life cycle events, as needed. We celebrate all Jewish holidays together and have potluck dinners one Shabbat per month before the Sabbath Service. The second monthly Service begins at 7:30 PM and is followed by an Oneg Shabbat. On the Saturday mornings following Services, Rabbi Stein. teaches an Adult Learning class with a variety of interesting topics. We also have Cantor Debbie Bletstein, who comes to us twice a month from the Detroit area to serve as our song-leader and who also chants the Torah portions during Shabbat services.
We are a merged Reform and Conservative synagogue, with a local core of members and many who maintain memberships out of the area.
Feel free to contact me by email or phone for further information:
Connie Levy Hornung
Temple President
Home: 419.999.6242
president@templeinlima.org
About Rabbi Stein
Rabbi Howie Stein was born and raised in the suburbs of New York City. After receiving his BS in Computer Science from Cornell University’s College of Engineering, he worked as a software engineer for about 10 years before returning to school to become a rabbi. Following two years at Brandeis University’s Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, he enrolled at the Hebrew Union College, where he was ordained in 2009.
As a student, Rabbi Stein served congregations in Rapid City, SD; Grand Junction, CO; and Bristol, TN. Following ordination, he spent two years as the Campus Rabbi and Community Service Coordinator at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA. He has lived in Pittsburgh for six years with his wife, Debbie, who works on Israel programming at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, and their five-year-old daughter, Yona.
Although he is a product of the Reform movement, Rabbi Stein's career has spanned the breadth of the Jewish community. His philosophy is very much rooted in the idea of “kol Yisrael aravin zeh lazeh—all Israel is responsible one for another.” As a teacher and communal leader, Rabbi Stein seeks to provide those he serves with the tools to effectively participate in the full range of Jewish life both locally and in the wider Jewish world.
Rabbi Howie Stein
Cell: 513.600.5535
rabbi@templeinlima.org