Rabbi Shaul Robinson (Senior Rabbi)

Rabbi Shaul Robinson took up the position of Senior Rabbi at Lincoln Square Synagogue on September 1, 2005.

Rabbi Robinson was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1967 and earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Economics and Political Science at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He was also awarded a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) with Distinction from the University of Nottingham, England. His MBA focused on the management of Not-for-Profit institutions and his dissertation was titled "The Working Lives of Rabbis".

Rabbi Robinson attended Yeshivat HaMivtar and the Joseph Straus Rabbinic Seminary in Efrat for seven years where he studied under Rabbi Chaim Brovender and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. He attained semicha from the Joseph Straus Rabbinical Seminary (part of Ohr Torah Stone). His semichas were awarded by The Chief Rabbinate of Israel, Rabbi Riskin and Rabbi Brovender, and also by Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg. He also undertook one year of professional training in Practical Rabbinics at Yad AviHaYishuv (Rothschild Foundation) in Jerusalem .

After graduation from Strathclyde, Rabbi Robinson spent a year as the National Secretary of the Union of Jewish Students, which combined fieldwork on behalf of Jewish students with the publication and coordination of educational materials.

Rabbi Robinson met his wife, Sarah, while in Israel and they married in 1992. Following that, he was appointed the first ever full-time Rabbi for Jewish Students at Cambridge University, England, where he and Sarah lived for 3 years with their children, Avrami and Esther.

In 1997, the Robinsons moved to Barnet Synagogue, England, where he took up a part-time role and before becoming the full-time Rabbi in 1998. Over the years, the Robinsons welcomed four more daughters - Chaya in 1998, Ariela in 2000, and twins, Tova and Tehilla in 2003. During his time at Barnet, Rabbi Robinson also served as Director of the Centre for Rabbinic Development - where he set up and directed the first ever "Department for Professional Rabbinic Development" in the UK . He was also Executive Director of "Encounter" - the organization that runs the UK 's largest Orthodox Adult Education Event.

Cantor Sherwood Goffin (Cantor)

Cantor Goffin began his years of service with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founding Rabbi of LSS, in 1965. During this time, he has created a unique LSS musical atmosphere, that blends the best of contemporary and traditional Jewish melodies, into a service that is true to the time-honored musical chant that is the essence of the centuries-old synagogue tradition.

Honored with "Cantor for Life" tenure in 1986, Cantor Goffin has been the first and only Principal of the LSS Feldman Hebrew School since 1965, and gives various LSS Adult Education classes in the evening, as well as a full program of Bar and Bat Mitzvah training.

Cantor Goffin is a faculty member of the Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University, where he teaches college-level classes in Jewish Liturgy and folk music. In this position he teaches a new generation of young cantors/Baalei Tefilla who will carry on the tradition he loves deeply and to which he is dedicated. He is the Honorary President of the Cantorial Council of America, the only Orthodox organization of cantors in the world, an affiliation of Yeshiva University .

We welcome you to join us on a Friday evening or Saturday morning in the main synagogue, to experience the inspirational atmosphere created by the voice and melodies of Cantor Sherwood Goffin, a "davening" that has in no small measure helped build LSS and its international reputation as one of the leading synagogues of our times.

Rabbi Shalom Morris (Assistant Rabbi)

Anyone with the impeccable yichus and intensive Torah study background of our new Assistant Rabbi Shalom Morris could probably get away with being a bit formal. Instead, this irrepressibly friendly young man puts you at ease the moment you meet him.

Perhaps it’s his excitement about being part of the LSS community. He is brim-full of ideas and hopes for our congregation, with its “diversity of backgrounds, ideas, and levels of observance.” He is convinced that our shul can once more be an inspiration for the wider Jewish
community. “It’ll definitely happen.”

The son, grandson, and great-grandson of Orthodox rabbis, Rabbi Morris was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where his grandfather David Silver was rabbi for many years. Rabbi Eliezer Silver, his great-grandfather, was a leader in the early Agudas Harabonim of America. His father Rabbi Joel Morris was ordained at Yeshiva University.

Our Rabbi Morris was raised in Rochester, New York, where he attended Jewish day school and Yeshiva high school. After a three-year stint learning in Israel, two years at the prominent national religious Yeshiva Kerem B’Yavneh and one year at Derech Hatalmud in Meah She’arim, Rabbi Morris enrolled at YU. After he earned his B.A. in economics he completed his rabbinic studies there while picking up a Masters in Medieval Jewish History. Rabbi Morris served for two years as Rabbinic Intern at the Riverdale Jewish Center, where, he says, “I had the unique opportunity as an intern of doing all the jobs a pulpit rabbi does.” At the same time he gained chaplaincy experience at the Zicklin Hospice in Riverdale. He hopes to find the time to work toward his doctorate in the history of the Bayit Sheni and post-Bayit Sheni eras, a subject he has already taught, and which he believes helps illuminate the views of the Rabbis of the Mishna and Talmud. Over the past few years he has given Shabbat, Yom Tov, summer lectures and classes at venues around the country, in San Francisco, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Westhampton.

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald (Beginners)

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald is one of the leaders in the movement of Jewish return in America today. He has pioneered and developed many of the most dramatic and effective outreach programs in this country.

Ordained at Yeshiva University, where he was a student of Rabbi Dr. J. B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Buchwald served from 1973 for 15 years as the Director of Education at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York, which has become one of the largest and most successful centers for adult Jewish education programs in America. He also established and coordinated Lincoln Square's acclaimed outreach program. Since 1975, Rabbi Buchwald has led the now renowned "Beginners Service," a special Shabbat service for people with little or no synagogue experience.

In July of 1987, Rabbi Buchwald founded the National Jewish Outreach Program, an organization which sponsors Beginners Services, Crash Courses in Hebrew Reading and Basic Judaism, the READ HEBREW AMERICA PROGRAM, and coordinates "TURN FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SHABBAT" / "SHABBAT ACROSS AMERICA" programs throughout North America. Through the National Jewish Outreach Program, Rabbi Buchwald hopes to provide a basic Jewish education, as well as joyous Jewish experiences, for every Jew in America. The response to NJOP's campaigns has been historic, and, in only 18 years, NJOP has already reached more than 850,000* North American Jews in all 50* American states and nine* Canadian provinces. NJOP programs have also been introduced in more than 30* countries worldwide. *figures as of 6/05

In May 2001, Rabbi Buchwald was given an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Yeshiva University in recognition of his pioneering outreach work.

Rabbi Buchwald was founding President of the Association for Jewish Outreach Professionals (AJOP). He lectures across the country, and overseas, and leads experiential programs in cities throughout the world. He and his wife Aidel, reside in New York City, and are the proud parents
of four children and two grandchildren.

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