Rabbi Shaul Robinson

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.

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rabbi@lss.org

Cantor Sherwood (The Chaz) 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.

For thirty-five years Cantor Goffin was one of America’s first and foremost artists in the world of contemporary Jewish Music from 1961 to 1995, recording seven popular albums and appearing as a Hebrew Folksinger/guitarist at venues in most major cities in North America, as well as in South Africa and Israel, until he voluntarily “retired” from the concert stage to enter the world of academia. From 1964-1990 he was recognized as the “Voice of Soviet Jewry,” singing at all the massive Soviet Jewry U.N. “Solidarity Day” rallies. He has appeared in the major concert halls of the US and Canada, such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and devoted more than twenty-seven years to music programs at NCSY National Conventions and voluntarily working with teenagers at NCSY and Yeshiva U. Seminars. It was those years of working with teenage “outreach” that he considers to be the most satisfying part of his music career, second only to the thrill of participating in building his synagogue from a small one-room shul to one of the largest and most famous in America.

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 affiliate 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.

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chaz@lss.org

Mrs. Elana Stein Hain

Community Scholar

After spending three years in the Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies at Yeshiva University, Mrs. Elana Stein Hain is pursuing a doctorate in Religion at Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Her particular interest is the interplay between secular legal theory and Jewish law, and she is participating for her second year in the Cardozo Interdisciplinary Fellowship in Jewish Law and Legal Theory.  This is her second year at Lincoln Square Synagogue, and she has moved into a full-time role at the Synagogue this year. What she enjoys most about this community is its diversity and its warmth. 

Outside of academic interests, Mrs. Stein Hain enjoys music and travel, as well as a good comedian's sketch. She and her husband Yonah live on the Upper West Side.

Mrs. Stein Hain’s position at LSS is made possible through the support of Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future Larry and Lenore Zusman Community Leadership Fund - Promoting Women’s leadership roles in the Jewish community.

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mesh@lss.org

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald

Rabbi, Beginners' program

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald is one of the leaders in the movement of Jewish return in the world today. He has pioneered and developed many of the most dramatic and effective outreach programs, impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world.

Ordained at Yeshiva University, where he was a student of Rabbi Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Buchwald served from 1973 for 15 years as the Director of Education at Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York, which became one of the largest and most successful centers for adult Jewish education programs in America. He also established and coordinated Lincoln Square's celebrated outreach program. Since 1975, Rabbi Buchwald has led the synagogue's 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. NJOP sponsors the acclaimed SHABBAT ACROSS AMERICA/CANADA and READ HEBREW AMERICA/CANADA campaigns, establishes Beginners Services and offers the TURN FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SHABBAT, PASSOVER ACROSS AMERICA and SUKKOT ACROSS AMERICA programs, as well as free "Crash Courses" in
Hebrew Reading, Basic Judaism and Jewish History. These programs are now offered at more than 3,845* locations across North America, and in 39* countries worldwide. Through these much admired programs and the innovative Jewish consciousness raising advertising campaigns, NJOP has successfully reached more than 1,162,000* Jews in North America alone, and engaged them in Jewish life. Rabbi Buchwald was the Founding President and is now the Honorary President of the Association of Jewish Outreach Programs (AJOP) (previously known as the Association for Jewish Outreach  Professionals), which was established in 1988. Both NJOP and AJOP were funded by significant grants from the AVI CHAI Foundation, a Jewish philanthropy established by Sanford Bernstein, a well-known successful investor who had himself become a Baal Teshuva (a returnee to Orthodox observance) and who sought to further the cause of education and outreach to alienated and assimilated Jews worldwide.

In November 1997, Rabbi Buchwald was named to the Forward 50, a list of America's 50 most influential Jews, and in April 2007 and 2008 was included in Newsweek's list of the top 50 Rabbis in America. In May 2001, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Yeshiva University in recognition of his pioneering outreach work.

Rabbi Buchwald is renowned for making complex Jewish topics easier to grasp through his exceptional pedagogic skills and quick sense of humor. He lectures across the country, and overseas, and leads experiential programs in cities throughout the world.

Rabbi Buchwald and his wife Aidel, reside in New York City, and are the proud parents of four children  and four grandchildren.

figures as of 8/10.

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ezb@lss.org

Rabbi Elli Ausubel

Assistant Rabbi

This past year, Rabbi Ausubel graduated from Yeshiva University’s theological seminary (RIETS) as well as from its graduate school in education (Azrieli). After spending a year as the rabbinic intern in Keter Torah in Teaneck, and teaching Tanach in Yeshiva University’s High School, Rabbi Ausubel is thrilled to be joining the ranks of the Lincoln Square Clergy as the part time Assistant Rabbi. At Keter Torah, Rabbi Ausubel gave a weekly class on kashrut for the business person and is excited at the opportunity to personally combine business and rabbinics.

Previously Rabbi Ausubel received his BA in psychology, from Yeshiva University (where he was also captain of the tennis team – and is always looking for a good match). After which, in the course of his rabbinic training, he spent a year in the Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem, during which time he received kabbalah in marot, practical and halachic Niddah under Rabbi Gideon Weizman of the Puah Institute.  While in the Gruss Kollel, Rabbi Ausubel also participated in the David Cardozo Academy, a program that focuses on developing philosophical and theological thought and responses to current issues facing the larger Jewish community.

Rabbi Ausubel currently lives with his wife Ellie and his adorable son Amichai on the upper west side.

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RabbiEA@lss.org

Michael Goon

Rabbinic Intern

Michael is currently training for the rabbinate at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University. Prior to the pulpit, Michael studied political science and Arabic at Yeshiva College, writing his undergraduate thesis on counterinsurgency warfare. Overseas, Michael studied at Yeshivat Shaalvim and Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel, and at the Yeshiva College Summer French Language Institute in France. Communally, Michael has organized youth programming as captain of the Friday Night Lights/NCSY youth group in Plainview, Long Island, introduced teenagers to Talmud as an advisor on NCSY Kollel in Israel, and, as part of the specialty and educational staff at Camp Simcha and Camp Ruach HaChaim, aided children facing special needs. He also interned for Senator Charles E. Schumer. Long before any of those experiences, he received his most important lessons from his parents who reside in Scarsdale, New York. His first love has always been people.

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INFO@lSS.ORG