Meet our Clergy

Our Spiritual Leadership team is headed by Rabbi Shaul Robinson, who attained smicha from the Joseph Straus Rabbinical Seminary (part of Ohr Torah Stone).

The team also features Assistant Rabbi- Rabbi Yoni Zolty, Community Scholar- Rabbanit Mindy Schwartz Zolty, Beginners Rabbi- Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, Chazzan Yanky Lemmer, Assistant Chazzan- Chazzan Yisroel Lesches, Yoetzet Halacha- Ellin Cooper,  Rabbinic Associates- Daniel Gottesman, and Rabbi Efraim Tepler, and Community Intern, Tzophia Stepansky

Rabbi Shaul Robinson

Rabbi Yoni Zolty, Assistant Rabbi & Rabbanit Mindy Schwartz Zolty, Community Scholar

Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, Beginners' Program Rabbi

Yanky Lemmer, Chazzan

Ellin Cooper, Yoetzet Halacha

Community Intern, Tzophia Stepansky

Rabbinic Associate, Daniel Gottesman

Rabbinic Associate, Rabbi Efraim Tepler

Lloyd Epstein Torah Mitzion Kollel Fellows, Yechiel Rozenberg and Yehonatan Kahana

Sherwood ("The Chaz") Goffin z"l, Founding Chazzan

Rabbi Yoni Zolty, Assistant Rabbi

Yoni Zolty studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion for 2 years and multiple summers. He graduated from Columbia University with a dual B.A. in Physics and in English. He is currently in his last year of semicha at Yeshiva University. He was previously a Rabbinic Intern at Cong. Ohab Zedek and the Young Israel of Plainview. He has served as a Ba’al Koreh for LSS for the last five years and is looking forward to expanding his role and engaging with the wider LSS community. In his free time Yoni enjoys spending time outdoors, hiking, biking, rock climbing and playing tennis. You can reach Rabbi Zolty at assistantrabbi@lss.org

Rabbanit Mindy Schwartz Zolty, Community Scholar

Mindy Schwartz Zolty is a graduate of Yeshiva University’s Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (GPATS) and a Wexner Fellow/Davidson Scholar. Mindy holds a B.A. in Judaic Studies and Art History from Stern College for Women. She is also a first year student in Adelphi University's PhD program in Clinical Psychology. Before starting as the Community Intern at Lincoln Square in 2019 she served as the Adult and Teen Educator for Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck and as a lecturer and group leader at Congregation Ohab Zedek on the Upper West Side. You can reach Rabbanit Mindy at rabbanit@lss.org

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Chazzan Yaakov “Yanky” Lemmer is one of the leading young cantors on the cantorial horizon. His beautiful lyric tenor voice, dramatic color, and precise coloratura have garnered him universal praise among his peers and connoisseurs, alike.

He began his singing career as the star soloist of the Young Israel of Bethel Choir, where world renowned Cantor Ben Zion Miller took him under his private tutelage. Yaakov earned a scholarship to the Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University, where he studied with Cantors Joseph Malovany and Bernard Beer. He also studied with cantorial legend Cantor Noach Schall, and has won a scholarship for vocal training in N.Y.C.

As an internationally renowned concert artist, Yaakov is in constant demand on the concert stage, as well as synagogues, thrilling audiences throughout the world. He has appeared at Tel Aviv‘s Mann Auditorium with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Dr. Mordechai Sobol, and has been featured throughout the United States, England, and at various European Culture Festivals. He has also officiated at some of the world’s most prominent pulpits throughout the world. His repertoire spans many genres and languages, including traditional Hebrew liturgy, Yiddish folk, Opera, Broadway, Israeli, and more.

Read my blog or visit my website to learn more about me.

You can contact Chazzan Yanky Lemmer at ylemmer@lss.org.

You can find our Chazzan Schedule here

Tzophia Stepansky grew up in Passaic, NJ and currently resides in Washington Heights. After spending two years in Israel, she completed a B.A. at Yeshiva University in Psychology and Judaic Studies. She is currently learning at GPATS (Graduate Program for Advanced Talmudic Studies) for a third year while directing Drisha's summer learning camp for middle school girls. Tzophia loves learning Torah, zumba, traveling the world, and meeting new people. She is excited to be part of the    Lincoln Square Synagogue community this upcoming year!                                                            

Rabbi Efraim Tepler recently completed his semicha studies at RIETS where he was a Wexner Honors Fellow. Efraim grew up in New Rochelle, NY and studied at Yeshivat Hakotel in Israel. He spent his first two summers after yeshiva creating new features for the online Torah platform Mercava. He spearheaded the flowchart project that transforms the written page of Talmud into a graphic illustration of the various stages of the Talmudic analytic process. He graduated from Yeshiva University with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. In addition to serving as a Rabbinic Associate at LSS, Efraim is a Gemara Rebbe at NSHA in Great Neck and is involved in the business world as well. Some of his hobbies include: Torah study, tennis, basketball, and connecting with friends and family.

Cantor Goffin began his years of service with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founding Rabbi of LSS, in 1965. During this time, he 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 was the first and only Principal of the LSS Feldman Hebrew School since 1965, and gave 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 had 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 considered 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 was a faculty member of the Belz School of Jewish Music at Yeshiva University, where he taught college-level classes in Jewish Liturgy and folk music. In this position he taught a new generation of young cantors/Baalei Tefilla who will carry on the tradition he loved deeply and to which he was dedicated. He was the Honorary President of the Cantorial Council of America, the only Orthodox organization of cantors in the world, an affiliate of Yeshiva University. 

The LSS community mourned the passing of our beloved Chaz on the 27th of Adar, 04/03/19. Chazzan Goffin was the constant and beloved presence in our Shul for over 50 years, who held us together in good times and bad. His sincerity, piety, spirituality and pure neshama are missed by the thousands of people who were led by him in davening, taught by him in the Hebrew School or for Bar/Bat Mitzvah and whom he inspired simply by his being. The Chaz created an inspirational atmosphere, a "davening" that, in no small measure, helped build LSS and its international reputation as one of the leading synagogues of our times. Our hearts and prayers will forever be with his beloved wife, Batya, his children and grandchildren who have all become a fabric of our LSS community.

You can visit The Chaz's website here. 

Please click here to watch The Chaz's memorial service which took place in commemoration of his first yahrzeit.

May his memory be for an eternal Blessing.