Welcome Rabbi Andrew Oberstein

"Joining the clergy team at Temple Israel truly feels like coming home. After all, this is the community where I got married and where my husband completed his journey toward becoming Jewish. I have already felt this community’s incredible warmth and passion, your immense love of Jewish tradition, and your deep commitment to the pursuit of justice. In the coming years, I am so excited for the opportunities that lie ahead, to learn together, pray together, and work to make this world a better place."

- Rabbi Andrew Oberstein

By Rabbi Zecher and Marc Maxwell

We look forward to welcoming our new rabbi, Andrew Oberstein, this summer in July. As a full member of our clergy team, Rabbi Oberstein will focus his work on the Riverway Project, many areas of engagement in synagogue life, and outreach to the community.

Andrew Oberstein may be familiar because he has been our rabbinic intern this past year, taught classes, and helped to lead High Holy Day services. Throughout this year, we have experienced his warm and engaging manner, his phenomenal skills as a teacher of Torah, and his wisdom and empathy.

Rabbi Oberstein received his ordination May 2, 2021 from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC). As a student he had been recognized for his scholarship and leadership as a Wexner Graduate Fellow, receiving additional fellowships through the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), AIPAC, and Shalom Hartman Institute. HUC commended him with awards in liturgy, Hebrew, midrash, and general excellence. His diverse experience in rabbinical school has included serving as the Reform rabbinic intern at Columbia/Barnard Hillel and a Human Rights Fellow at T'ruah, among a variety of other organizations and synagogues.

Originally from Los Angeles, Andrew Oberstein studied at Emerson College in the honors program as an Iwasaki scholar. In Boston, he found Temple Israel and became a member after being involved in the Riverway Project. After a couple of years, he ended up working at Temple Israel as a coordinator for social justice and young adult programming before he left for Rabbinic school.

We look forward to welcoming Rabbi Oberstein and his husband, Nick Oberstein, back to Boston as our rabbi.