Rabbi Lucy H. F. Dinner,
Welcome to Temple Beth Or! I am heartened that you have chosen to explore our congregation. My desire as Temple Beth Or’s Senior Rabbi is to invite you in from where you are, learn about your yearnings and hopes for yourself, your family, and community; and to explore those Jewish avenues of education, ritual, and communal commitment and celebration that can enrich your journey and engage you with our congregation in tikkun olam – bringing blessings to one another and our world.
More about Rabbi Dinner
Rabbi Lucy Dinner has served Temple Beth Or as Senior Rabbi since 1993. Whether in teaching adults or youth, preaching, celebrating Shabbat and holidays, or participating in acts of tzedakah, Rabbi Dinner’s love of Judaism permeates her service. Under Rabbi Dinner’s leadership the congregation has grown by 50%, the Temple has undergone two building expansions and renovations, and the youth group has hosted two of the largest NFTY regional events in the country.
Jewish education is at the heart of Rabbi Dinner’s vision for bringing Judaism to life at Temple Beth Or. In 2012, Rabbi Dinner invited Temple’s Torah Study group to explore the book of Exodus with her when she was asked to publish commentary on Exodus for the Union for Reform Judaism’s (URJ) “Ten Minutes of Torah.” Rabbi Dinner has also written Torah commentary in the book Women’s Torah Commentary and in various other internet Torah commentaries.
Rabbi Dinner’s commitment to social justice infuses her involvement in local, national, and international initiatives. Rabbi Dinner is the Chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbi’s (CCAR) Peace and Justice Committee, and the Vice Chair of the Union for Reform Judaism’s (URJ) Commission on Social Action. Learn more about the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism at, http://www.rac.org/.
In the Raleigh community, Rabbi Dinner is on the Board of Rise Against Hunger (Formerly “Stop Hunger Now”).
She is a long time member of the Triangle Martin Luther King, JR. Committee. She also has served on the URJ Committee on the Jewish Family, the Rabbinic Mentoring Committee, and currently is a member of the Reform Rabbi’s Committee on Resolutions.
In 2016, Rabbi Dinner received the NAACP Raleigh Chapter’s “Rabbi of the Year” Award and the NAACP NC Religious Leadership Award. Rabbi Dinner was named “Woman of Achievement” by the Woman’s Club of Raleigh in 2010, and to the “Academy of Women” by the YWCA in 1998.
Rabbi Dinner graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a degree in Public Policy Analysis, and she received her Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.
Rabbi Dinner and her husband Jeffrey have two sons, Josh and Jake, and two of the most precious grandchildren in the world.
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Rabbi Leah A. Citrin,
Born and raised in Rye Brook, New York, Rabbi Leah Citrin was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 2015. There, she also earned her Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters. Before rabbinical school, Rabbi Citrin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Educational Studies from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She then taught sixth grade language arts and social studies at Windward, a private school for students with language-based learning disabilities.
During her five years in rabbinical school, Rabbi Citrin served pulpits in Israel (Kibbutz Gezer), Louisiana (New Iberia), Indiana (Kokomo), and Missouri (Jefferson City). Additionally, she spent two years as the Rabbinic Intern and Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Fellow at Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati. While at Rockdale, Rabbi Citrin’s portfolio included teaching adult education, 6th grade Hebrew, the adult b’nei mitzvah class, and applying community organizing principles to work towards a more relational congregation.
Also while earning her rabbinic ordination from HUC-JIR, Rabbi Citrin earned a Masters Concentration in Israel Education through a fellowship with the iCenter for Israel Education. She spent a year as an American Jewish World Service Global Justice Fellow, a program through which she travelled to the Thailand/Burma border. Rabbi Citrin completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education, one in a Catholic hospital as a chaplain assigned to the Neonatal Intensive Care and Neurology Units and one through HUC and Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati.
Music has also been central to Rabbi Citrin’s Jewish identity and while in Cincinnati, she served as Music Specialist for grades pre-K – 7 at Congregation Beth Adam, a humanistic synagogue. In her fifth year of school, Rabbi Citrin completed her thesis, “Choosing Chosenness: American Reform Judaism, the Liturgical Expression of Chosenness, and the Question of Modern Application” under the tutelage of Rabbi Jan Katzew and Dr. Richard Sarason.
When not immersed in all the things she loves about Judaism, Rabbi Citrin can be found rooting on her New York Yankees, spinning, running half marathons, or playing tennis. She might also be caught singing songs from her favorite Broadway musicals.
Rabbi Citrin is married to Rabbi Brian T. Nelson, the Director of Education at Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, NC.
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