Rabbi David J. Lerner
Rabbi David J. Lerner received ordination in 2020 from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he concentrated his studies in Talmud and Rabbinics. During his tenure at the Seminary, he received the prestigious Cyrus Adler Prize for academic excellence as well as the Rabbi Ben Zion Bergman Prize for Scholastic Achievements in Talmudic Studies.
Prior to seminary, Rabbi Lerner attended the University of Michigan and Wayne State University of Detroit where he was pre-med and received a BS in Biological Sciences. While he did not pursue the path of medicine, he told his mother that he wished to be a different type of healer...
Rabbi Lerner was heavily involved in Jewish communal work even before ordination. He served as Director of Youth and Young Adult Programming at Congregation Shaarey Zedek and ritual leader and teacher at the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in his native Detroit. He worked for Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto (the largest Conservative synagogue in North America) focusing on young family engagement. He also sat on the board of the Jewish Family Service and various community youth and young professional committees, and has done private tutoring in all areas of Judaics.
Rabbi Lerner has continued his passion for community relations and Jewish leadership in his role as rabbi of Congregation B'nai Sholom-Beth David. In addition to spearheading new programs and engagement initiatives at the temple, Rabbi Lerner serves as chaplain of the Rockville Centre Fire Department, delivers benedictions and prayers at many village events, and is engaged with various organizations and political leaders to promote Israel advocacy and to fight against antisemitism. He is also frequently featured in local and national media outlets, and you can read about his work and that of his community most frequently in the Rockville Centre Herald.
Rabbi Lerner lives with his wife, Rebbetzin Dr. Alexis Lerner, who is a distinguished Assistant Professor of Political Science at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, and their three beautiful children, Magda Rose, Levi, and Goldie. Rabbi Lerner loves learning and teaching Torah, connecting with community, and spending time with his family. He is passionate about deepening relationships and sharing his spirit and Torah with the B’nai Sholom-Beth David community and beyond.
Cantor Alty Weinreb
We have a new face on the bimah. Cantor Alty Weinreb, who combines an “educator’s soul, musical virtuosity, a passionate Jewish spirit, and a gift for creating a happy and magical community,” will lead Shabbat, Tot Shabbat and Holiday services.
Raised and educated in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world of Kew Gardens Hills, Cantor Alty studied rabbinics and cantorial music extensively. Hearing the cantor at one of the “shtiebels” his family attended as a child inspired his decision to become a cantor.
One Shabbat “the cantor was wailing from his soul, and some spirit flew into my body,” he recalled. “I felt myself responding to a sound coming from the deep. That raw honesty was showing me how a Jew should pray.”
Alty attended Yeshiva University’s famed Belz School of Music’s Cantorial Institute where he studied Ashkenaz cantorial and Mizrachi Hazzanut Arts. He also is an ordained rabbi from the
St. Louis Rabbinical College.
After working in commercial music for several years, in 2000, he returned to full-time Jewish life as a klezmer musician and educator. He worked as a High Holidays cantor at several synagogues, nursing homes, and hospitals, including Temple Hillel in North Woodmere. Most recently he was rabbi, cantor, and director of pastoral care at the Temple of the High Country in Boone, NC.
He plans to connect with us and keep us engaged in the service by respecting our prayer tradition while tastefully incorporating new prayer melodies. “I look forward to celebrating a joyous and meaningful Judaism together as a community,” he said.
Baal Koreh - Jeff Beris
Jeff has been a Baal Koreh, Bar/Bat Mitzvah Teacher and Hebrew
School Music Teacher since he was a teenager. Over the years, he has
served as the Baal Koreh for many synagogues on Long Island. Jeff
resides in Bellmore with his wife Andrea, and they have three grown
children. Jeff joins us on Shabbat mornings.
IN MEMORIAM
Richard Perlbinder – Ritual Director Emeritus
1955 - 2024
Richard Perlbinder, the Ritual Director (Shammes) of Congregation B’nai Sholom-Beth David from 2000 to 2024, was responsible for leading daily minyanim, chanting from Torah in the course of services and reading from the Megillah when called on. He understood the Hebrew of the Torah, chanting quickly and accurately with comprehension of the text. Anyone who heard him was awed by his fluency.
Richard was born in Brooklyn and raised in Valley Stream, and by his own accounts, spent two pivotal years, 1968 and 1969, at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. His education included a short time at HILI in Far Rockaway, several years at the Hebrew High School of the Five Towns, Prozdor, Cornell College of ILR, and Stony Brook. Before going to university Richard traveled to Israel for five months in 1973 and spent a year in Israel 1979-1980, traveling and working on a kibbutz. He was active as a Zionist progressive during his student years. As a lover of Israel and its people, Richard supported Israel’s founding ideals.
