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Our Clergy

To contact our clergy or schedule a time to meet, please email clergy@ohabei.org. During the day they can be reached through the Temple office at: (617) 277-6610. For Life-cycle emergencies only, after business hours call: (617) 277-6610, press 6.

Rabbi Audrey Marcus Berkman, Senior Rabbi

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Rabbi Berkman has served Temple Ohabei Shalom since July of 2017. A graduate of Oberlin College (1996) and Harvard Divinity School (Masters of Theological Studies) (1999), Rabbi Berkman was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2007, where she received a Wexner Graduate Fellowship for her studies. She has served communities and families throughout the Boston area since 2007, in positions including Rabbi/Hillel Director at Wellesley College, Rabbi of Shir Hadash, a Reconstructionist congregation in Newton, MA, and Jewish Chaplain for Hebrew Senior Life and for Newton-Wellesley Hospital. Rabbi Berkman has also served on faculty for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel and for Parenting Through a Jewish Lens, through Hebrew College.

Rabbi Berkman has spent time learning and living in Israel, at Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, Ben Gurion University, and other institutions; she deeply loves the language and culture of landscape of Israel. She has officiated at many lifecycle events for unaffiliated families throughout the Boston area, and loves the work of engaging all who wish to connect to Jewish life and community, from any background. Rabbi Berkman believes that it is our Jewish obligation to create an ongoing dialogue between our individual torah (our life experiences, passions, challenges, and questions) and Torah (Jewish text, tradition, culture, and wisdom in all of its many forms). When we bring our own voices into conversation with Torah, we are participating in the sacred task of the creation of new wisdom, and a better world.

Rabbi Berkman is married to Rabbi Jethro Berkman, Program Officer for Jewish Education for the Mandel Foundation. They have three sons, Gavi, Ami, and Edan, and two dogs, Coco and Hershel (Hershie). They live in the village of Auburndale in Newton. Rabbi Berkman believes in the life-giving and transformative power of humor, time spent in nature, poetry, music, dance, dogs, coffee, and time spent with children. She loves to connect with community members and those seeking connection to Jewish community. Please reach out anytime to make an appointment.

Rabbi Berkman can be reached at: amberkman@ohabei.org.

Rabbi Jennifer Queen, Assistant Rabbi

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Rabbi Jenn was born on Boston’s North Shore and has called several places home, including Boca Raton, FL, Dallas, TX, and Charlottesville, VA. She received her BA at Indiana University-Bloomington (2009, Jewish Studies and Human Sexuality) and Master’s in Public Health at The George Washington University (2012). After years of working in sexuality education and reproductive justice advocacy, Jenn pursued rabbinic ordination at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (NY, 2019), during which she served communities large and small, bringing her love of Torah, Jewish peoplehood, and holistic, meaningful living to folks at all ages and stages, and is thrilled to have found her professional home at Temple Ohabei Shalom! Jenn loves her house plants, music, meditation, social justice and yoga, and lives in Cambridge with her partner, Michael and their rescue pitbull mix, Priya.

Rabbi Queen can be reached at: jqueen@ohabei.org.

Rabbi Emily Lipof, Rabbi Emerita

Rabbi Emily Lipof is the first woman in the United States to be named Senior Rabbi of a major congregation. In 1988, she was called to our pulpit, where she had been instrumental in revitalizing our congregation with her innovative programs, spirituality, and inclusiveness. An educator at heart, Rabbi Lipof founded the Temple Shalom Nursery School in Newton. She served as principal of the High School for Jewish Studies and was the director and teacher of an adult education workshop at Brandeis University.

The Jewish community of Greater Boston and beyond is well aware of Rabbi Lipof’s uniqueness and accomplishments. She has been honored by Combined Jewish Philanthropies with their annual Rabbinic Award, by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev with their Outstanding Service Award, and by Israel Bonds National Board, which chose her as one of 50 rabbis in the United States to receive the coveted Golden Shofar Award.