Pirke Mordecai

Rabbi Lee Friedlander is a native Philadelphian who was raised by secular Jewish parents and was educated in an Orthodox day school. These contrasting experiences have informed his wide-tent approach to Jewish life. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (’75), he has served as the Reconstructionist Movement as “Readings” co-editor (along with Deborah Brin) of the Reconstructionist Prayerbook series, and as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. It was under his presidency, thanks to the work of Executive Director Bob Gluck, that the Association fully enfranchised gay, lesbian and transgender Jews in all ritual and liturgical practices including marriage – the first Jewish denominational movement to do so, and more than twenty years before it was legally sanctioned by the Supreme Court. 

Connecting people to one another and to the culture and history, and to the folkways and customs of the Jewish People has been the guiding directive of Lee’s rabbinate. For him, belonging is Judaism’s first principle. He understands that despite vast differences in observance and belief, what has kept Jews together throughout the millennia is a sense of fellowship and responsibility for one another. Lee fosters that spirit of community and obligation in all his work while bringing the fulness of Jewish expression – art, music, food, poetry – to every service and seminar.  He feels fortunate to have brought so many people together in these ways at the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore on Long Island since the beginning of his tenure in 1981. 

Lee is father of daughters Sara and Ruthie, father-in-law of Matthew and Steven, and grandfather of Helaina, Isaac and Tallulah.  He is a man who is truly happy with his lot.

Rabbi Arnold Rachlis is the Rabbi Emeritus of University Synagogue in Irvine, California. Born in Philadelphia, Rabbi Rachlis received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. from Temple University and Ordination and a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. 

Rabbi Rachlis has taught at Temple University and Spertus College and has published scholarly articles, opinion pieces and poetry in a variety of publications, including Judaism, Reconstructionist, National Jewish Monthly, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, Jewish Journal, Maj’shavot Pensamientos and A Psychology – Judaism Reader. 

Rabbi Rachlis has served in Washington, D.C. as a White House Fellow, an honor annually accorded to only a dozen national leaders, and as a Senior Foreign Affairs advisor in the State Department. He was appointed a regional panelist for the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships in both Democratic and Republican administrations, and was also selected as a Fellow in Leadership Greater Chicago. Rabbi Rachlis was chosen by the White House to give the invocation for President Obama’s Town Hall meeting and he was also selected as one of the 25 most influential leaders in Orange County. 

Rabbi Rachlis has served as Chair of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, a coalition of over a thousand synagogues and Jewish organizations across the country. 

The former rabbi of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Illinois, Rabbi Rachlis was the youngest rabbi ever elected president of the Chicago Board of Rabbis. His service to the community includes the boards or advisory boards of Jewish Fund for Justice, U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, Americans for Peace Now, China Judaic Studies Association of Nanjing University, University of Illinois Fund for Gerontology Research, National B’nai Brith Hillel Commission, the American Jewish Committee, New Israel Fund, Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, of which he was a past president. He has also served on the executive committee of the Southern California Board of Rabbis and as a member of the Orange County Board of Rabbis. 

For nine years, Rabbi Rachlis hosted Of Cabbages and Kings on ABC-TV, as well as a syndicated cable television show on contemporary Jewish issues, Hayom. He has appeared as a guest on National Public Radio, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and PBS, and has been interviewed frequently by such publications as the New York Times. He was profiled in the award-winning documentary film, The Legacy, and has served as a Judaica consultant for Compton’s Encyclopedia.