Clergy

Or Zohar came to serve as Temple Sinai’s Senior Rabbi in the Summer of 2024. Rabbi Zohar moved to Rochester with his family from the Galilee, Israel, where he served for eight years as the Reform Rabbi of the Misgav Regional Council. Previously, Rabbi Zohar served as the rabbi of Congregation Ma’a lot Tivon in Kiryat Tivon, and as the founding rabbi of Kehilat Halev, one of the Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism in Tel Aviv.

Parallel to his work at the pulpit, Rabbi Zohar served as the founding director of the Spirit of the Galilee, an organization that promotes inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue between Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze in northern Israel. His work helped to reduce conflict and increase trust and collaborations between Jewish and Arab communities in that region.

Rabbi Zohar is a composer of sacred Jewish music. As part of the duo “Feliza & Or Zohar”, he has released 4 albums of original sacred Jewish music, toured extensively throughout North America and Europe. His liturgical compositions are published in TMP’s musical compilations such as Shireynu and Libi Bamizrach.

Rabbi Zohar is a lifelong student and researcher of Kabbalah and Jewish spirituality, seeking to integrate these paths of ancient wisdom in relevant and approachable ways in contemporary contexts. He has taught Kabbalah and Jewish Spirituality both in Israel and as a scholar in residence in congregations throughout North America.

Rabbi Zohar was ordained at the Jerusalem campus of HUC-JIR in 2012. He received his MA (Summa cum laude) in Jewish Philosophy from Tel Aviv University, and a BA in Jewish Thought and Indian Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Rabbi Zohar is married to Feliza, and together they have 4 children.

Email Rabbi Zohar

Rabbi Alan J. Katz served as rabbi of Temple Sinai in Rochester from 1986 to 2020 at which time he became Rabbi Emeritus.

A graduate of Lehigh University, he attended Hebrew Union College where he earned an MA in Hebrew literature (1975), rabbinic ordination (1976), and a Doctor of Divinity (2001). He also studied in the graduate program for pastoral counseling at Iona College for two years. 

Rabbi Katz has served on numerous community organizations including the Rochester Board of Rabbis (past president), the Jewish Community Federation (board member and chair of the Department of Community Relations), the Federation's Levine Center to End Hate (steering committee), the Commission of Christian-Jewish Relations (past chair), the Greater Rochester Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, the Pastoral Care HIV/AIDS Committee, the Brennan Goldman Commission, the Interfaith Forum of Rochester, and the advisory board for the Hickey Center for Interfaith Study and Dialogue at Nazareth College. He has also taught courses in Judaism and Christian-Jewish relations at Nazareth College. 

In 1986, Rabbi Katz was one of three signatories of the Rochester Agreement between the Rochester Board of Rabbis, the Jewish Community Federation, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester. Along with Bishop Matthew Clark, he co-led the Rochester Interfaith Mission to Israel in the summer of 1998. In 2005, again with Bishop Clark, he co-led a mission to Rome to celebrate 10 years of the Rochester Agreement, during which the group met with leaders from the Vatican as well as Pope Benedict. 

Rabbi Katz has visited Israel 44 times as of 2019, including two years of study at Hebrew University and at Hebrew Union College. He has served on the National Rabbinic Cabinets of the United Jewish Appeal and the State of Israel Bonds. Presently, he is on the National Rabbinic Council of ARZA/World Union (American Association of Reform Zionists and the World Union for Progressive Judaism). In 1995, he received the State of Israel Peace Award. He has served on the steering committee of Partnership Together between Modi’in and Rochester, including four years as co-chair. He often taught in Modi’in public schools on the subject of American Jewish life.

Many of Rabbi Katz’s activities include reaching across racial, ethnic, and religious lines to create understanding and friendship. He is part of the Muslim-Jewish Dialogue group and the Commission on Jewish-Muslim Understanding (CJMU), and has fostered relationships between Temple Sinai and AME Baber Church, the Parcels Historic Church, and the Islamic Center of Rochester. 

On October 4, 2001, Rabbi Katz was invited to Washington, DC, to deliver the opening prayer in the US House of Representatives at that very critical time in our nation’s life.

Rabbi Katz is married to Jan, who, after several decades as a Jewish educator, entered Hebrew Union College's rabbinic program and was ordained as a rabbi in May 2021. They have three children, Tamar, Rabbi Noam, and Ben, and are blessed with 12 grandchildren.