Our Rabbi

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg was ordained in May of 2003 at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, NY. She became rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek in July of 2007.

Rabbi Goldenberg grew up in York, Pennsylvania where her father, Rabbi Irwin Goldenberg serves as the rabbi of Temple Beth Israel.
 

She moved to Connecticut after four years serving as an assistant/associate rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, TX. At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Goldenberg oversaw all Social Justice, Outreach and Caring Congregation activities as well as the Confirmation program. She performed the whole range of rabbinic functions from life-cycle events to preaching to leadings services and teaching adults and teenagers.

As a rabbinical student, Rabbi Goldenberg served congregations in Nassau, Bahamas and Waldorf, Maryland. She coordinated the student-run Soup Kitchen at HUC-JIR, New York. During her first year of the rabbinic program, in Jerusalem, Rabbi Goldenberg was active in Rabbis for Human Rights, coordinating volunteers working with the Bedouin community as well as mobilizing students to participate in political action. 

She is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. The Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program funds a select number of aspiring Jewish professionals from across the Jewish spectrum during their student years and provides them with leadership training.

She received her B.A. in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1997. In her junior year of college, she spent a semester in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Jordan, studying the Peace Process and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

She currently serves on the board of Rabbis for Human Rights – North America, is a member of the Women’s Rabbinic Network of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and serves on the WRN’s Social Action Committee. She looks forward to actively participating in the Valley Shore Clergy Association and to finding other ways to connect to CBSRZ and the larger Shoreline community.

Rabbi Goldenberg loves to dance, take yoga classes, swim, and take long walks in nature.

Rabbi Goldenberg and her family reside in Deep River, CT. She is married to Jim Talbott and they have a daughter and a son, Amina and Ziv Goldenberg.