Rabbi Amy R. Perlin

The congregation is pleased and proud to have Rabbi Amy R. Perlin as our spiritual leader. Her knowledge, compassion, sensitivity to individual and family needs, and sense of humor have endeared her to us. Rabbi Perlin's door is open to all congregants for counseling or discussion.

Voted "Best Spiritual Leader" by respondents to a survey in The Connection  newspaper, Rabbi Perlin has been Temple B'nai Shalom's religious leader since the fall of 1986. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University. She received her M.A.H.L. and ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in New York. Rabbi Perlin teaches children and adults and is famous for her sermons.

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Rabbi Shoshana Nyer

How wonderful it is to have Rabbi Shoshana Nyer as our Associate Rabbi/Educator. Rabbi Nyer started at Temple B'nai Shalom, on July 1, 2003. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where her parents still reside, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Jewish Studies from University of Maryland, and was ordained in N.Y. on May 4, 2003, with Rabbi and Gary Perlin in attendance. Rabbi Nyer studied at the N.Y. campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Her rabbinic thesis was about the possible healing uses of Holocaust poetry. Previously, she was the student rabbi at Congregation B'nai Dorot in Alpharetta, Georgia, where she was involved with their Tot Shabbat program.

Rabbi Nyer taught religious school at Steven Wise Free Synagogue in N.Y. starting in 1999, and in other congregations before that. She has strong connections with Camp Wise in Ohio where she began as an arts and crafts specialist in 1995, was Judaic Specialist from 1996-99, and became program director in 2000, scheduling all camp programs, supervising all the specialists and creating programming for grades 3 through 10. In addition, she has served as an intern for the UAHC regional office in Cleveland, Ohio, and was a Clinical Pastoral Hospital Chaplain in the summer of 2001. For her last two years at HUC-JIR, Rabbi Nyer had the privilege of serving as the Academic Intern for Dr. Eugene Borowitz, Professor of Philosophy (who also taught philosophy to Rabbi Perlin!). Rabbi Nyer loves film and food and her family.

Rabbi Perlin and Rabbi Nyer may be the first senior-assistant all female team in the history of the world! We are so excited to have such a capable rabbi in our congregation.

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Donna Courtney

As a founding member of Temple B’nai Shalom, Donna has been involved in many aspects of temple life. She and her husband, Roger, were the first to put together a weekly service folder. They were in the adult choir together, took the Introduction to Judaism class together, and raised three children (and now a grandchild) with the help and guidance of our wonderful rabbis and the entire TBS community. Donna, Roger, and all three of their children were B’nai Mitzvah at B’nai Shalom and the Courtneys are currently TBS’s only 4 generation family. In addition to serving on the Temple Board for six years, she was president from 2008 to 2009, co-chaired the 2008 New Year’s Eve Fundraiser, and chaired the Sanctuary Beautification Committee (2005-2006). She is co-director of the Youth Choir, Sisterhood member, third grade religious school teacher, and Hebrew resource teacher. Returning as President, in July 2010, she plans to continue focusing on creating and maintaining a kehillah kedoshah, a sacred community, in which people make lifelong connections with each other, worship and learn together, and gain strength from one another.

 Donna can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .