Our Rabbi

Rabbi Leon A. Morris is rabbi of Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, NY. A leading educator in the field of adult Jewish study, Rabbi Morris was the founding director of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.

Ordained from Hebrew Union College in1997 where he was a Wexner Graduate Fellow, he has worked extensively as an educator with the Jewish community of India, beginning in 1990 when he served as a Jewish Service Corps volunteer for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and has returned many times for shorter volunteer work.

For three years Leon served as Director of New York Kollel: A Center for Adult Jewish Study at HUC-JIR. He was among the founders of Lishmash, a one-day festival of Jewish life and learning. In addition to teaching at Skirball, he has taught at Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform synagogues, as well as the Drisha Institute. He has contributed essays to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Baltimore Sun, The Jewish Weekand Beliefnet and has appeared on NPR’s “Morning Edition” and PBS’s “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.”

Leon is a contributor the the recently published book, Jewish Theology in Our Time: A New Generation Explores the Foundations and Future of Jewish Belief (edited by Elliot Cosgrove, Jewish Lights, 2010) and has also contributed a chapter to Platforms and Prayer Books: Theological and Liturgical Perspectives on Reform Judaism. Leon is a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute’s North American Scholars’ Circle. He was recently selected as one of four editors of the forthcoming Reform High Holiday prayer book to be published in 2015.

At the beginning of May 2010, Leon became the first resident rabbi of Temple Adas Israel, a historic synagogue in Sag Harbor, New York that he had served during the summers for the past ten years. He now lives in Sag Harbor, with his wife, Dasee Berkowitz, a Jewish educator, their son, Tamir and daughter, Yael.

Click Here for a list of Rabbi Morris's articles and lectures.

Rabbi's Study: 631-725-0904; Email: leonalanmorris@gmail.com 

Our Cantor

 Student Cantor Amanda Kleinman is thrilled to be joining the Temple Adas Israel community.  Amanda recently completed her third year of cantorial school at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.  Next year, she will pursue full-time Jewish text study as an Arts Fellow at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, before returning to HUC-JIR to complete cantorial school. 

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Amanda graduated from Middlebury College in 2009 with degrees in music and history.  While at Middlebury, Amanda spent time studying at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Since beginning cantorial school, Amanda has served as the student cantor at Moses Montefiore Temple in Bloomington, Illinois and as the cantorial intern at Scarsdale Synagogue - Temples Tremont and Emanu-El, where she served as interim cantor during the cantor’s sabbatical.  She spent two summers at URJ Greene Family Camp as both an assistant education director and the head of the camp’s counselor-in-training program.  She is active in the larger Reform community, as HUC-JIR’s student representative to the URJ Joint Commission on Worship, Music, and Religious Living.  

Email: amanda.kleinman@gmail.com