Jeremy Morrison
Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison grew up at Temple Israel of Boston and has been active in the congregation from a very young age. Rabbi Morrison had his bar mitzvah in the synagogue and continued to be active in RYFTI, Temple Israel’s NFTY chapter, and later he succeeded his brother as the RYFTI president. In 1987, he participated in Temple Israel’s mission to the USSR, at the age of 16, and continued being active in the cause after coming back. In 2001, Rabbi Morrison came back as a Rabbi, after being ordained at the Hebrew Union College of the region of N.Y. He had a mission of reaching out and engaging adults in their 20’s and 30’s and this mission continued with the founding of the Riverway Project encouraging adults in their 20’s and 30’s to join the synagogue and deepen their connection to Judaism. Rabbi Morrison has tenured at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, Israel and during his time there was awarded the Steinhardt Scholar Fellowship and has served as a project educator for the Central Conference of American Rabbis. In 2017 Rabbi Morrison earned his Ph.D. in Bible and Ancient Near East at Brandeis University. After earning his Ph.D. Rabbi Morrison moved to Berkeley California where he became executive director at the HAMAQOM |The Place is an organization building Jewish communities in the Bay Area. As of July 2020, Rabbi Morrison is tenured and the Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Am.
Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison tells the story of how, as a part of the Reform Youth Federation of Temple Israel [RYFTI], they collected furniture and other stuff for Joseph Gilbo’s apartment in Chestnut Hill Ave. He tells the story of the experience in the Russian customs and being stopped and searched. He describes a meeting with the Charnys in their apartment in Moscow and how it was bugged by the KGB. The Charneys asked Rabbi Morrison to deliver a film through the embassy to be burned. He was in Riga for 24 hours instead of 48 and talks about the delivery of the items they brought with them.
