Clergy : Rabbi Douglas Sagal

Rabbi Douglas Sagal is a native of New Jersey. He was born in Morristown, lived in Summit, and was raised in Berkeley Heights, where he attended Governor Livingston High School. Rabbi Sagal graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut with a BA in history. He was ordained in 1990 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. In addition, Rabbi Sagal received a Masters in Sacred Theology from the Yale Divinity School, where he received the annual award for preaching.

Rabbi Sagal was the first full time rabbi at Congregation Beth Shalom in Chester, CT, where he served for nine years, building the congregation from sixty families to two hundred. He has served as Senior Rabbi of KAM Isaiah Israel congregation in Chicago, and is currently in his fifth year of service to Temple Emanu-El.

Rabbi Sagal is the author of several articles on preaching and biblical interpretation. Rabbi Sagal is married to Dr. Lauren Kaplan-Sagal, a practicing physician, and they have three children. Yes, he is the brother of NPR radio personality Peter Sagal.

Clergy : Cantor Martha T. Novick

Cantor Novick received a Bachelor of Science in Music Performance and a Master of Arts in Music Education from New York University. She also received a Bachelor of Sacred Music from Hebrew Union College, School of Sacred Music, where she was invested as Cantor in May of l983.

Cantor Novick has performed leading roles in opera for the Metropolitan Opera Association, the National Shakespeare Theatre, CBS and PBS Television, NYC Radio, The Center for New Music in New York, and the Liederkranz Opera Workshop. She has been soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony, The Brooklyn Philharmonia, Musica Hebraica, Sela and the Hebrew Arts Chorale. Cantor Novick has served on the Board of the American Conference of Cantors, the Commission on Synagogue Music, the Advisory Board and Review Board of Transcontinental Music Publishing, and currently serves as Vice President of the American Society for Jewish Music.

Cantor Novick had the distinction of being the first female Cantor to perform in a traditional Cantorial Concert in a major concert hall in New York. She made a CD of Yiddish Art Songs Music for the Miliken Foundation Archives of Twentieth Century American Jewish Composers, and a CD of High Holiday Music for Transcontinental Music Publishing.

Cantor Novick is a member of the faculty at The Hebrew Union College, School of Sacred Music and The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Miller Cantorial School.

Clergy : Rabbi Leah Rose Doberne-Schor

Rabbi Leah Rose Doberne-Schor was raised in Northridge, CA, and graduated magna cum laude in philosophy from Pomona College in 1999. During college she spent a semester studying in Cambridge, England, and two summers on staff at URJ Camp Swig. After college she worked for a year as the program director at Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor, MI.

Rabbi Doberne-Schor studied in the rabbinical program at HUC-JIR in New York, where she received the degree of Master of Arts in 2004 and was ordained in 2005. As a rabbinical student, Rabbi Doberne-Schor served as the student rabbi at Temple Beth Ha Sholom in Williamsport, PA and as the rabbinic intern at Temple Emanu-El of Edison, NJ. She interned at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Commission on Social Action, where she wrote social action program guides for Jewish holidays, and she trained in Clinical Pastoral Education (hospital chaplaincy) at Beth Israel Hospital.

In December of 2004, Rabbi Doberne-Schor traveled to El Salvador with an American Jewish World Service interdenominational rabbinical student service delegation, where she learned about social justice in the developing world and dialogued with colleagues from across the Jewish spectrum.

Before moving to New Jersey, Rabbi Doberne-Schor was a teacher and member of Congregation Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn, NY. She and her husband, Adam Doberne-Schor, live in Westfield, NJ.

At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Doberne-Schor is involved in the full range of pulpit and pastoral duties. She also coordinates Confirmation and works closely with the Caring Community and Social Action Committee.

Clergy : Charles A. Kroloff, Rabbi Emeritus

Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff served as Senior Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El for 36 years, from 1966 until his retirement in 2002. He and his wife, Dr. Terry Kroloff, still reside in Westfield. On his retirement, the new educational wing of the Temple was named The Rabbi Charles A. Kroloff Center for Jewish Learning.

Rabbi Kroloff currently is Vice President for Special Projects of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City. He remains active in the Westfield area, through leadership to Temple Emanu-El’s “I Have A Dream” program in Plainfield and the Westfield Foundation, speaking at area synagogues, and providing rabbinic life cycle services.

Rabbi Kroloff earned his B.A. magna cum laude at Yale University and rabbinic ordination at Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati. Before coming to Westfield, he was Assistant Rabbi at Temple Israel, Boston, and Rabbi of Community Reform Temple, Westbury, NY. A past president of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, he was a member of the governing boards of the Jewish Agency, Hebrew Union College, and the Union for Reform Judaism. He was a founder of the Interfaith Council for the Homeless of Union County and, following retirement, Interim Rabbi at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, New York City.

He is the author of three books, When Elijah Knocks, A Religious Response to Homelessness (Behrman House), 54 Ways You Can Help the Homeless (Macmillan), and Reform Judaism: A Jewish Way of Life (Ktav).

Rabbi Kroloff and his wife are the parents of Micah, Noah, and Sarah, and the grandparents of Adam, Arielle, Jonathan, Aaron, and Max.

Clergy : Ronni Pressman - Cantorial Assistant