Meet the Senior Rabbi
Rabbi Adam J. Raskin
301-299-7087 ext.1
rabbiraskin@harshalom.org
Rabbi Adam J. Raskin has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Har Shalom since 2011. Originally from Cleveland, OH, he developed a love of synagogue life when he was very young, and was encouraged by his childhood rabbis to grow and learn Jewishly, travel to Israel, and imagine a career of service to God and the Jewish people. He earned his BA in Jewish Studies at The Ohio State University, and received the prestigious Wexner Graduate Fellowship for his studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Upon ordination, the Rabbinical School awarded him the Lamport Prize in Homiletics. Rabbi Raskin served for three years as Assistant Rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas, TX, and then for six years as Rabbi of Congregation Beth Torah in Richardson, TX, prior to coming to Har Shalom. Rabbi Raskin has also spent time studying at the Hadar Institute in New York, as well as the Shalom Hartman Institute, and Shapell’s/Darche Noam, both in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Raskin is the first rabbi ever to be accepted to and participate in Leadership Montgomery, and he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville. Rabbi Raskin is currently a member of the Executive Council of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international organization of Conservative Rabbis, and he is a member of the Joint Placement Commission of the RA/USCJ. He was one of the founders of Potomac-Area Interfaith Communities, a consortium of neighboring faith groups and clergy that gather for programing, community service, study, and an annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service (the first of which was held at Har Shalom). He is also a blogger for the Times of Israel. Rabbi Raskin is very active in pro-Israel advocacy, and has led numerous multigenerational trips to Israel, and is a member of the Jewish Clergy Council of Zioness. Some of his greatest loves include teaching and inculcating Jewish joy in children’s lives (you can always find him outside greeting kids on Sunday mornings, as well as in the classroom every week in the Religious School or telling stories to preschoolers), teaching and relating Judaism’s deep wisdom in classes and on the bimah, and participating in people’s most sacred life experiences. He possesses truly boundless love for the Jewish people, and he cherishes his relationships with members of the congregation. Rabbi Raskin is joined in his sacred work by his wife, Sari Levinson Raskin, and their three children, Mia, Nessa, and Ezra.