07/31/2026
TEMPLE BETH SHOLOM WELCOMES RABBI LERNER
Long Island Press Website, Posted on 7-23-26
By Larissa Fuentes (Roslyn News Times Editor)
Temple Beth Sholom has welcomed Rabbi David J. Lerner as its new spiritual leader, bringing to the Roslyn Heights congregation a rabbi whose journey to the pulpit began with childhood curiosity about faith and evolved through years of study, teaching and community leadership.
Lerner will take on the role after serving six years as rabbi of Congregation B’nai Sholom-Beth David in Rockville Centre. Before that, he held rabbinic internships at Beth Tzedek Congregation in Toronto and Bet Torah in Mount Kisco, while earlier serving as a ritual director and educator in his hometown of Detroit and at Camp Ramah in Canada.
Temple Beth Sholom President Sanford Berger said the congregation is enthusiastic about the appointment.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rabbi Lerner and his lovely young family to our synagogue and are confident that they will provide a dynamic and inspiring presence,” Berger said in a statement
Lerner and his wife, Alexis Lerner, a political science professor, have three children: Magda Rose, 9, Levi, 7, and Goldie, 3.
Temple Beth Sholom’s new spiritual leader, and his wife, Dr. Alexis Lerner, with their three children, Magda Rose, Levi and Goldie.
For Lerner, becoming a rabbi was not part of an early career plan. Instead, he describes it as a calling that became clearer through a series of experiences he believes continually drew him back toward Judaism.
“I’ve always been connected to my faith, even at an early age,” Lerner said. “My dad actually noticed … when I was in the car on a road trip at the age of six, I was talking about God at night. We were driving and just thinking about the stars in the sky … and just noting that there had to be this creator that tied everything together.”
That fascination with spirituality remained throughout his childhood, but it wasn’t until college that he began seeing what he believed were signs directing him toward religious leadership.
While attending the University of Michigan as an English major, Lerner unexpectedly found himself returning to synagogue to chant the Torah portion from his bar mitzvah.
“I just woke up one morning and … had this urge to go to synagogue and to read it as I did on my bar mitzvah,” he said. “It became this regular gig every week, and I was making enough money to pay for my rent and my car payment. It was really this blessing.”
Lerner said those moments, along with other experiences he interpreted as divine guidance, convinced him his future lay in Jewish leadership.
“I really feel that it is a calling,” he said. “This has been happening for the past 20 years.”
Originally born in North Miami Beach, Fla., Lerner moved to Michigan as a child after his mother accepted a job with General Motors.
“I like to say that my parents played this cruel trick on us and moved us from Florida to Michigan during wintertime,” he joked.
He became active at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in suburban Detroit, where his involvement eventually led to a full-time position as a youth director, Hebrew school teacher and prayer leader.
At the time, Lerner was preparing for medical school after switching from English to pre-med and earning additional science coursework. He said accepting the synagogue position meant postponing those plans.
“I felt like I needed to explore that,” he said. “There was something inside me that felt I needed to just defer medical school and pursue that.”
His path next took him to Israel, where he spent nearly a year studying at a yeshiva immersed in ancient Jewish texts.
“It really gave me a spiritual lens to see the world,” Lerner said. “I fell in love with Talmud.”
In 2015, after repeated encouragement from Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Arnold Eisen, Lerner entered rabbinical school.
“It was the best decision of my life because it was following this trajectory that, looking back, I see was very clear, but at the time it wasn’t so clear,” he said.
His first year in seminary also coincided with his engagement and marriage to Alexis, followed by a move to Jerusalem during their first year as a married couple while she worked on her doctoral dissertation.
“We got married, and then picked up and left and moved to Jerusalem for the first year of marriage, and that was really beautiful,” he said.
Lerner said Temple Beth Sholom appealed to him for several reasons, beginning with its location on Long Island’s North Shore, where many of his children’s classmates and friends already lived.
During his first visit, he was immediately struck by the congregation’s energy.
“I saw this vibrant religious school with over 200 students and children running around excited to be there, smiles on their faces,” he said. “The vibrancy really was noteworthy. It was something that really affected me.”
He also cited the congregation’s history, educational programming and multigenerational leadership as factors that attracted him.
“Temple Beth Sholom is a leading Conservative synagogue on the island,” he said, noting its extensive educational offerings, youth engagement and active young families. “I think this congregation is thinking about its future, and I think that’s really important.”
Rather than introducing sweeping changes, Lerner said his first priority has been listening.
“My priority when I came in here … is getting to know people before I can even think about outreach,” he said. “I have been meeting with all different groups of people, whether it’s lunches, dinners, small group engagements, house meetings. My main priority has been meeting people and engaging with them.”
He believes Judaism is built upon relationships.
“My role is to strengthen that,” he said.
Lerner also said he makes a point of greeting newcomers personally, often stepping down from the bimah during services to introduce himself.
“I’m not a rabbi who just stays up at my pulpit,” he said. “I will greet someone who I don’t recognize … shake their hand and introduce myself.”
Looking ahead, Lerner said he hopes every person who walks through Temple Beth Sholom’s doors feels welcomed, regardless of their background or level of religious observance.
“My focus at this synagogue is to make people feel, no matter who walks in this door, that this is a place where they belong, that this is the center of local Jewish life in the community,” Lerner said. “My job is to strengthen that presence.”
