Congregation Kol Israel

Board of Directors

Meira Davidowitz* : President

MatThew Pincus : Vice president

Allen Glenn : Treasurer

Aryeh Falk*

ELI SABO*

Lawrence Horwitz*

Raphi Toubian*

* indicates TRustee

Rabbinic Leadership

Rabbi Weingarten studied at Kerem B' Yavneh in Israel and received semicha from RIETS (Yeshiva University). He served as rabbinic fellow at Lincoln Square Synagogue and received his medical degree from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2023.  He is currently a psychiatry resident at Mount Sinai West, Veterans’ Hospital, with a focus on the treatment of trauma. Rabbi Weingarten is the author of numerous publications on medicine and Jewish law, including the book Pirchei Hagefen on the weekly Parsha.

A native of Ottawa, Canada, Alexander Moss spent several years alternating between the Negev desert, where he learned in Yeshivat Hesder Yerucham, and Toronto, where he completed a BA in linguistics, art history, and Jewish studies. Now based in Washington Heights, Alexander is pursuing semikha at RIETS as well as a certificate in mental health counseling. Alexander is particularly fond of spontaneous adventures and encountering all kinds of human beings and their stories. He is excited to get to know the CKI community and to learn Torah together.

IN MEMORIAM : Rabbi Elkanah SChwartz Z”L

For over forty-five years, Rabbi Elkanah Schwartz served as a bedrock of Orthodox Jewish life in Prospect Heights. A native New Yorker from Manhattan’s lower East side and Brooklyn’s Brownsville, Torah scholar Rabbi Elkanah Schwartz began his Torah education at Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, eventually resulting in S’micha Ordination from that institution. Formerly Assistant Editor of Jewish Life Magazine, published by the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Schwartz was a published author of short stories (American Life: Shtetl Style, Stories & Sketches, 1967). A graduate of Brooklyn College, Rabbi Schwartz pursued graduate studies at New York University’s Graduate School of Public Affairs and served as Assistant to Deputy Mayor Herman Badillo in the 1970s.

In 1976, Rabbi Schwartz was Rabbi of Coney Island Talmud Torah and had provided ad hoc weekly classes in Halacha and Parsha to CKI congregants in their private homes, when CKI’s then-President Arthur Fried asked him to succeed Rabbi Nathan Thumin. Rabbi Schwartz was able to keep the CKI synagogue open and alive during the Brooklyn decline of the 1980s-1990s and witnessed its resurgence in the 2000s. In addition to serving as Rabbi of CKI, Rabbi Schwartz is Director of Community Relations, Torah Schools for Israel. Although Rabbi Schwartz and his family moved from Crown Heights to Boro Park in 1993, he walked from his Boro Park home to CKI in Crown Heights-Prospect Heights every Shabbos and Yom Tov - an eight-mile round trip for more than twenty years - widely acknowledged as an act of supreme “mesiras nefesh” by him and his wife, Chedva. When the walk became too difficult, Rabbi Schwartz continued to officiate at Sunday morning services, write weekly Parsha Thoughts for the CKI newsletter, and provide pastoral counseling. Rabbi Schwartz became Rabbi Emeritus and continued to serve in an advisory and counseling capacity until his passing. Rabbi Schwartz is survived by his wife, two children, and many grandchildren.

A tribute to Rabbi Schwartz from long-time CKI member Dr. Matthew R. Pincus can be found here: Rabbi Schwartz Tribute.