Recognizing Rabbi Zoberman's 50th Year As A Rabbi

Floor Speech

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Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman, who was recently honored for his 50th year of service as a rabbi.

Rabbi Zoberman is the founder and spiritual leader of Temple LevTikvah in Virginia Beach. He was born on November 12, 1945, in Chu, Kazakhstan to Polish Holocaust survivors. He spent his early childhood in Displaced Persons Camps in Austria and Germany following an escape from Poland. Immigrating to Haifa, Israel in 1949 with his family, he served in the Israel Defense Forces in the 1960s. Following his military service, he earned a Bachelor's degree in Hebrew Literature from Chicago's College of Jewish Studies in 1969, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Chicago's Roosevelt University in 1970. He has a Master of Art in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1971. He was ordained as a Reform Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1974, along with a M.A. in Hebrew Letters. His alma-mater granted him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1999. He is the only rabbi to earn a doctoral degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling from the McCormick Theological Seminary (affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA) in Chicago, Illinois in 1980.

He led his former Congregation Beth Chaverim for over 30 years. Also, he spent 10 years at the Catholic Church of the Ascension in Virginia Beach. Rabbi Zoberman represents the Jewish community at civic events in Chesapeake, Virginia. He is the first rabbi to serve as chairman of the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and is a long-time member of the Federation Holocaust Commission. Since1981, he has served on the spiritual panel of Lee's Friends, has been the past national interfaith chair of Jewish Counsel of Public Affairs and served as president of the Hampton Roads Board of Rabbis and Cantors, as well as president of the Virginia Beach Clergy Association. He is the only Hampton Roads rabbi to serve as a volunteer police chaplain with the Virginia Beach Police Department. He is a commissioner with the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission.

I congratulate Rabbi Zoberman on his 50 years of service as a rabbi and his dedication to our community.

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