Rabbi : Rabbi Ben Keil
Rabbi Ben Keil is a graduate of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University, where he spent three years as a RIETS Israel Kollel member, and was certified by the RIETS-Ferkauf Graduate Program in Pastoral Counseling. He grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, and attended Boston University, where he and his wife Dana met. Rabbi Keil spent two years teaching at the Breuer's Mesivta High School, a year running the youth department at Lincoln Square Synagogue, and two years as Executive Director of LSS before their family moved to Jerusalem to spend time learning. While learning at the RIETS Israel Kollel, he taught Gemara at Yeshivat Orayta in the evenings, and did specialized training in fertility and halacha with Machon Puah. Upon returning to New York, Rabbi Keil spent three years as the rabbi at the Young Israel of Pelham Parkway Jewish Center. Rabbi Keil, his wife Dana, and their children Meir (8), Ashira (6), and Livia (4) are excited to be a part of the Congregation Kol Israel community, which they joined in 2022. Rabbi Keil also works as Operations Manager at UJA-Federation of New York and sits on the Alumni Council of Boston University Hillel. In addition to his time at Yeshiva University, Rabbi Keil holds private semicha from Rabbi Joseph Polak, the Av Beit Din of the Rabbinical Council of New England.
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.