Temple Rodef Shalom is the largest Jewish congregation in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, located in Fairfax County

Fairfax County, Virginia

Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...

 (with a "Falls Church" mailing address). Founded in 1962, it counts a membership of over 1,300 households.

In 1963, the Temple hired Laszlo Berkowits

Laszlo Berkowits

Laszlo Berkowits is a Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi. From 1944-1945, he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. After his release in 1945, he studied briefly in Sweden before he moved to the United States, where he began studying to be a rabbi. He was ordained in 1962.In...

 as its first rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

. In 1998, it became one of the largest congregations in the United States to have a female rabbi, when it replaced Berkowits, who had decided to retire, with then-Associate Rabbi Amy Schwartzman.

The Temple's current Assistant Rabbi is Jeffrey Saxe. It hired its first cantor

Hazzan

A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources...

, Michael Shochet, in 1998.

External links

• Temple Rodef Shalom Official site.
• Union for Reform Judaism: Temple Rodef Shalom Directory listing.