Rabbi Dr. Linda Henry Goodman
A native New Yorker, Rabbi Goodman has been our spiritual leader since 1992. She has long been a champion of women's rights, outspokenly fighting to protect reproductive choice and health care access for women in New York State and throughout the country. She participates actively in the
Reform Jewish Voice of New York State, and serves on the Clergy Advisory Board of
Concerned Clergy for Choice in Albany. In 2012, she was installed as the first woman to serve as President of The New York Board of Rabbis. For many years she has studied at the
Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and in July of 2016 will become a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of that Institute. She received rabbinic ordination from
Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, from which she also holds a Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature, a Doctor of Ministry, and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. She has served as Assistant Rabbi of
Temple Emanu-El of New York, as Hillel Director and Jewish Chaplain at
Adelphi University, and on the Jewish Studies faculties of
Molloy College and the
New York Theological Seminary. A talented musician, she holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from
Queens College and
The Mannes College of Music (now renamed Mannes College the New School for Music after a move to The New School), earned an M.A. from Queens College, and taught at both schools as well as at
SUNY Purchase. Music has always been a dominant source of her inspiration in life. She is married to Rabbi Stephen Wise Goodman, and they have an adult son, Philip.
