July 2023

Welcome Rabbi Dawn Rose!

Hailing from a ranch in Northern California, Rabbi Dawn Rose received a BA and MA in Literature, graduating summa cum laude at U.C. Berkeley.  With a family musical background, after college she studied voice and theater, training for the opera stage.  She sang with neighborhood opera troops and a nationally acclaimed symphony choir, under the baton of such conductors as Michael Tilson Tomas and Leonard Bernstein.  With this choir, she contributed to several recordings, including the Oscar winning movie Amadeus.  A resident of San Francisco, Rose experienced brutal onset of the AIDS crisis firsthand.  Moved by the heroic acts of responsibility and kindness she saw all around her, she converted to Judaism and made the life-altering decision to become a rabbi.

Moving to New York, Rose studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary, earning an MA in Rabbinic Theology and a PhD in Jewish Philosophy.  Appointed as the Director of the Center for Jewish Ethics, she developed and taught classes in Jewish Ethics and Theology, as well as authored pamphlets and chapters.   Ordained at the Academy for Jewish Religion, she entered the pulpit rabbinate.

Rabbi Rose has served at many congregations, including the Temple for Universal Judaism, her pulpit during 9/11 and aftermath.  The first rabbi in NYC to bring a Muslim to speak after the tragedy, she has been steadfast in her support of Jewish-Muslim and interfaith dialogue, serving for four years as the President of GLILA, Greater Lowell Interfaith Leadership Alliance.  

Rabbi Rose has two daughters, Paris and Toni, now in college.  She has had the honor of teaching Judaica and Hebrew for all ages at many New York and Boston area congregations for the last thirty years. She has also served as JTS Education Librarian, curriculum advisor, author of learning modules and Chair for Children and Family Programming at the National Havurah Institute.  Recently, she pursued a lifelong passion, teaching at an inner-city high school designed for students seeking to overcome addictions to drugs and alcohol.  She loves teaching Hebrew, where even the letters are brimming with spiritual meaning and joy.  Rabbi Rose has published many scholarly articles and recently published her first novel–Holy Moriah: A Kabalah.  A sequel is in the works.

Rabbi Rose is grateful and excited to be the next new Rabbi and Spiritual Leader at Congregation Bayt Shalom.  She believes CBS to be a true hamishche  Carolina treasure–with boundless possibilities.   

–– With thanks to Rabbi Rose for providing her biography