Rabbi Benjamin Samuels

Congregation Shaarei Tefillah, Newton Centre, Massachusetts

Mar 14, 2014

Since 1995, Benjamin J. Samuels has been the rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Tefillah, a Modern Orthodox synagogue of 235 families in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. Rabbi Samuels is the President of the Vaad Harabonim (Rabbinical Council) of New England and a member of its Beit Din. Rabbi Samuels teaches widely in the Greater Boston Jewish community including serving as a Master Teacher at Maayan: Torah Study from the Sources, a Genesis Scholar at Combined Jewish Philanthropies, instructor in the celebrated adult education Meah program, and a member of CJP's Board of Governors. He is also a member of the Maimonides School Board of Trustees.

Rabbi Samuels pursued his formal education primarily at Yeshiva University, where he earned a BA in English Literature; and as a Wexner Graduate Fellow, achieved an MA in both Bible and Medieval Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, and most importantly, his semikhah (rabbinical ordination) from Yeshiva University's Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. Rabbi Samuels also spent three years studying advanced Talmud in Israel at Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush) and Yeshiva University's Gruss Kollel. Rabbi Samuels is currently a doctoral candidate at Boston University in its "Science and Religion" program.

Rabbi Samuels is happily married to Stephanie Newman Samuels, 6th Grade Dean and Limudei Kodesh and English Instructor at Maimonides School. Together, they are the proud parents of four sons. Rabbi Samuels has been a member of the RCA since 1995 and has served on its Executive Committee twice.