Rabbi Howard Finkelstein

Congregation Beit Tikvah, Ottawa, ONT, Canada

July 31, 2019

Rabbi Howard Finkelstein is completing his 28th year as Rabbi of Congregation Beit Tikvah in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, having served previously in Congregation Beth Israel in Kingston, Ontario for twelve years. At the same time, Rabbi Finkelstein has completed his 25th year as Dean of Judaic Studies at the Ottawa Jewish Community School which is a merger of Yitzhak Rabin High School and Hillel Academy. Rabbi Finkelstein was founding rabbi of Yitzhak Rabin High School which existed for twenty years. Rabbi Finkelstein received semicha from RIETS in 1977 as well as an M.S. in secondary Jewish education from Ferkauf Graduate School. In addition, he has a M.A. from New York University in education. He was one of four North American educators selected by the American Association of Jewish Education to take a special Administrators Training Program. In recent years, he received a Principal’s certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and won the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for excellence in Jewish Studies instruction. Rabbi Finkelstein is beginning a new phase of his professional life-retirement, and plans to dedicate his newly found free time to Torah study and Aliyah. Rabbi Finkelstein and his wife Rivka have one son, Netanel, who is married to Judith Frankiel and living in St. Louis, Missouri.