Rabbi Norbert Weinberg

Congregation Agudas Achim Anshei Sfard

March 5, 2019

Rabbi Weinberg was born in Bad Nauheim, Germany, to Dr. Seligmann and Kaethe (Cohn) Weinberg. His father was a heart specialist in that city. In 1938, his father was arrested by the Nazis and spent six weeks in the Buchenwald concentration camp. After his release, the family was able to leave Germany and fly to England. They spent about a year in London, after which they sailed to America. Upon completion of elementary school in Yonkers, New York, the rabbi spent his first year of high school at the Samson Raphael Yeshiva in Washington Heights, New York. He then enrolled in the Talmudical Academy, a branch of Yeshiva University, in New York City. After graduating from the Academy, he continued at Yeshiva College, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree. He continued with his rabbinical studies for another three years, culminating in his semicha. A number of years later, the rabbi received a Masters degree in Education from Rhode Island College. While pursuing his rabbinical studies, Rabbi Weinberg was appointed the director of the Junior Congregation of Congregation Sons of Israel in Yonkers, New York. He began to teach in its Hebrew school of some two hundred students and soon became its principal. This position included formulation of curricula, hiring and supervision of staff, as well as establishing rapport with the parents of the student body. Upon receiving semicha, Rabbi Weinberg assumed his first pulpit, in Quebec City, Canada, at Congregation Beth Israel. Although a small Jewish community in number, it afforded him the opportunity of being engaged in every facet of rabbinic responsibilities, both within the Jewish community and as its representative to the general population. After two years, the rabbi moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he assumed the pulpit of Congregation Ahavath Achim, where he served for eight years. He again became responsible for the rabbinic needs of the congregation, as well as its Hebrew school and adult studies. At this time, he also became the director of Camp Tikvah, a children’s summer day camp. Rabbi Weinberg then responded to a call from Congregation Adas Israel in Fall River, Massachusetts, where his scope of responsibilities were similar to his former pulpits, but with a number of additions: He became the Jewish chaplain at the Walpole State Prison, and did chaplaincy work at a local Corrigan Health Center, as well as the Fall River Jewish Home for the Aged. The rabbi also served as sofer (scribe) for the Vaad HaRabbonim of Massachusetts (The Rabbinical Court). Because of schedule constraints, he now is “on call” to perform these functions when needed. When the rabbi’s long-range contract of thirty years expired, he chose to pursue a part-time (weekend) position at Congregation Brothers of Joseph in Norwich, Connecticut. In 2005, Rabbi Weinberg pursued a part-time position closer to home, becoming the Rabbi of the historic Adams Street Shul, in Newton, Massachusetts. The rabbi and his wife, Susan, live in Newton, Massachusetts. He has four daughters and twenty-four grandchildren. Three daughters live in Efrat, Israel, and one lives in Suffern, New York. To date, he has thirty-four great grandchildren.