Rabbi Shlomo Agishtein

Stony Brook Hebrew Congregation

Feb. 8, 2021

Rabbi Shlomo Agishtein was born in Moscow during the waning days of the U.S.S.R. He was fortunate enough to be born to parents whose intellectual and spiritual thirst brought them back to their Jewish heritage despite still living behind the Iron Curtain. Shlomo moved to the United States as a two-year-old immigrant. He grew up in the heart of the yeshiva world, in the then-small town of Lakewood, NJ. Shlomo learned from R’ Elya Svei and R’ Shmuel Kamenetzky at the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia while attending high school and beth medrash, and continued his studies in Israel before heading back to his hometown of Lakewood to pursue rabbinical ordination in Beth Medrash Govoha. The fledging Agishtein family then moved to Monsey where Shlomo joined Kollel Shaar Hashamayim, and focused on intensive Halachic study and rabbinical interning. In 2017 Shlomo moved to Stony Brook to assume the position of Rabbi at the Stony Brook Hebrew Congregation and to join the Hillel as the Orthodox Rabbinic Fellow, and Jewish Chaplain at the SBU Interfaith Center. In addition to his ordination, Shlomo has a complete dual degree in mathematics and computer science and is now pursuing a graduate degree in applied mathematics.

Shlomo keeps busy by juggling his Torah teaching, rabbinical duties, his college courses, and his five rambunctious children (the kids have developed very thick skulls). In his spare time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and children, cooking, hiking, reading, and boxing.