[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 78 (Monday, May 6, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNIZING RABBI ZOBERMAN'S 50TH YEAR AS A RABBI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JENNIFER A. KIGGANS

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 6, 2024

  Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate Rabbi 
Dr. Israel Zoberman, who was recently honored for his 50th year of 
service as a rabbi.
  Rabbi Zoberman is the founder and spiritual leader of Temple 
LevTikvah in Virginia Beach. He was born on November 12, 1945, in Chu, 
Kazakhstan to Polish Holocaust survivors. He spent his early childhood 
in Displaced Persons Camps in Austria and Germany following an escape 
from Poland. Immigrating to Haifa, Israel in 1949 with his family, he 
served in the Israel Defense Forces in the 1960s. Following his 
military service, he earned a Bachelor's degree in Hebrew Literature 
from Chicago's College of Jewish Studies in 1969, and a Bachelor of 
Arts in Political Science from Chicago's Roosevelt University in 1970. 
He has a Master of Art in Political Science from the University of 
Illinois at Chicago in 1971. He was ordained as a Reform Rabbi at the 
Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio 
in 1974, along with a M.A. in Hebrew Letters. His alma-mater granted 
him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree in 1999. He is the only rabbi 
to earn a doctoral degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling from the 
McCormick Theological Seminary (affiliated with the Presbyterian Church 
USA) in Chicago, Illinois in 1980.
  He led his former Congregation Beth Chaverim for over 30 years. Also, 
he spent 10 years at the Catholic Church of the Ascension in Virginia 
Beach. Rabbi Zoberman represents the Jewish community at civic events 
in Chesapeake, Virginia. He is the first rabbi to serve as chairman of 
the Community Relations Council of the United Jewish Federation of 
Tidewater and is a long-time member of the Federation Holocaust 
Commission. Since1981, he has served on the spiritual panel of Lee's 
Friends, has been the past national interfaith chair of Jewish Counsel 
of Public Affairs and served as president of the Hampton Roads Board of 
Rabbis and Cantors, as well as president of the Virginia Beach Clergy 
Association. He is the only Hampton Roads rabbi to serve as a volunteer 
police chaplain with the Virginia Beach Police Department. He is a 
commissioner with the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission.
  I congratulate Rabbi Zoberman on his 50 years of service as a rabbi 
and his dedication to our community.

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