Rabbi Dan Levin serves as the senior rabbi of Temple Beth El, located in Boca Raton, FL, the congregation where he began his career in 1996. As the congregation’s leader, Rabbi Levin works to create a community where each member is inspired to lead a life of spiritual richness, meaning, purpose, and service. He seeks to build a congregation whose mission is to synthesize the innate questions and moral challenges of the world in which we live with the wisdom and power of centuries of Jewish tradition. It is this synthesis of tradition and the modern world that guides his teaching, worship, and pastoral care. Rabbi Levin believes that God is found in the intimacy of relationship, and seeks to build in the congregation a web of care, love, and oneness with each other, the community in which we live, and with the Jewish people here, in Israel, and throughout the world.
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Episodes
Each episode of Essential Questions with Rabbi Dan Levin will pose an essential question and invite a conversation with remarkable people in the Jewish world and in our community to consider what those questions and answers mean.
Episodes
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin speaks with Michael Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, a non-partisan voice dedicated to supporting democracy. They talk about the importance of journalism, what it takes for a democracy to work, and how increasing technologies affect the future of democracies today.
Wednesday Nov 22, 2023
Wednesday Nov 22, 2023
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin speaks with Yehuda Kohn, the father and spirit of Bet Elazraki, a chlidren's home in Israel to over 200 children ages 6-18. They talk about what it means to be a parent, different ways to show love for your children, and common struggles parents face in a Jewish context.
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
In this episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin talks with Rabbi Dr. Danny Schiff about how Judaism responds to the digital age. They discuss responses to the war between Israel and Hamas on social media, how Reform and Conservative Judaism treats new technologies, and how connections to others online compares to in person.
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
If you missed last week's webinar, you can now listen to the conversation between with faculty members from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Professor Simon Barak and Dana Gavish-Fridman, and Rabbi Greg Weisman.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev sits 25 miles from the border with Gaza and was significantly impacted by the October 7 terrorist attacks. More than 60 BGU students, staff, faculty, and family were either murdered, kidnapped or missing. Since then, the University has transformed, turning dorms into army barracks and homes for displaced families, and mobilizing students and, staff to support the war effort.
They shared how the war in Israel has impacted Ben-Gurion University, the work of Soroka Medical Center that serves the southern part of the country and which treated 1,000 patients in its emergency room on the day of the attack, and how it has affected them personally.
Organizations we encourage contributions to include the following:
- The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County is raising money to support Israel’s defense and recovery efforts.
- Magen David Adom is supporting Israel’s rescue and medical resources.
- The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism is supporting the families of Israel’s Reform congregations.
- Please also consider a contribution to Yozma, Temple Beth El’s sister congregation in Israel.
Thursday Oct 19, 2023
Thursday Oct 19, 2023
If you weren't able to attend this morning's informative webinar, you can listen to the conversation between Rabbi Dan Levin and Deputy Managing Editor of The Jerusalem Post Tovah Lazaroff about what is going on in Israel here.
Tovah has expertise in coverage of the settlements, diplomacy, the United Nations, hostage situations, conflicts on the southern and northern borders, and how Israel deals with victims of terror.
We hope you enjoy this conversation, and that you come away with more understanding of the conflict and where we go from here.
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
In this special episode of Essential Questions, Rabbi Dan Levin speaks with Rabbi Joshua Weinberg, Vice President of the URJ for Israel and Reform Zionism, and Executive Director of ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America.
Together, they discuss what is going on in Israel amid the war with Hamas.
Organizations we encourage contributions to include the following:
- The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County is raising money to support Israel’s defense and recovery efforts.
- Magen David Adom is supporting Israel’s rescue and medical resources.
- The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism is supporting the families of Israel’s Reform congregations.
- Please also consider a contribution to Yozma, Temple Beth El’s sister congregation in Israel.
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
- ARZA
- Rabbi Joshua Weinberg’s Newsletter
- The Times of Israel
- Stand With Us
- My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit
- Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War by Micah Goodman
- The Promised Podcast
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
Wednesday Sep 06, 2023
In this special High Holy Day-themed episode of the Essential Questions podcast, Cantor Lori Brock and Rabbi Greg Weisman join Rabbi Dan Levin for an episode discussing how they prepare themselves to lead High Holy Day services for the congregation, as well as how they spiritually prepare for the High Holy Days in their own lives.
Wednesday Jul 19, 2023
Wednesday Jul 19, 2023
In this episode, Rabbi Dan Levin is joined by Rabbis Jessica Spitalnic Mates and Elana Rabishaw, as they discuss their favorite moments and takeaways from our Season 1 episodes and guests, including discussions around the episodes featuring Rabbi Ammi Hirsch, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Rabbi Jennie Rosenn and more.
Rabbi Dan Levin
Rabbi Levin is a past president of SEACCAR, the southeast region of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and serves on the Budget and Finance committee of the CCAR. He is proud to be a member of the President’s Rabbinical Council of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and serves on the Alumni Leadership Council. Previously, he served as a member of the Reform Movement’s Think Tank, a group seeking to create a visioning process for the future of Reform Judaism, and as a partner in the Kalsman Institute for Judaism and Health. He has mentored younger colleagues through the CCAR, The Wexner Foundation, and the CLI Fellows program of CLAL – the Center for Learning and Leadership.
Locally, he has served on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, as a board member of Ruth and Norman Rales Jewish Family Services, the American Jewish Committee, and the Mathew Forbes Romer Foundation. He was a featured writer for the Union for Reform Judaism’s Ten Minutes of Torah, and blogs.
Rabbi Levin is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow with the Shalom Hartman Institute. A recipient of the prestigious Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Rabbi Levin studied at the Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York campuses of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, and was ordained in May, 1996. He graduated from Colgate University with a degree in Philosophy and Religion in 1991, and also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He and his wife Aimee are the parents of three children, Ari, Meredith, and Eliana.