Rabbi David Oler, both of whose parents were born and grew up in Poland, is a Reform rabbi having served the New Reform Congregation Kadima in the suburban Chicago area for the last twenty-five years. He is also in practice as a licensed clinical psychologist. He earned a doctorate in psychology at the University of Maryland and a doctorate in Jewish thought and liturgy from Hebrew Union College, where his dissertation was “Yearning for Spirituality in Religious Naturalism.” In his Congregation, he enjoys teaching Jewish ethics as a vehicle for personal growth, and Rabbi Oler takes pleasure in teaching our students in Poland about how to conduct Liberal – Reform religious services, emphasizing open participation and spiritual development.

Rabbi Miriam Klimova has served as the rabbi of Shirat HaYam, a congregation of Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking Israelis in Haifa, since 2020. Born in Lviv, Ukraine, she spent many years living in Poland before making aliyah to Israel. She studied in the Israeli rabbinical program of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Jerusalem and was ordained in November 2023.

Miriam’s Jewish journey began in a Reform Jewish kindergarten in Lviv. Over the years, she remained deeply involved in Jewish life – performing as a soloist in a Jewish music ensemble and participating in informal Jewish education projects in Ukraine and Poland, first as a student and later as an educator.

From 2014 to 2017, she led services and taught Jewish tradition in Reform congregations in Warsaw and Gdańsk, Poland. She also took part in interfaith dialogue initiatives. In 2015, she earned a B.A. in Hebrew Studies, and in 2017, an M.A. in Hebrew and Jewish Studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, one of Poland’s leading academic institutions.

In 2017, Miriam moved to Israel, where she continued deepening her engagement with Judaism and volunteered in a kibbutz. In 2018, she began her rabbinical studies in HUC-JIR and, in parallel, took courses in Jewish liturgical music. During this time, she also worked as an educator in Jewish Agency summer camps and served as a guide at ANU – Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.

She began serving as the rabbi of Shirat HaYam in 2020, while still a rabbinical student. In recent years the congregation has grown steadily, attracting primarily young families from cities across northern Israel. Among other things, she leads a conversion course that is especially popular among mixed families.

Miriam wrote her rabbinic thesis on the conversion of Russian- and Ukrainian-speakers in Israel, with a view to continuing the process of learning and strengthening the sense of belonging to the community after the ceremony.

She also volunteers in Haifa’s immigrant absorption programs, leading educational classes, holiday celebrations, and cultural events for Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking newcomers and elderly people.

Miriam is passionate about the aggadic stories of the Talmud, loves singing, and writes poetry in Hebrew.

coming soon…

Rabbi Alan Iser is a former pulpit rabbi and Hillel Director who has taught at St. Joseph’s University, Villanova University, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary for priests and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.