Tuckahoe NY Pride

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum is an American Reconstructionist rabbi best known for leading New York City’s Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), a flagship LGBTQ+ synagogue. Ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1990, she joined CBST soon after and served for decades as its senior rabbi, helping the congregation grow into a prominent spiritual home and a public voice on inclusion. Her rabbinate has emphasized social justice, interfaith solidarity, and pastoral care, including during the AIDS crisis and after 9/11. She has also championed gender equality and LGBTQ+ civil rights within Jewish communal life. She retired from pulpit leadership in 2024.

Quote: “What each of us does matters. However big or small. We can be a source of hopelessness and despair, or a source of hope and light.”