Dov Taylor has been our rabbi since 1984. He is a good listener, counselor, teacher, inspiring speaker, writer and scholar. He visits us when we are sick, consoles us when we are hurting, and challenges us to grow intellectually and spiritually. He is our rabbi and our friend

In addition to teaching classes at Solel, Rabbi Taylor loves working with children and teenagers. For twenty years he conducted an intensive summer program of Hebrew and Jewish learning and living for Reform teenagers, some of whom have become rabbis, cantors, professors, Jewish educators and communal workers.

He teaches the weekly Confirmation class, meets personally with every Bar/Bat Mitsva family, leads the monthly family services and the annual Bar/Bat Mitsva Shabbaton.

Rabbi Taylor grew up in Brooklyn and studied at The Cooper Union, Brooklyn College, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem, and Brandeis University. He was ordained with honors at the HUC-J1R in 1968 and awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1993 in recognition of twenty-five years of service to the Jewish people. He lived, studied and taught in Israel for two years, and has spent sabbaticals at Oxford and Harvard.

He is the only rabbi in North America to have been honored by both Oxford and Harvard.

His book, Joseph Perl's Revealer of Secrets, appeared to critical acclaim in 1997. The book is a translation of the first Jewish novel, which was also the opening -salvo-in-the-war -of the Jewish Enlightenment against thegrowing - Chasidic movement in the early nineteenth century.

Rabbi Taylor is married to the former Judith Ilson, a writer, teacher and visual artist. They have two children -- a daughter, Yael, and a son, Jesse.

Dov Taylor
Rabbi
(847) 433-3708



Rabbi Taylor's Selected Columns

Ancient Aphorisms vs. Individual Conscience

Spirituality

An Assault on Truth and Memory