Rabbi-Hazzan Jeremy Lipton
Rabbi Jeremy Lipton
Rabbi Jeremy Lipton has more than 25 years of experience as a Rabbi, Hazzan, educator and Jewish community leader in Conservative congregations in Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Toulouse, France. During his recent tenure in Minneapolis, he served as the Head of School for Talmud Torah, a community-wide Jewish school. Rabbi Lipton is excited about this new chapter in his life. He especially looks forward to becoming “immersed in a tight-knit Jewish community, where clergy have the opportunity to really get to know their members on a personal, interactive level, allowing them to be engaged in every aspect of their lives.” Rabbi Lipton received his rabbinic ordination from the Academy of Jewish Religion in Yonkers, New York. He received his cantorial commission from the Cantors Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Lipton also holds a master’s degree in Jewish studies, as well as both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music. Rabbi Lipton‘s wife Kay is a Musicologist. They have two sons – Jonathan, who lives in Los Angeles, and Adam, who lives in Austin, Texas.
Clergy Emeritus
Beth El has been blessed with beloved, long-term leaders over the past decades and has conferred on them the honorary title of “emeritus.” Our emeritus clergy contribute to the life of our synagogue and the Akron Jewish community.
Rabbi Stephen Grundfast, Emeritus
Rabbi Stephen Grundfast, Emeritus, was ordained as a Rabbi in June of 1979 from The Academy for Jewish Religion in New York City.While in rabbinical school he served as the student rabbi for the Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes Synagogue in Wyckoff, New Jersey. In addition, he also held the position of assistant to the director of Hillel at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ. He has taken graduate courses in Jewish Studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ and at Gratz College in Philadelphia, PA. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis. In December, 2007 the Jewish Theological Seminary awarded him a Doctor of Divinity degree, Honoris Causa.
Rabbi Grundfast served as associate rabbi of Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, Texas, for nine years. In 1988 he and his family moved to Savannah, Georgia where he assumed the pulpit of Congregation Agudath Achim and served there for four years.
Rabbi Grundfast became the rabbi of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Wallingford, PA in 1992 and served until June of 2001 and served as rabbi at The Jacksonville Jewish Center for three years from 2001-2004. Rabbi Grundfast assumed the pulpit of Beth El Congregation in Akron in August of 2004 until his retirement in summer of 2017.
Rabbi Grundfast is married to his wife Judy and they have two children and four grandchildren. Off the pulpit he loves to spend time with his family, read, and play golf. His passion is to spend as much time as possible with his grandsons, Gavi and Elliot and granddaughters, Shoshana and Abigail.
Rabbi Stephen, Emeritus
HAZZAN STEPHEN, EMERITUS
Hazzan Stephen Stein, Emeritus
Hazzan Stephen J. Stein was the Cantor of Beth El Congregation from 1980-2015, making him the longest serving professional in the synagogue’s history. During his tenure, he was especially proud of the Torah Reader’s Society, which he created, the accomplishments of the synagogue’s choirs, the annual concerts that he produced, and his collaborations with the music department at Kent State University and WKSU,
which culminated in two recordings of Jewish music (These Lights of Hanukkah and Music for Passover) that were broadcast on public radio stations throughout the country.
Hazzan Stein has been the executive vice president of the Cantors Assembly since 1998. During this period he has served on the boards of multiple affiliates of the Conservative movement. A past president of the CA, he is only the third person in the organization’s seventy (70) year history to hold this highest-ranking post. He is a graduate of both the Cantorial School at JTS and Duquesne University. Hazzan Stein has lectured extensively throughout the country on changing trends in synagogue music and congregational dynamics.