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RABBI ZVI BERGER

Rabbi Zvi Berger has arrived in North America as a Masorti Oleh Speaker for Israel and Aliyah promotion. This program is taking place under the banner of "November is Link to Israel Month" being organized by the Conservative Movement's Aliyah Committee in conjunction with MERCAZ USA, the Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement, the Jewish Agency Aliyah Department and the North American Israel Aliyah Centers.

Born in 1954 in Minneapolis, MN, Rabbi Berger grew up in Adath Jeshurun Synagogue in Minneapolis and attended the community's Talmud Torah. He also spent many summers as a camper and later as a staff member at Herzl Camp, a Zionist summer camp in Wisconsin, where he met his future wife, Linda, whom he married in 1975. The Bergers have three children: Penina, Micha, and Nadav, and two grandchildren, Yotam and Amit.

After receiving his M.A. in Jewish History from Ohio State University in 1978, Rabbi Berger made aliyah. He worked for a number of years as a Jewish educator with Diaspora and Israeli youth in a variety of frameworks, including six years at the Alexander Muss High School in Israel and five years at Melitz, the Centers for Jewish-Zionist Education. In 1992, he took a break from full-time employment and began his studies at the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary from which he was ordained a Conservative/Masorti rabbi in 1996.

For the last 11 years, Rabbi Berger has served as the rabbi of HaMinyan HaMishpachti HaMasorti, the Masorti Family Community, in Kfar Vradim, a village in the Western Galilee. In addition to his work with the congregation, Rabbi Berger actively promotes interfaith dialogue between Jewish and non-Jewish communities in the region, and lectures on Jewish holidays and traditions at Nes Ammim, a nearby Christian village. He is also presently pursuing a doctorate in Israeli Jewish Education at Haifa University.