Community

Student rabbi starts at Yom Kippur

Student Rabbi Ilene Haigh, a fourth-year rabbinical student at the New York campus of Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion, is starting her internship at North Fork Reform Synagogue in Cutchogue.

Rabbi Haigh will conduct Yom Kippur services on Saturday, Sept. 18. The congregation, celebrating its 18th year, has traditionally engaged student rabbis.

Prior to beginning her rabbinical studies, Rabbi Haigh spent a 19-year-career on Wall Street. She started her studies at Hebrew Union College in 2002.

She has been active in the reform movement, co-founding the Rodeph Shalom Young Professionals group in New York City and running a Torah study circle. She conducted a new mothers’ group at Ealing Liberal Synagogue in London and a support group for parents of special-needs children at Larchmont Temple. She served as a lay participant in Synagogue 2000, a nationwide program aimed at reinvigorating observances to make them more relevant to young members.

She recently completed a summer rabbinic internship at B’nai Israel in Bridgeport, Conn., and has worked for five years as a chaplain and rabbinic intern at Sarah Neuman Center for Health Care and Rehabilitation in Mamaroneck.

Rabbi Haigh has won the Martin A. Cohen Prize in Jewish History, the Alexander and Anna Lurie Prize in Human Relations and the Sarah and Samuel Chernick Prize in Halakhic Literature. She is a 2009-2012 Tisch Leadership Fellow.

Besides officiating at many of the temple’s Friday night services, Rabbi Haigh will be offering a series of adult Torah study session in members’ homes on Saturday afternoons this year.

The temple has scheduled a Kol Nidre service at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, with adult and children’s services both slated for 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18. An afternoon Yiskor memorial service and concluding service will be followed by a breaking of the fast. All are welcome.

A Festival of the Harvest is planned for 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 24, at the synagogue’s sukkah, which will be decorated with produce from Krupski’s pumpkin farm. A brown-bag supper follows.

And on Friday, Oct. 1, the synagogue will celebrate the receiving of the Torah (Simchat Torah) at 8 p.m.

For additional information, visit northforkreformsynagogue.org or call 722-5712.