Rabbi Raphael Ostrovsky
Rabbi Ostrovsky was born in Jerusalem, Israel in 1938 and was raised in
Birmingham, Alabama, where his father served as Cantor for 36 years. In 1962, he received his Master's
Degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and was ordained in 1965.
For 11 years, he served 2 major congregations in New York and in 1976 was elected to the pulpit
of Congregation Beth Israel in Hammond, Indiana.
He has served on various committees of the Rabbinical Assembly. Under the auspices of the National
Jewish Welfare Board, he was instrumental in producing a Shavuot Service in cassette form for members
of the Armed Forces in the US and for hospitalized veterans. The United Synagogue of America published
his Service on Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust Memorial Day for distribution in synagogues and educational
institutions. He completed his Doctoral studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1983. He also
received an honorary doctorate from JTS in 1991, having completed 25 years in the active Rabbinate.
A highlight of his career in the Rabbinate, which was reviewed in the New York Times, was his
involvement in creating the largest private Holocaust Exhibit anywhere, attracting over 7,000
visitors, most of them non-Jews who had never been exposed to holocaust artifacts. Rabbi Ostrovsky
was honored by the Jewish Theological Seminary (NY) on June 21, 2000 at the city-wide Chicago Annual
Dinner where he received the Rabbi Max Arzt Distinguished Rabbinic Service Award. Since his ordination,
Raphael has been a pulpit Rabbi for over 42 years.
