• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

  • Home
  • Advertise
    • Advertise in One or All of our Magazines
    • Advertising Payment Form
  • Print Subscription
  • Digital Subscription
    • Subscribe
    • Subscriber Login
  • Contact Us

Rabbi Couple Sing New Life into Pleasantville Community Synagogue

August 18, 2023 by Michelle Falkenstein

Rabbi Shoshana Leis and Rabbi Ben Newman have brought a heightened sense of spirituality, social activism and community to their congregation – not to mention, music.

Pleasantville Community Synagogue’s Rabbi Shosh and Rabbi Ben

After moving from NYC to Westchester over a decade ago, I began searching for a new spiritual home. I attended services at five different synagogues, but the place I connected with best was Pleasantville Community Synagogue, more commonly known as PCS.

There I was warmly greeted by the congregants. Smiles and handshakes abounded, and I was even asked to read a poem as part of the service. The rabbi applied the lessons found in ancient texts to our current times with deep psychological insight. People seemed genuinely engaged in the proceedings.

As I got to know more about PCS, I discovered that its members lived all over the county and included traditional and non-traditional Jews, interfaith couples, those from the LGBTQ community, and multi-racial individuals and families. They came from many traditions: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist and Jewish Renewal.

At a Pleasantville Community Synagogue Hanukkah event

Wow, I thought. This sure is different. It seemed that the shul’s tagline, “Joyful Judaism,” was more than just a slogan. And so I decided to join, along with my husband and twin sons, both of whom attended PCS’s Hebrew school, accurately billed as one “your kids can love.” Last year, my boys became Bar Mitzvahs there.

These days I also serve on the PCS board with others who are devoted to the health, welfare and mission of the synagogue and its congregants. Our biggest recent decision was the hiring of Rabbi Shoshana Leis and Rabbi Ben Newman as co-rabbis.

Rabbi Shosh and Rabbi Ben, a married couple, have brought new energy to the synagogue, with a heavy emphasis on music (Rabbi Ben is rarely seen without a guitar slung over his shoulder). They actively focus on “tikkun olam,” one of the main tenets of Judaism, which means “repairing the world.” Our once-a-month musical Friday night Shabbat service has become a not-to-be-missed event – it includes a musical Shabbat program for young children, dinner for all, and prayer service where the rabbis and their musician friends, usually a trumpet player, bassist, percussionist and clarinetist, turn the sanctuary into a concert hall.

“We welcome everyone to our Jewish spiritual community,” said Rabbi Shosh. “There’s a lot we’ve all been faced with, both personally and politically, and we are trying to create a restorative space.”

Notable events this year have included an interfaith gathering on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in conjunction with a local church and mosque, a talk by Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, author of “Judaism Disrupted,” and our annual gala, a family-friendly event held outdoors at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff, with a raptor show that had everyone enraptured.

Rabbi Shosh grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts, with a strong commitment to community engagement and activism. She found her Jewish spiritual path in 1996 several years after graduating from Dartmouth College, attending the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She co-creates a weekly podcast called “Four Worlds Torah” with Rabbi Charna Rosenholtz

Rabbi Ben grew up in Scarsdale and studied Religion and Culture at Skidmore College, followed by the Academy for Jewish Religion. He administers a Facebook group of 4,000+ called “The Zohar,” where he posts interviews with Kabbalah scholars through his weekly podcast, “The Neshamah Project” (neshamah means “soul” in Hebrew).

“Ben and I met at Elat Chayyim, a Jewish retreat center, in 2002 and we were married in 2006,” said Rabbi Shosh. “Music brought us together, kept us together through Covid, and is the center of our Jewish spiritual practice as a married rabbi team.”

They served as rabbis in Ft. Collins, Colorado for seven years before moving back to New York in 2016. Upon their return, Rabbi Shosh was recruited to work at Romemu in Manhattan as their first Director of Youth and Family Education, and Rabbi Ben started Shtiebel, an innovative community that draws together people from the Rivertowns.

“PCS has been a great fit for us,” said Rabbi Ben. “We feel at home. The warmth, peacefulness, and spiritual depth lines up squarely with our approach to Judaism.”

PCS is often compared to a large tent with room for all. With our progressive spiritual leaders at the helm, that tent will continue to welcome everyone who seeks meaningful and sacred connections to community, Jewish values and social justice.

Filed Under: Lifestyles with our Sponsors

About Michelle Falkenstein

Michelle Falkenstein is an award-winning freelance journalist who covers culture, with a specialty in the visual arts.

Primary Sidebar

Please Visit

Feed Me Fresh
William Raveis – Chappaqua
William Raveis – Armonk
Houlihan Lawrence – Chappaqua
Houlihan Lawrence – Armonk
Houlihan Lawrence – Briarcliff
Youtherapy Med Spa
Compass: Generic
Korth & Shannahan
Douglas Elliman: Generic
Briarcliff Manor Dental Care
Compass: Miller-Goldenberg Team
NY Ketamine
Raveis: Stacey Sporn
NYOMIS – Dr. Andrew Horowitz
Beecher Flooks Funeral Home
Compass: Natalia Wixom
Shames JCC
Houlihan Lawrence – Rusminka Rose Jakaj
Richard Bloom – Morgan Stanley
Compass: Aurora Banaszek
Compass: Julie Schneider
Hickory & Tweed
Repose

Follow our Social Media

The Inside Press

Our Latest Issues

For a full reading of our current edition, or to obtain a copy or subscription, please contact us.

Inside Chappaqua Inside Armonk Inside Pleasantville

Join Our Mailing List


Search Inside Press

Links

  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Subscription
  • Print Subscription

Footer

Support The Inside Press

Advertising

Print Subscription

Digital Subscription

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Did you know you can subscribe anytime to our print editions?

Voluntary subscriptions are most welcome, if you've moved outside the area, or a subscription is a great present idea for an elderly parent, for a neighbor who is moving or for your graduating high school student or any college student who may enjoy keeping up with hometown stories.

Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2023 The Inside Press, Inc. · Log in