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Clergy

Rabbi Cantor Menachem Toren

Rabbi Toren has been an integral part of the Pine Brook Jewish Center community since 1998. A love for Judaism and cantorial prayer has been the fabric of the Toren-Tirnover family for generations upon generations. Named after his paternal grandfather Mendel Tirnover, a famed Jerusalem Cantor, Cantor Toren followed in the footsteps of one of the most renowned cantorial families in Israel.

 

Better known as “The Boy with the Kippa” on Israel’s most popular children’s TV show, “Rich-Ratch,” Rabbi Cantor Menachem Toren has carried on his family’s legacy through officiating at sacred Jewish services in both Israel and the United States. Rabbi Toren graduated from the Jerusalem Cantorial Institute in 1997. After spending many years studying, performing on television, and leading services and prayers as a cantor in Israel, he fulfilled his childhood dream of being a cantor in a congregation with his move to the United States and the Pine Brook Jewish Center. In 2020, Rabbi Toren received his rabbinical ordination. 

 

Daily, Rabbi Toren works towards enriching the lives of his “extended family,” the Pine Brook Jewish Center congregants, through his pastoral work, passionate cantorial prayers and chants, working with the preschool and religious school children and teens, and being evolved in every aspect of PBJC. His door is always open. He and his wife Hadas have lived in Montville since they joined PBJC and have raised their children, Daniel, Yuval, and Libby in both the PBJC and Montville communities. They all attended both PBJC Preschool and Religious School and loved celebrating their B'nai Mitzvot with their PBJC family. Rabbi and Hadas both possess excellent culinary skills and they love to share their talents with our community by offering culinary classes including challah making, Israeli food workshops, sushi making, chocolate making and much more. They love spending time with family, friends, and their community. 

 

Rabbi Toren has embraced his new role as both the Rabbi and Cantor of PBJC and looks forward to leading our community into the future.

Rabbi Emeritus Mark Finkel

Rabbi Finkel served for eighteen years as Rabbi at the Pine Brook Jewish Center after having served as Rabbi of Beth Abraham in Nashua for almost seventeen years. A native of Milton, Massachusetts, Rabbi Finkel graduated the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1979 after a year as a visiting student in Israel at the Hebrew University.

 

He did his undergraduate work at New York University with a double major in Near Eastern Literature and Languages and Economics. He also holds an MA in history from NYU and a Masters of Theology from the Harvard Divinity School.

 

Rabbi Finkel received honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2004 and from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2005. He is certified in pastoral counseling from the Post Graduate Center for Mental Health.

 

In his younger years, Rabbi Finkel spent summers at Camps Young Judea and Yavneh in New Hampshire, and in his teen years he attended and graduated the Prozdor of the Hebrew College of Boston and served as New England Region President of USY. Rabbi Finkel’s previous pulpits were at Congregation Sons of Zion in Holyoke, Massachusetts and at Adath Israel of the Main Line in Merion, Pennsylvania as Associate Rabbi.

 

During the summer of 1996, Rabbi Finkel served as visiting Rabbi in a new congregation in Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania. Rabbi Finkel is a member of the Jewish Youth Directors Association and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association.

 

Rabbi Finkel is also a member of the Rabbinical Assembly where he served as Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice President of the New Jersey Region. Rabbi Finkel was actively involved with the Montville clergy and was a visible “ambassador” from PBJC in a variety of religious and civic events and concerns in the greater Montville community.

 

Rabbi Finkel, Abby, Liora, Doron, and Eliana have always been visible parts of the PBJC community on Shabbat, holidays, in the Preschool, Religious School, B”Yachad, youth groups, Men’s Club and Sisterhood. Rabbi and Abby enjoy theater and cultural events with their family. Their favorite place to unwind is Cape Cod. They were thrilled to be members of the PBJC community for so many years.

Wed, April 30 2025 2 Iyyar 5785