Yom Kippur Sermon & Tribute

Julie Jacobs has served as clergy for Beth David Congregation for 13 years. She maintains a dual role as both Rabbi and Cantor bringing together her strengths in Jewish leadership and musicianship.

After receiving a Bachelor Degree in Music in Vocal Performance from the prestigious Indiana University School of Music in 1996, Jacobs received her Diploma of Hazzan and Master of Sacred Music from the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 2003, Jacobs received her certificate of Hazzan-Minister from the Cantors Assembly. Her Rabbinic ordination came as a result of Beth David leadership’s request for her to serve as Rabbi.

Rabbi Jacobs was recently appointed to serve on the Executive Board of the Cantors Assembly. She has also served on the Miami Board of Autism Speaks, and has raised over $100,000 for the non-profit over the past 10 years. Her desire to help others inspired her to create the Tikvah Center at Beth David Gordon School – Miami’s first Jewish Day School program for children on the Autism Spectrum.

Rabbi Jacobs is dedicated to community visioning. Her attention to the needs of the Jewish community at large and her deep love and understanding of peoplehood sparked the concept of the Center for Jewish Life Miami – a new 501c3 dedicated to serving the Central Miami Jewish Community. She is currently spearheading this crucial capital campaign.

In her spare time, Jacobs enjoys spending time with her family. Her husband, Orin and their 4 children, Zev, Reya, Eitan and Caleb are all very involved with Beth David and the Jewish Community. Orin is an active member of the Brotherhood and serves as chair of the Tikvah Center Committee. Zev frequently leads services and plays drums in the Shabbat Pasion Band. Reya is a Diller Teen Fellow. Caleb and Eitan are students in the Gordon School. Rabbi Jacobs looks forward to serving this blessed community for many years to come.

Mitch and Walli have settled into their Coconut Grove apartment overlooking Biscayne Bay. They delight in occasional trips to Cleveland to visit with their grandchildren, Adler and Sammy.

Mitch is the author of three novels, most notably The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moshe Katan, a Los Angeles Times bestseller. His story collection, The Curse of Blessings, has been translated into German, Korean, and Mandarin. His most recent publication is a digitally formatted novella, White Fire, available on Kindle and other digital readers.

Mitch has served as chairperson of the National Havurah Committee, editor of a nationally syndicated weekly Torah column, and is a frequent teacher at Havurah institutes, rabbinic conferences, and other gatherings with a focus on Jewish renewal. He teaches on topics related to Jewish spirituality, alternative religious community, and Jewish family education. He is a past-president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami.

Mitch studied at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley, then served as an officer in the US Navy with service aboard destroyers in waters off Vietnam and in the Mediterranean during the Six Day War. After his military service he studied in Arad, Israel, where he met and became engaged to Walli. He began his rabbinic studies at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem in 1970 and received his ordination from HUC-JIR (New York) in 1975.

Mitch came to Miami to be associate rabbi at Temple Beth Am. Then for 22 years beginning in 1980 he was the director of the Havurah of South Florida, a non-denominational fellowship that created programming to fill the interstices between synagogues and other established Jewish organizations. The Havurah offered a variety of opportunities for learning of Torah, Talmud, and Jewish spiritual discipline (Kabbalah) in an egalitarian setting.

In 2002 Mitch returned to the pulpit rabbinate to serve Temple Israel of Greater Miami. After five years as rabbi he continued for another seven as scholar-in-residence.