On April 18, Beth Abraham Synagogue President Mary Rita Weissman announced to members via email that Rabbi Joshua Ginsberg will become the Conservative congregation’s rabbi as of July 1.

A native of Chicago, Ginsberg received his rabbinic ordination and master of Hebrew letters degree from Jewish Theological Seminary. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Loyola University. Since 2010, he has served Shaare Tikvah B’nai Zion in Chicago.

He also served as the rabbi of Shaare Tikvah & Nevah Shalom Congregation in Bowie, Md., and was assistant director and campus rabbi at the George Washington University Hillel in Washington, D.C.

Ginsberg visited Beth Abraham over the weekend of April 12-14 with his wife, Jenna, and their two sons, Ranon (6) and Elior (3).

“Rabbi Ginsberg showed himself to be a man of integrity, kindness, intelligence and humor. He is very clear on the need for a rabbi to be a ‘relationship builder in my work to create a holy community,’” Beth Abraham Rabbinic Search Committee Chair Susie Katz wrote in the synagogue’s May newsletter.

“Rabbi Ginsberg also takes pride in the fact that for a period of time, he was a stay-at-home dad to his two sons while his wife Jenna took a full-time position as an assistant hazzan (cantor).”

Beth Abraham’s current rabbi, Bernard Barsky, who has served the congregation since 2003, has a contract with the synagogue that concludes Aug. 1, 2014; it includes a sabbatical period of six months at the end of his contract.

As Barsky explained in Beth Abraham’s September 2012 newsletter, from Aug. 1, 2013 through Feb. 1, 2014, he will be available to assist the new rabbi at the new rabbi’s discretion.

— Marshall Weiss