Rabbi Saks received semicha (ordination) in August 2006 from Kollel Ayshel Avraham in Spring Valley, NY and is studying for an advanced degree in a rabbinic program affiliated with the Union of Traditional Judaism. He holds a Master of Science degree in Human Resource Development from Towson University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Oswego. Previously, Rabbi Saks was the spiritual leader of Adath Zion Congregation in Philadelphia. In addition, he has taught Bible at Gratz in Philadelphia and a Jiu Jitsu class at the JCC in Philadelphia, having earned a black belt. In 2008-2009, he expects to teach martial arts, as well as Jewish Ethics, at theSiegel JCC.

Rabbi Saks also served as a Big Brother in the Jewish Big Brother/ Sister League (part of Jewish Family Services). Past experiences include working as a hospital chaplain, an elementary school teacher in both religious and secular studies, and a participant, on two occasions, in the Volunteers for Israel Army Program.

Rabbi Saks believes that Israel must also remain a priority. Jews that have a strong Jewish identity tend to be supportive of Israel. He has visited Israel five times and has indicated that he and his wife would be delighted to lead trips to Israel.

Rabbi Saks and his wife, Anne, have two daughters, Talia and Gavriella. Anne was formerly an operations research manager and high school mathematics teacher and now works as a math tutor. She wil chair the Hadassah Al Galgalim program for young children and parents at AKSE. (<- Click BACK to return)

Rabbi, and Cantor, Joel Kessler attended the Hillel Yeshiva of the New Jersey shore area. He has a BA in Economics from Rutgers, LL.M. in Taxation from New York University, a JD from St. John's University School of Law, and has attended the Belz School of Jewish Music and Yeshiva University Cantorial School.
On Tu B'Shevat, 5768, Cantor Kessler received Semichah as a Rabbi from Yeshiva Pirchei Shoshanim, as well as from Rabbi Avraham Goldstein of the Diaspora Yeshiva, in an observance at the Kotel in Jerusalem. Pictures of the event can be found on this website.

Prior to joining AKSE, he was a Cantor for the Congregation Beth Emeth of Larchmont, NY. Cantor Joel has performed at the groundbreaking of the Meadowlands Complex in New Jersey with Marilyn Horne and the New Jersey Symphony; in the United Nations General Assembly for UN Day; and the 53rd Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at Madison Square Garden in front of 6,000 people who included President Clinton and Gov. Pataki.

Since coming to Wilmington, Rabbi/Cantor Joel has distinguished himself by performing for numerous dignitaries including the Governor and U.S. Senators, and leading the Star Spangled Banner at Wilmington Blue Rocks and Philadelphia 76ers games. He continues to conduct several chess clubs in the First State, having once served as Coach for a State Championship school team before coming to Delaware. Rabbi/Cantor Joel's family includes his wife Arleen, son Nathan, and daughter Rachel (who took aliyah in 2007).
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Beth Emeth's Rabbi Yair Dan Robinson served Shir Ami, Bucks County, Pa., Jewish Congregation, from 2003 - 2009. A STAR PEER fellow, graduate of Oberlin College and Hebrew Union College, Yair was born to Rabbi Harold and Miriam Robinson and raised in Hyannis, Massachusetts, along with his sister Dori. He was active in Jewish Youth Group and Camping, and in congregational leadership. It was learning from his father and watching him in his vocation—caring for the sick and the sick of heart, teaching text and tradition to the young and the experienced, and bringing a love of Judaism into everything he did—that he developed his love of, and his own calling to, the rabbinate; his love of study, of text, of Jewish lives and Jewish living.

While a student at HUC, he served as student-rabbi of Columbus Hebrew Congregation and Temple Beth El of Muncie, Indiana, and as rabbinic intern at KK Bene Israel/Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati, OH. Yair received his MAHL in 2002 and his rabbinic ordination in 2003, writing his rabbinic thesis on ancient and modern forms of creative liturgy. He has served on multiple panels, projects and committees, and has twice presented at URJ biennial. He has taken a special interest in teaching, HaGesher, Shir Ami’s 20s/30s Chavurah, and in Shir Ami’s Synaplex program and the Call Synagogue Home Outreach project.

He is married to Marisa, his college sweetheart, and they have a son, Elishai, who brings them much joy. In addition to his work, he enjoys writing (especially poetry) and reading, theater, fencing, science fiction and fantasy literature, (bad) cinema, art, classical, jazz and alternative rock music, Japanese aesthetics and interior design, and other eclectic pursuits.
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Rabbi Michael S. Beals came to Congregation Beth Shalom, Wilmington, in August, 2004. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary in May, 1997, then officiated for seven years as Rabbi of B'nai Tikvah Congregation in the Westchester area of Los Angeles. During that time, he also served as Vice President of the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assembly for the Pacific South West.

A native Californian, Rabbi Beals's undergraduate major was in Political Science at U.C. Berkeley, where he also wrote for the Daily Californian   newspaper. After subsequent internships at the U.S. Information Agency and Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., he received his Master's degree in International Relations from the School of International Service at American University.

His developing career in diplomacy took a new turn after the next year abroad, as a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He returned to Los Angeles re-energized toward involvement with the Jewish community, and celebrated a second bar mitzvah  at age 26. After a few years working for the City of Los Angeles in Human Resources, including teaching Multicultural Training, he began his studies for the Jewish Theological Seminary, at the University of Judaism at Los Angeles.

While at JTS, he met Elissa Green at a Singles Shabbat Dinner, and they married in 1994. That same year at JTS, he also became fast friends with Hazzan  Michael Horvitz,, with whom he would share the bimah  at Congregation Beth Shalom, ten years later. At JTS, the two colleagues had served as co-presidents of the Rabbinical Student - Cantorial Institute (RCSI) friendship society, joining to improve relationships between rabbis and cantors out in "the real world."

The Rabbi and his wife, Elissa Green-Beals, come to Wilmington with their pre-school aged daughters, Ariella and Shira, and their collie dog, "Yofi".
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Rabbi David Baruch Kaplan majored in Chemistry at the University of Arizona where he earned his bachelor degree. He was active in both the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation, of which he was vice-president, and the Campus Student Religion Council, of which he served as president. He earned his Master of Hebrew Letters from the Los Angeles campus of HUC-JIR and was ordained at the Cincinnati campus of HUC-JIR.

As part of his education at HUC-JIR, Rabbi Kaplan specialized in education, communal service, and spirituality. Throughout his career, he has placed special emphasis on the education of youth and his relationship with them; he has continued to be involved in the training of the B'nai Mitzvot, as well as working on programs for the pre-school age. There is always a basket of lollipops in his office because Judaism should be a sweet experience.

Rabbi Kaplan also has placed great emphasis on helping people develop their spirituality. He has been a student of Jewish mysticism. In 1993 he took an extended unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. He takes great joy in helping people return to their Jewish roots. As an example, in McAllen, Texas, Rabbi Kaplan was privileged to work with two families returning to Judaism whose ancestors had been forced to convert out of Judaism during the Spanish Inquisition.

Rabbi Kaplan has been married to Terri Gilman Kaplan since December of 1973. They have three children, Eve, Ari, and Scott. In 1987, he began serving as spiritual leader of Temple Beth El in Newark, DE. Although he had often been refered to as the Reconstructionist rabbi of the area, it was not until he moved to Delaware and joined the RRA that he discovered that he had a Reconstructionist at heart for many years. (<- Click BACK to return)

Rabbi Peggy Berman de Prophetis, ordained at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale, N.Y., in 2006, received her Ph.D. in romance languages from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught French, Italian, Spanish and Latin at the university level.

She has served as adjunct professor of accounting since 1983 at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned an MBA degree. The rabbi is also a Certified Public Accountant, and has taught accounting at Swarthmore University, as well as at Chulalonghorn University in Bankok, Thailand, where has spent many years as university teacher during summers, as well as being active with the local Jewish community.

"Rabbi Peggy" received her BA degree with honors from Vassar College, and is originally from Brooklyn, NY, although being a resident of Swarthmore for over three dozen years.
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