Our Founding Rabbi, David Oler
Founding Rabbi, David Oler.

Email:
rabbi@nrck.org

An inspiring speaker, educator, and counselor, Rabbi David Oler brings to Congregation Kadima a wealth of enthusiasm, creativity, rabbinic experience, and vision. The rabbi is deeply committed to our congregation and to the Jewish Community at large. He reaches out with warmth and caring to ensure that congregants feel welcome, understood, and supported. He seeks to foster a cohesive community concerned for the needs of all people.

A graduate of McGill University, Rabbi Oler was ordained by the Rabbinical Seminary of Canada. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Andover Newton Theological School, a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Maryland, and has done additional graduate study at Harvard Divinity School, Brown University, Boston University School of Theology and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which also awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. Rabbi Oler is presently doing research as part of a Doctor of Hebrew Letters program through Hebrew Union College and recently completed a certificate in adult psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. He has authored many published works on religion and psychology and has recently edited a book titled The Image of God and the Psychology of Religion. He has taught graduate school courses in Psychology as well as in Pastoral Counseling.

Rabbi Oler's vision and leadership skills have been recognized by his rabbinic colleagues. He has served in various positions of leadership in the rabbinate and the American Jewish community. He served as president of the North Shore Fellowship of Rabbis, which includes rabbis of congregations affiliated with all branches of Judaism in Chicago's northern suburbs. He has served on the executive committee of the Chicago Board of Rabbis and as its representative to the Jewish Community Relations Council, which includes all major Chicago area Jewish organizations. He is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the professional association of Reform rabbis and has served as a member of the board of its local region of Chicago Area Reform Rabbis and chaired its annual academic conference.

Rabbi Oler is always available for consultation. You can contact him at Congregation Kadima, (847) 847-229-9500; or by email at rabbi@nrck.org.