Rabbi Joe Rooks Rapport is Rabbi Emeritus of The Temple in Louisville, KY, having served since 1988. He has taught in a variety of adult education classes, as well as teaching the Religious School’s sixth grade class and the High School of Jewish Studies, guiding The Temple Confirmation Class, and working closely with Bar and Bat Mitzvah students. Each summer, he serves on Faculty at Goldman Union Camp Institute in Zionsville, Indiana. He oversaw many congregational programs, serving as rabbinic liaison for the Brotherhood, the Temple Archives, and the Temple Library, among others.
In the community at large, Rabbi Rapport offers courses in Jewish theology at Bellarmine University and is often called upon to speak throughout the city. He was on the original planning committee for the new Rauch Planetarium and has served as chair of its Advisory Board. He is a member of the President’s Advisory Committee of the University of Louisville and is involved in various interfaith and social action activities. He and Rabbi Rooks share a seat on the Board of Directors of the Center for Interfaith Relations. He is past chair of the Louisville Coalition for the Homeless, and Many People – One Community, a diversity project of the NCCJ.
Within the Jewish community, he has served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Community Federation, and as president of the Kentucky Board of Rabbis and Cantors, and is a past chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council. Nationally, he has been a contributor to Reform Voices of Torah, a national Torah Study of the Union for Reform Judaism, and he was the chair of the Computers and Technology Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. He has produced a variety of Hebrew Educational Software for publication and use in The Temple Religious School.
Rabbi Rapport received his Ph.D. in American Jewish History in 1988 from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Arts in History from the same University in 1986. He is a graduate of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where he was ordained in June of 1984. He received his Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters from the Los Angeles campus of HUC, prior to which he spent a full year in Israel at the College’s campus in Jerusalem. In June 2009, the Hebrew Union College conferred a Doctor of Divinity honoris causa upon him in recognition of his 25 years in the rabbinate. In 2012, Rabbi Rapport received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Centre College for his work at The Temple and the community at large. He has been awarded honorary degrees from the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University as well.
Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks is Rabbi Emerita of The Temple Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom, Kentucky’s oldest and largest synagogue, where she served for 30 years. Her specialties were Music, Women’s Programming, and Interfaith Relations. She is the Founder of Shelter of Peace, a not-for-profit, non-denominational community of welcome that provides educational, spiritual, justice, social, and healing experiences. Rabbi Rooks is seen regularly on “Moral Side of the News,” the WHAS-TV Interfaith Panel, which is broadcast locally and nationally on television and radio. She also serves on the clergy allocations committee of the “WHAS Crusade for Children,” the largest independent charitable fundraising organization in America, distributing about six million dollars annually for special needs children in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. In 2012, she released her second collection of original Jewish music on CD, Sukkat Shalom: Shelter of Peace by Driven Leaf. Rabbi Rooks is a graduate of Brandeis University (1979), received her MAHL from the Hebrew Union College (LA, 1982), Ordination from the Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati, 1984), and a Doctorate of Ministry in Pastoral Care from the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (2000). In 2009, the Hebrew Union College conferred a Doctor of Divinity upon her in recognition of 25 years in the rabbinate. In 2012, she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Centre College for her work in The Temple Congregation and the community at large.
Rabbi Rapport and Rabbi Rooks are married. They are parents of Rabbi Yael Rapport, who is married to David Moser, and Lev Rooks-Rapport, Museum Experience Coordinator at The Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center. Rabbis Rapport and Rooks have two grandchildren, James Matar and Rose Aviv, whom they love dearly.
Bradley Kale, a longtime member of Temple Israel, now serves as its first Jewish Education and Lay Services Leader. He is committed to sustaining prayer, learning, and fellowship within Paducah’s Jewish community, with a special devotion to Temple Israel. He is proud to serve a congregation that offers sanctuary, belonging, and a spiritual home for a diverse and inclusive Jewish family.
Judaism has always been central to Bradley’s values and worldview. His connection to the Jewish faith was nurtured early in life by his mother, of blessed memory, and his father. Recently, he was thrilled to participate in his father’s second Bar Mitzvah and honored to see him receive the Mensch of the Year award at his congregation in Florida.
One of the most meaningful experiences of Bradley’s life – second only to being a father to his best friend, Benjamin – was the year he spent in Israel. That time strengthened his pride in being Jewish and deepened his appreciation for the richness of Jewish spiritual life, culture, and the Hebrew language.
Bradley remains open to learning, sharing, and listening. Whatever a person’s background or beliefs, he strives to be present, lend a hand, and offer help wherever it is needed. At the heart of his work is the belief that togetherness and kindness can carry a community through anything.
Temple Israel Rabbis and Student Rabbis
Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks | |
Rabbi Ken Canter | |