Rabbi Brant Rosen has been JRC’s spiritual leader since 1998. A long-time activist for peace, social justice and human rights, he has traveled on delegations to such countries as Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Russia, and most recently on an interfaith peace delegation to Iran.
Under his leadership, JRC recently built their new synagogue building with an environmentally sustainable design. JRC has since received nationwide attention and the first Platinum rating ever awarded to a house of worship by the US Green Building Council.
Rabbi Rosen is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Past President of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. He serves on numerous national and local organizational boards, including the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions and Rabbis for Human Rights - North America. His writings appear regularly in his two personal blogs, Yedid Nefesh and Shalom Rav, and he is a contributor to the Huffington Post and the popular Jewish blog, Jewschool.
In 2008, Rabbi Rosen was honored by Newsweek magazine as one of the Top 25 Pulpit Rabbis in America. He lives in Evanston with his wife Hallie and his sons Gabriel and Jonah.
(The views expressed by Rabbi Rosen in his personal writings are his own rather than official or unofficial positions or policies of JRC.)
Cantor Howard Friedland
Howard Friedland began serving as full-time cantor at JRC in July of 2001. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University in 1982. Until July 2001, he was a freelance actor working in theater, film, and television. Howard has been a member of JRC since 1989, having served on the Board of Directors and several committees. He studied hazzanut with Cantor Cory Winter, and is immediate past-president of the Chicago/ Milwaukee Association of Cantors. Howard lives in Glenview with his wife Terry and children Hannah Mira and Ben.
