Our Rabbis

Rabbi Ilan Emanuel was born in the United States and lived in Huntsville, AL where his father was the rabbi of the Reform congregation. At age 5 he moved with his parents to the United Kingdom. He studied for the legal profession and worked as a solicitor in England before realizing that his true passion was Judaism. He returned to the United States to study at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Before coming to Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Emanuel served as Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, the South Street Temple, in Lincoln Nebraska and as Associate Rabbi at Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto.

The core of Rabbi Emanuel’s rabbinate is the conviction that Judaism is the deepest and most comprehensive body of spiritual and ethical wisdom ever devised. “Over the course of more than three thousand years our ancestors struggled with the intricacies of human existence and the mysteries of the divine through prayer, study and ritual. As a rabbi, my passion is to share that wisdom with others and to support them in exploring Jewish tradition. I seek to communicate my own enthusiasm for Judaism with others so that they may be as energized and uplifted by Jewish tradition as I have been throughout my life.”

Rabbi Emanuel is married to Randi Froug Emanuel and has a daughter, Mira (age 10).

Our Rabbi Emeritus, Kenneth D. Roseman, was ordained at Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1966. Rabbi Roseman also holds a Ph.D. degree in American-Jewish History. After ordination, he taught at the College Institute for eight years and served four of those years as Dean. He then headed the Institute for Jewish Life in New York before moving to Temple Beth El in Madison WI in 1976. In 1985, the family relocated to Temple Shalom in Dallas and in 2002 came to Corpus Christi. Rabbi Roseman is a prize-winning author of books for both teenage readers and adults and a much-sought-after university teacher.