Rabbi Joel Abraham

Before becoming Rabbi at Temple Sholom (now in Scotch Plains) in 1999, he served pulpits in California, Nevada, Virginia, and West Virginia. He is a member of the CCAR; and the Past President of the New Jersey-West Hudson Valley Association of Reform Rabbis; mazkir  of the NFTY-GER Clergy team; member of the Central New Jersey Va'ad haRabbanim and the steering committees of the MetroWest Rabbis' Roundtable and the Union County Interfaith Coordinating Committee; (twice) past president of the Scotch Plains/Fanwood Ministerium and its representative on the Scotch Plains and Fanwood Joint Committee for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation; he is a co-founder and Board member of Social Justice Matters, and Board Secretary of Faith in New Jersey.  He was the guest editor of the Summer 2019 CCAR Journal and, along with his wife, Michelle Shapiro Abraham, is co-author of Mishkan T'filah Journal.  He received the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Martin Luther King Day of Service award in 2022  and was recently appointed a member of the New Jersey Reparations Council’s Faith and Black Resistance Committee.

Rabbi Abraham lives in Fanwood with his spouse, Michelle Shapiro Abraham, DRJE, the CEO of Gather, Inc. His eldest child Avital Devorah is a Jewish Outdoor Educator at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center and his son Ezri Barak attends Northeastern University where he is on the Hillel Board and the Pep Band.