About Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz

Deborah R. Prinz’s book, Jews on the Chocolate Trail, will be published in 2012 by Jewish Lights. She speaks frequently on the subject of chocolate and Jews. To contact her to set up a scholar-in-residence or lecture opportunity, please write to her at debbierprinz@gmail.com. She was awarded a Starkoff Fellowship and a Director’s Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives as well as a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship from the Rockefeller Library to pursue this research.

Rabbi Prinz currently serves the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) as Director of Program and Member Services and Director of the Joint Commission on Rabbinic Mentoring. She is a writer and educator responsible for developing and presenting continuing eduction and specialized training for member rabbis, including programs at CCAR’s annual Convention. She oversees a program of 400 rabbis which pairs veterans with new rabbis. In addition, she develops support and pastoral care for CCAR rabbis and their families.

A faculty member of the Interim Ministry Network, she has developed CCAR’s training for interim rabbinic work. The two segment seminar and fieldwork components prepare rabbis to lead congregations undergoing significant change and/or crisis towards health and healing in the transition.

Having held a number of leadership positions in the national and regional Reform movement, Rabbi Prinz was honored to conduct the worship services at regional and national biennials of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ). Elected by her colleagues, Rabbi Prinz held each office of the Board of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis and assumed its presidency in 2005. For many years she served as a member of the Executive Committee of the URJ-CCAR Commission on Outreach & Synagogue Community. Rabbi Prinz has contributed to the local Jewish community as well. She held all offices of the Executive Committee, including President, of the San Diego Rabbinical Association. In her position as a member of the Steering Committee of the United Jewish Federation’s Task Force on Jewish Continuity and Co-Chair of the Interfaith Committee, she was instrumental in bringing the Pathways program (outreach to interfaith children and families) to San Diego. In 1991, she was named “Woman of the Year” by Brandeis University National Women’s Committee. Together with other community leaders, she successfully worked to change the calendar of the Poway Unified School District to avoid the conflict of the first day of school falling on Rosh Hashanah. Along with an Episcopal colleague in Teaneck, she developed an interfaith dialogue program which included an interfaith tour to Israel. Temple Adat Shalom, under her leadership, participated in a dialogue with the Lutheran Church of the Incarnation of Poway and with Chabad of Rancho Bernardo. She has led six congregational trips to Israel.

The author of several articles, she has published in scholarly, professional and popular journals such as CCAR Journal, Hebrew Union College Annual, American Rabbi, Reform Judaism Magazine, and Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Yearbook. Articles about, blogs about and interviews of Rabbi Prinz have appeared in the national and local media.

The Rabbi Emerita of Temple Adat Shalom, Poway, California, she served as its Senior Rabbi for almost twenty years. Prior to that she was, for seven years, the Rabbi of a synagogue in Bergen County, New Jersey, and also the Assistant Rabbi of Central Synagogue in Manhattan. Rabbi Prinz is married to Rabbi Mark Hurvitz and is the proud mother of Avigail and Noam & Rachel.