Rabbi Shmuel Birnham was born in 1954, in New York, and lived on Long Island, NY for his first 18 years. He went to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he majored in Sociology. Upon graduating in 1977, he knew that he had to get to Israel. He was offered a job in the business world and lived in Chicago for a couple of years. After a few years in the business world, he had saved enough money to go on his sojourn to the East. He left in November 1979 and traveled through Europe en route to Israel. In January 1980, in the American Express office in Milan, Italy, he met Sara Rabinowitz. She was destined to become his wife. Rabbi and Sara lived in Israel on Kibbutz Ma'abarot (near Netanya) for half a year; he worked on the soil and she worked in the bakery, and both studied in the Hebrew Ulpan. After leaving the Kibbutz, Sara and Shmuel went to live, work, learn, and study in Safed (Tzfat). After a wonderful year in Israel, they returned to the United States. Shmuel entered Rabbinical School at The Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC, while Sara studied for her Masters Degree in Special Education (Learning Disabilities) at Teacher's College at Columbia University. In 1985-6, they returned to Israel for a year of Jewish studies in Jerusalem.

In 1989, Rabbi Birnham was ordained and received his MA from JTS. Together he and Sara went to Asheville, North Carolina, a small city of 60,000 people with 1500 Jews. Asheville is a beautiful little city nestled between the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sara and Shmuel are avid hikers and campers who enjoyed living amidst such beautiful nature. Over the next 11 years, his congregation, Beth Israel Synagogue, grew from 90 households to slightly over 200. Rabbi Birnham developed many programs in his Shul, in the Jewish and general community, and spoke and participated in numerous events throughout the city.

Rabbi Birnham was selected from a number of North American Rabbis nationwide (among all the streams of Judaism) to participate in a two year program called the Spirituality Institute. Its focus was to bring many new levels of Jewish spirituality to innovative and future thinking Rabbis so that they could be enriched themselves, and could also bring new tools of spirituality to their congregations. The thirty Rabbis selected to be in this program studied with and were mentored by Rabbi Arthur Green, Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man, and Sylvia Boorstein, along with some very impressive "junior" faculty. They will be focused on developing Jewish spiritual tools: Jewish meditation, spiritual mentoring, deep Chassidic/Jewish Mystical literature, and more.

Rabbi Birnham, Sara, and their son David Shalom moved to West Vancouver and joined the Har El community in the summer of 2000. It has been a fantastic five years with Rabbi Birnham and his family, with an increase in both membership and community spirit. We are all looking forward to many more wonderful years with the Rabbi and his family as a part of our congregation and community.

 Rabbi Birnham may be contacted by e-mail at rabharel@telus.net

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