“Congregation B’nai Israel really feels like home,” he says. “Our community is warm, creative, alive, thoughtful and engaged. You can be yourself here, while at the same time you can discover new aspects of yourself and your Jewish identity. Everyone has a voice in this community, and together we engage to create a space where all feel welcome and excited about Jewish life in Greater Bridgeport.”
Rabbi Schultz endeavors to sustain and expand that community, working with the Temple’s youth groups, promoting community activism and fostering a program for area Jews in their 20s and 30s. He has a passion for engaging community members through learning, song, prayer, conversation and social justice.
Rabbi Schultz’s impact reaches into the greater community, having served on the board of the Federation for Jewish Philanthropy of Upper Fairfield County and the Strategy Team of CONECT (Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut).
A graduate of Brandeis University, Rabbi Schultz was ordained from Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was selected as a Bonnie and Daniel Tisch Fellow. He also served as student rabbi of B’nai Israel Synagogue in High Point, N.C., and led monthly Shabbat Unplugged services at Shaaray Tefila in New York City.
Prior to attending HUC-JIR, Evan piloted a full-time teacher program at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, spent a year volunteering in Izmir, Turkey, with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), and worked as a Jewish Campus Service Corps Fellow at MIT Hillel.
Evan and his wife, Jenny, are parents to sons Koby, Elie and Roie. He is an avid runner, guitar player, reader and traveler.
Rabbi Marion’s journey to the rabbinate began when she was 12 years old, when during her Bat Mitzvah preparations, a relative reminded her that she would be the first woman in her family to have a Bat Mitzvah. From then on, everything changed. She felt a newfound sense of purpose and belonging, as she realized she had a Jewish leadership role to play in a family with a weak history of religious identity. That moment ultimately empowered her to set her sights towards the rabbinate.
“As a rabbi, I want others to feel that they, too, have a place where they belong,” she says. “I want our synagogues to be places in which others notice if we are not there. I want our temple members to feel a deep sense of belonging each time they enter our doors, and I want our members to feel empowered to lend their own gifts and talents towards helping others feel the same way. So, I work to lift and pass my hand drum of purpose, empowerment and belonging every chance I get, hoping that all who walk through our synagogue doors will feel inspired to ‘come as you are.’”
Rabbi Marion especially focuses her rabbinate on organizing for a more just and equitable world, engaging with families of young children, and creating pathways for girls and women to grow into their fullest selves.
A Westchester, N.Y., native and Brandeis University graduate, Rabbi Marion worked as a youth educator at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, MA, and spent several summers as a counselor and unit head at the Union for Reform Judaism’s Eisner and Crane Lake Camps, before her rabbinic studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. She earned her M.A. in Religious Education and completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education while serving as a multi-faith chaplain at two New York City area hospitals. As a rabbinic student, Rabbi Marion served congregations in Fort Smith, Ark., Stamford and Larchmont, N.Y. Before joining the B’nai Israel community, she served as Assistant Rabbi at Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore.
Rabbi Marion and her husband, Seth, have two children, Michaela and Levi. She enjoys cooking, yoga and traveling.
He joins B’nai Israel after serving as the senior cantor at Temple Beth Hillel in Windsor.
The Malden, Mass., native earned a degree from the Academy of Jewish Religion. He then served as the assistant cantor at Temple Israel in Westport and for more than a decade on the URJ camp faculty as the head song leader, summer administrator, and Limud – Jewish Values Instructor – for Crane Lake Camp and Six Points Sports Academy.
Scott’s wife, Sharon Manasevit Harris, grew up here at B’nai Israel. Their two children, Danny and Sarah, both graduated from Kehilah and Merkaz. The Harrises are overjoyed to return to B’nai Israel, a place they call their “Jewish home.”
Prior to joining B’nai Israel, Alexa led programs in Stamford, Hamden and Bridgeport. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, with a concentration in Early Childhood, from Southern Connecticut State University.
Alexa is actively involved in the Jewish community, participating in the Sisterhood, Hadassah and numerous committees.
Alexa lives in Trumbull with her husband and has two grown children, Jake and Maddie.
Rabbi Emeritus James Prosnit served as Senior Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel from 1990 to July 2019.
He currently teaches as an adjunct lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at Fairfield University, where he was appointed as the university’s first Jewish Chaplain in Campus Ministry. He also is a member of the advisory board of the university’s Bennett Center for Judaic Studies.
Prior to Congregation B’nai Israel, Rabbi Prosnit served as Associate Rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City and Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.
A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, Rabbi Prosnit holds M.A. degrees from New York University (Education) and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Hebrew Literature), where he serves on the Board of Governors. He was ordained from HUC-JIR in New York in 1981 and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 2006. He serves on HUC–JIR’s Presidents Council and chairs the Rabbinic Alumni Association.
Among numerous community activities, Rabbi Prosnit has been a board member and chair of Bridgeport Prospers, a Collective Impact Leadership Team organized by the United Way; Connecticut Against Gun Violence; and Operation Hope, a homeless shelter and social service agency in Fairfield.
Rabbi Prosnit lives in Fairfield with his wife, Wendy Bloch. They have three sons, three daughters-in-law and 8 grandchildren.
Cantor Sheri Blum retired in June 2020 after 26 years at Congregation B’nai Israel, where she ensured that music plays a central role in both the religious and community life.
“Music is very powerful,” she said. “When we hear the special melodies of each holiday, it makes us feel that the holiday is here. It inspires us. Music is an integral part of our worship services.”
Cantor Blum arrived at B’nai Israel in the summer of 1994. She would go on to prepared more than 1,300 B’nai Mitzvah students, lead a dynamic music program that included our Junior Choir and Adult Choir, and teach weekly in our preschool.
Cantor Blum was ordained from the Hebrew Union College-School of Sacred Music in 1982. She served as student cantor for four years at the Union Reform Temple in Freeport, N.Y., and then became the full-time Cantor at Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Mass., for 12 years, before joining B’nai Israel.
In 2007, Cantor Blum received an Honorary Doctorate from the Hebrew Union College for her 25 years of outstanding service to the Reform Movement.
Director of Education Emeritus
Ira Wise led Education at Congregation B’nai Israel from 1995 to 2022.
Each summer Ira serves on the faculty of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Eisner and Crane Lake camps. He has also chaperoned the teens on the NFTY L’dor V’dor trip to Eastern Europe and Israel.
Ira is connected to the larger community of Jewish educators in North America and abroad. He has served in the leadership of the Association of Reform Jewish Educators, who have granted him the title of Reform Jewish Educator (RJE) and the Distinguished Educator Honor. He serves as a mentor for other educators, including new graduates of the Schools of Education at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). He often consults with congregations trying to adapt technology in their schools, and leads workshops and seminars for teachers and educators around country on a variety of topics.
He serves a mentor and staff member for the Elaine Breslow Institute (EBI) of Beit T’shuvah, the first Jewish residential addiction recovery center. EBI is a program that brings Jewish clergy, educators and other professionals for an immersion into the factors and treatment of addiction, helping them to become first responders and to create programs in their own communities.
Ira is a graduate of the M² Senior Educators Program and has earned a certificate in Spiritual Counseling from Beit T’shuvah in Los Angeles. He has published several Jewish educational texts and articles.
He received his B.A. in Public Administration from the University of Illinois and his M.A. in Jewish Education from the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles. In 2016 he became a Doctor of Jewish Religious Education (DJRE), conferred by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
He lives in Fairfield with his wife Audrey. They have two sons.
Please visit his education blog, Welcome to the Next Level.