Rabbi Jonathan Kraus started serving the Beth El Temple Center community in July of 1994. Before that, he was Associate Rabbi at Beth El Hebrew Congregation of Alexandria, Virginia, a position he held since 1989. At Beth El Hebrew Congregation, a large Washington D.C. area synagogue, Rabbi Kraus performed the whole range of rabbinic duties, and also was active in community agencies. He served on the boards of the Carpenter Shelter for the Homeless, and the United Way of Alexandria. He was a volunteer chaplain at Alexandria Hospital. He also held leadership positions in Jewish organizations in Virginia. Prior to becoming Associate Rabbi in Virginia, Rabbi Kraus served congregations in Canada and California, and acted as director of education and teacher in a number of Hebrew schools on both coasts. He was the founder of the Bergen Academy of Reform Judaism near his home in northern New Jersey.
Rabbi Kraus was ordained at Hebrew Union College in New York in 1989. [Hebrew Union College is the Reform Movement's seminary. It has branches in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, and New York.] He earned the M.A. in Jewish Education in 1988, and the M.A. in Hebrew Letters in 1986, both from Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, where he earned honors for Scholarship in Homiletics, Human Relations, Proficiency in the Talmud, Rabbinic Literature, Modern Hebrew, and Community Service. He graduated from Haverford College with a B.A. in Psychology, Magna Cum Laude, in 1983 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Rabbi Kraus is married to the former Amy Levine. The couple has a son, Jacob, and a daughter, Abigail.
A collection of Rabbi Kraus's Divrei Torah are on-line.
Email Rabbi Kraus at
