The East Meadow Beth-El Jewish Center, which has been a vibrant hub in the heart of the community, welcomed Rabbi Samuel Gelman as its new spiritual leader on July 1, hoping to build on the synagogue’s momentum and helping guide it into the future.
The synagogue holds religious services, weekly events and programming that bring together about 300 families in the Conservative Jewish movement.
Gelman comes to East Meadow Beth-El after serving most recently as an educator at the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning in New York City. A New Jersey native, Gelman said his faith and love of Judaism were important parts of his formative years — and, in some ways, he said he’s always felt becoming a rabbi was his true calling.
“We have on tape, me at my kindergarten step up (ceremony), where they’re asking us, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’” Gelman recounted. “And all the kids are like, ‘I want to be a fireman.’ ‘I want to be a policeman.’ I said, ‘I want to be a rabbi.’ I’ve always felt a real, strong connection to Judaism. I’ve always loved it.”
East Meadow Beth-El was formed in 2020 through a merger of the former East Meadow Jewish Center and Temple Beth-El in Bellmore. The congregation was then served by East Meadow’s Rabbi Emeritus Ronald Androphy, who retired in 2023. For the next two years, the congregation was led by Rabbi Aaron Marsh, who left in 2025. When a search committee was formed to find a new rabbi, Gelman emerged as a standout candidate.
A graduate of Princeton University, Gelman received a bachelor’s degree in Near Eastern Studies, specializing in Israeli history. He then served as a youth director and social justice coordinator for Temple Emanu-El in Providence, Rhode Island.
He went on to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, where he received his rabbinic ordination and a master’s degree in sacred music in 2022. During rabbinical school, Gelman met his wife, Naima, who is also a rabbi.
Gelman began his congregational work as rabbi of Congregation Agudath Achim in Savannah, Georgia after rabbinical school. Reflecting fondly on his time there, he said Georgia was where he spent his first years of marriage and where he and his wife welcomed their daughter. Still, the couple felt drawn to the northeast, wanting to be closer to family. After his wife accepted a teaching position in Westchester, Gelman spent the past year exploring the educational field himself while considering a return to congregational work.
Last October, Gelman was asked to officiate at a funeral service for the mother of a close family friend in New Jersey, where he met a member of East Meadow Beth-El. The member was impressed by the way he handled the service, and not long after, Gelman learned that the congregation was searching for a new rabbi.
Gelman applied and completed a few rounds of interviews, and later a trial-Shabbat service. When he was offered the job, moving to East Meadow felt like the right step for him and his family. East Meadow Beth-El, he added, impressed him with its traditional-style services.
“When thinking about being in a congregation, you’re picking a home,” Gelman said. “You’re picking a place — a community — that you want to belong to. It’s important to me that I pick a home, I pick a congregation, where I can be my full self.”
The synagogue’s executive leadership said that although Gelman arrived at East Meadow Beth-El only a few weeks ago, the congregation has already offered him a warm welcome. They liked his personable approach and willingness to sit down with members, whether to chat over a cup of coffee or to learn more about the community, its ideas and needs.
Gelman told the Herald that he hopes to grow East Meadow Beth-El, particularly by attracting younger families. He said both the congregation’s longtime, bedrock members and its newer generation of families are essential to its future.
“I think there’s a lot of room for growth in the congregation, and I think we can get there,” he said. “I’m really excited to see how the congregation grows in the next several years.”
That hope for growth — and the possibility of what East Meadow Beth-El can become — is what excites Gelman the most in his new role.
“We’re not just going to keep doing what we’ve always done forever,” he said, “because we need to grow and thrive. We don’t just want to be complacent. We want new people to be coming in. We want to attract younger folks. We want there to be this huge, intergenerational community happening here.
“What excites me is being able to work on that, being able to expand, being able to see us move into the next chapter,” he continued. “Let’s take what we have, and let’s make it even better.”
The East Meadow Beth-El Jewish Center is at 1400 Prospect Ave., East Meadow. For more, visit EastMeadowBethElJC.org.
