Meet the NSCI Clergy Team
Rabbi Wendi Geffen, Senior Rabbi
Rabbi Geffen was installed as the ninth senior rabbi of NSCI in 2015 and has been a part of the rabbinic team since 2002. Rabbi Geffen is a tireless leader of our community, a person who people turn to for counsel, education, and insight year after year. Rabbi Geffen has a vision for NSCI: reanimating and redefining what a 21st-century synagogue can become—synonymous with thriving and transformation, developing relationships of significance, and a larger sense of purpose and impact in the world’s repair.
There are many things that inspire Rabbi Geffen. She’s passionate about how Jewish wisdom adds meaning to our lives and enables us to better our world every day. As a rabbi, she is dedicated to empowering each person to define their Jewish identity and Jewish journey. As the most senior staff member, Rabbi Geffen empowers the synagogue and larger Jewish community to pursue tzedek (justice) and tikkun olam (the repair of the world). She also likes to explore and present complicated, nuanced Jewish texts and ideas in ways that have accessible relevance for people. You’ll find her leading a conversation on mindful living in the Perlman Sanctuary, delivering a sermon as a guest preacher at a Chicagoland church, or cheering alongside her husband Scott for their children at a dance recital or golf match.
Beyond her leadership at NSCI, Rabbi Geffen has served in a number of leadership positions locally and nationally. She has served as the CCAR Convention Chair as well as on the Executive Board, on the Executive Board of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, and was a CLAL LEAP fellow and Rabbis Without Borders fellow. Additionally, she is on the Board of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, serves on a number of other local Jewish and communal boards, and is a frequent commentator to the press on issues of national importance.
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Rabbi Lisa S. Greene, Senior Associate Rabbi, The Susan C. Longo Associate Rabbi Chair
NSCI has been fortunate to have Rabbi Lisa Greene on our team since 1999. A second-generation rabbi, she refers to herself as Rabbi Greene, The Sequel, and maintains a love of informal education, a joy for teaching and a fascination with rituals, both ancient and new. Rabbi Greene has devoted her career to helping people find their meaningful place in the synagogue community. By getting to know you, Rabbi Greene empowers and connects with you in ways that lead to deep and significant involvement.
Rabbi Greene loves asking people, “How would you like to become involved here at NSCI? How can I help you do this?” Reach out to Rabbi Greene at any time—she welcomes the opportunity to connect. You can find Rabbi Greene playing guitar at the Takiff Center for our youngest, inspiring our adult b’nei mitzvah students, or lovingly spying on her three kids in our religious school.
Rabbi Greene loves the opportunity to connect. At NSCI, she has led the Adult B’nei Mitzvah program which she began in 2000; she developed Chai @ NSCI—a hands-on learning and doing program designed just for families; she founded and continues to evolve the Women’s Seder and Women’s Retreat and much more. Each of these initiatives merge learning and community in ways that have proven inspiring year after year.
During her graduate work at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi Greene enjoyed professional opportunities in places that took her near and far, helping her form a powerful intellectual worldview. As a graduate student, she served congregations in Manhattan, New York; Anchorage, Alaska; and Fort Smith, Arkansas, and she even served as a visiting rabbinic student in a former nascent Jewish community in Ukraine.
Beyond her official role at NSCI, Rabbi Greene is a very proud mom of Noa, David, and Talia. All three children began their Jewish education in our preschool, and Noa was called to the Torah as bat mitzvah in 2016.
Rabbi Jacob Leizman, Assistant Rabbi
Rabbi Jacob Leizman joined NSCI in July 2023 and is “absolutely thrilled and honored to join the NSCI community.” Originally from New Rochelle, NY, and a graduate of CUNY Hunter College, Jacob was ordained at HUC-JIR in New York in May 2023. He is grateful to have had formative rabbinic experiences in a variety of settings from New York, to South Carolina, to Israel, in Jewish communities, a hospital, and even a cross-country bus, where he has worked to create accessible and meaningful Jewish experiences for all ages, most recently as the Rabbinic Fellow at the Jewish Community Project of Lower Manhattan.
Jacob plays lots of basketball and guitar, bicycles across various bridges in New York (and is excited about flatter terrain in Chicago), and enjoys spending time with his wife, BJBE’s newest Assistant Rabbi, Lily Goldstein, and their dog Saul.
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Cantor David Goldstein
It has been said that music is a language that every person understands. Cantor David Goldstein knows this personally and professionally. Bringing music, art, and faith together is something Cantor Goldstein does on a daily basis. Join us for one of our services to hear the impact his cantorial leadership has on our experiences.
Enjoy exploring music? Cantor Goldstein would be pleased to meet you and talk about music’s role in the sacred and spiritual journey. You will find Cantor Goldstein composing new Jewish music in the Perlman Sanctuary or working closely with our student musician groups.
Cantor Goldstein is passionate about helping people discover their God-given gifts so they may share them in the service of God. In his role at NSCI, Cantor Goldstein has a mission to transform our worship from the ordinary to the sacred and from a passive experience to one that is filled with participation and feeling.
With an MFA from Tulane University, a master's in music from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC–JIR) and a 2012 honorary doctorate from HUC–JIR, Cantor Goldstein brings spirituality, music, and sacred expression to our services and community.
Beyond his cantorial role, Cantor Goldstein and his wife Lauri enjoy spending time visiting their daughter Rachel in Colorado and attending their son Max’s performances.