PLEASE NOTE: With the change to Daylight Savings Time, our Friday evening services will begin at 7:30pm ET, except for First Fridays.

Rabbi Jonathan

Rabbi Jonathan Kligler served as the spiritual leader of Kehillat Lev Shalem, the Woodstock Jewish Congregation, from 1988 through 2022 when he retired. The WJC community is grateful to Rabbi Jonathan and his many years of service to our community.  

While  Rabbi Jonathan, as he is called,  was the rabbi of the WJC  he oversaw the growth of the congregation from a small once-a-month gathering into a thriving Jewish community with over 300 member families and thousands of friends and supporters. The synagogue is known throughout the Hudson Valley of New York and beyond for its welcoming and heart-opening atmosphere, innovative and inspiring approach to religious practice, and great music.

Kehillat Lev Shalem means The Congregation of a Full Heart, and Rabbi Jonathan has a gift for touching hearts and opening minds in an atmosphere of genuine respect.

Rabbi Jonathan is an accomplished singer and folk guitarist. He has recorded a number of CDs, most recently Let My People Go: A Jewish and African American Celebration of Freedom, a collaboration with African American folksingers Kim and Reggie Harris, and On Holy Ground: Music of the High Holy Days at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation. He is also the author of Hineni: Essays and Commentaries from Twenty-Five Years on the Bimah (Blue Thread, 2013), and he continues to write and teach widely.

Rabbi Jonathan was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1989, and is a member of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association. In 2014 Rabbi Jonathan received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from his alma mater. Prior to his rabbinical training, Rabbi Jonathan was a professional dancer, mime and children’s performer, with a focus on improvisation.