Rabbi Howard Siegel
Rabbi Siegel began his role as the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Shalom in September 2009. He is an experienced congregational rabbi with proven success in education, outreach, and community building. He has served as a pulpit rabbi, Jewish educator, and is an innovator of Jewish outreach.
Rabbi Siegel was born in Los Angeles and moved to Spokane, Washington, at a young age. His motivation to become a rabbi came from his involvement in Jewish camping. After graduating from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor’s degree in Education, Rabbi Siegel became a public school teacher. He left secular education to begin Rabbinical school, first attending the University of Judaism and continuing at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York where he earned his Master of Arts in Judaica in 1976, rabbinical ordination in 1978, and a Doctor of Divinity (honoris) in 2005.
Rabbi Siegel’s professional accomplishments include serving as a pulpit rabbi in Vancouver, BC, Minneapolis, MN, and Houston, TX. He was also the founding director of the Solomon Schechter Day School of St. Louis in 1981. During a hiatus from congregational work, Rabbi Siegel worked as a Hospice chaplain for a large HMO in Minneapolis. He has staffed and directed Jewish summer camps, served as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, and began his career teaching speech and English in a Portland, Oregon public high school. Rabbi Siegel’s honors include: The Rae & Edmund Hecht Houston Jewish Community Rabbinic Award, Congressional Recognition for Work with Hunger & Homelessness, Hennepin County (MN) Award of Distinction for Work with Hunger and the Lillian M. Lowenfield Prize in Practical Rabbinics from the Jewish Theological Seminary. In 2003, Rabbi Siegel founded the Jewish Information Center of Houston, an outreach program to unaffiliated Jews and interested non-Jews.
Rabbi Siegel has been widely published and has served in many professional organizations such as the Rabbinical Assembly; Houston Rabbinical Association; Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education; National Rabbinic Cabinet of Israel Bonds, National UJC Rabbinic Cabinet; and Chancellor’s Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Ellen, reside in Santa Clarita. Rabbi Siegel has adult children (and grandchildren) living in Houston and Vancouver.
