About Us
Samuel Egal Karff z”l served as the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel from 1975 to 1999. An honor graduate of Harvard University, Rabbi Karff was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion where he earned a Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree in Rabbinic Theology. He was the author of Agada: The Language of Jewish Faith; The Soul of the Rav; Permission to Believe: Finding Faith in Troubled Times; and, For This You Were Created: Memoir of an American Rabbi. He wrote the chapters on Judaism for Religions of the World, a text that has gone through three editions and been used at 200 colleges. Rabbi Karff was a former President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). Rabbi Karff and his wife Joan, both of blessed memory, were the parents of Rachel Karff Weissenstein, Amy Karff Halevy, and Elizabeth Karff Seitz, who together have seven beautiful children.