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Email: davidoler@bethor.com

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An inspiring speaker, educator, and counselor, Rabbi David Oler brings to Congregation Beth Or a wealth of enthusiasm, creativity, rabbinic experience, and vision. The rabbi is deeply committed to our congregation and to the Jewish Community at large. He reaches out with warmth and caring to ensure that congregants feel welcome, understood, and supported. Since coming to Beth Or in June 2000, the rabbi has instituted many exciting new programs. He seeks to foster a cohesive community concerned for the needs of all people.

A graduate of McGill University, Rabbi Oler was ordained by the Rabbinical Seminary of Canada. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Andover Newton Theological School, a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Maryland, and has done additional graduate study at Harvard Divinity School, Brown University, Boston University School of Theology and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, which also awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. Rabbi Oler is presently doing research as part of a Doctor of Hebrew Letters program through Hebrew Union College. He has authored many published works on religion and psychology and has recently completed the editing of a book titled The Image of God and the Psychology of Religion. He is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Pastoral Counseling, and has taught graduate school courses in Psychology as well as in Pastoral Counseling.

Rabbi Oler's vision and leadership skills have been recognized by his rabbinic colleagues. He has served in various positions of leadership in the rabbinate and the American Jewish community. He is president of the North Shore Fellowship of Rabbis, which includes rabbis of congregations affiliated with all branches of Judaism in Chicago's northern suburbs. He is the Chicago Board of Rabbis' representative to the Jewish Community Relations Council, which includes all major Chicago area Jewish organizations. He is a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the professional association of Reform rabbis and a member of the board of its local region, the Chicago Area Reform Rabbis.