shuls

Blessings for new Lido Beach rav

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Rabbi Eli Biegeleisen was installed on Sunday as the mara d’atra of the Lido Beach Synagogue, Congregation Etz Chaim, at the eastern end of the Long Beach barrier island.

Rabbis from shuls on the island and beyond came to offer blessings to Lido’s new spiritual leader.

Among those attending were Rabbi Yaakov Bender, Darchei Torah rosh yeshiva (where Rabbi Biegeleisen is director of community engagement,); Rabbi Yaakov Klass, presidium member of the Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim; Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim; Rabbi Chaim Yehoshua Hoberman, rosh yeshiva of the Mesivta of Long Beach; Rabbi Chaim Wakslak of the Young Israel of Long Beach, Rabbi David Bibi of the Sephardic Congregation of Long Beach, Rabbi Moshe Greene of the island’s Bach Jewish Center; Lido Beach Synagogue Rabbi Emeritus Daniel Mehlman, and Rabbi Mordechai Tober of Montreal.

The chairman of the REITS board, Rabbi Joel Schreiber, who is a member of the Lido shul, chaired the event. A proclamation was presented by state Senator Todd Kaminsky.

Lido Beach Synagogue Vice President Ariel Sutain formally installed Rabbi Biegeleisen by handing to him his Ksav Rabbanut. President Alex Berkovitch presented Rabbi Biegeleisen with a kiddish cup symbolizing future blessings.

Rabbi Biegeleisen spoke warmly of the community that welcomed him, his rebbetzin, Shira Biegeleisen, and their three young children.

Rabbi Mehlman, who filled the Lido pulpit for 38 years, recalled the shul’s founding and its early services in a local firehouse. “We’d lose our minyan before Yistabach” when firemen had to answer a call, he recalled.

He wished the community “achdus — a oneness — between the congregation and rabbi.” “Wherever Elisheva and Yisroel went they created kodesh,