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Rabbi James Prosnit has been Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Bridgeport, Connecticut, since 1990.  Prior to this, Rabbi Prosnit served as Associate Rabbi at both Congregation Rodeph Sholom, New York City, and Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto, Ontario. 

He received his B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University, and M.A. degrees from New York University (Education) and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Hebrew Literature).  He was ordained from HUC-JIR in New York in 1981 and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity in 2006.

Since 1990 he has also been an adjunct lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at Fairfield University. 

Rabbi Prosnit is involved in the rabbinic residency mentoring program for rabbinic students at HUC-JIR and has served as a mentor for the Ignatian Residential College at Fairfield University.
Among numerous community activities, Rabbi Prosnit is Past-President of Connecticut Against Gun Violence and serves as vice-chair of Operation Hope, a homeless shelter and social service agency in the Town of Fairfield.  He serves on the Inter-religious Affairs Commission and the Commission for Lifelong Learning for the Union for Reform Judaism.

Rabbi Prosnit lives in Fairfield, Connecticut, with his wife and three sons. 

Shevat/Adar 5772 /

From The Rabbi's Desk

February 2012

The buzzwords at the recent URJ Biennial were “Youth Engagement.” There’s tremendous concern and some new initiatives planned to respond to the post– Bar/Bat Mitzvah dropout rate and the absence of young adults in American Jewish life. I was tempted to sit back and say, for once a problem that is not ours.

B’nai Israel’s track record of keeping children connected not only through Confirmation but throughout high school is far better than most Reform and Conservative synagogues throughout North America. Last year we had the largest Confirmation class in decades, and more than 100 students from the congregation participate in Merkaz. We’ve been successful through strong efforts and an economic commitment by both the temple and parents. Notable is what Rabbi Gurevitz and her coteachers have done with the 8th grade and our broader community’s commitment to making Merkaz a place of excellence. Marge Krubiner and her teaching staff have created a place where as busy as they are, many of our teenagers want to be. In addition, Ira Wise’s encouragement of URJ camps (Eisner and Crane Lake) has amazing long-range impact on young people’s connectedness.

But we can’t afford to relax our efforts and our commitment.

Too many of our families continue to see Bar and Bar Mitzvah as the graduation from Jewish life. Too many parents give their children a choice as to whether or not they will continue with their Jewish education, rather than make it an expectation and a battle they prefer not to have. Too many of our children, especially those who live in towns with fewer Jewish children and less peer support from public school classmates, have not made connections with other Religious School children and therefore don’t want to continue, “because they don’t know anyone.”

As our movement in general commits itself to respond to this issue of great concern, we’d be wrong to lurk on the sidelines and say this is not about us. In the coming year I hope a number of folks within the congregation (those already part of the committees and task forces and visioning teams) as well as many others will become aware and involved in the campaign and initiatives. The URJ Web site is a place to begin (as is speaking to me)—check it out at http://www.URJ.org/teen.