Welcome

  Congregation Emanuel is located in Statesville, nestled in the heart of the North Carolina Piedmont. The Congregation was established in 1883. We are affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, through Temple Israel in Charlotte, NC. We have a small but active congregation that welcomes all visitors with Jewish hospitality and a warm Southern flair.

Aaron Weininger is a Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Fellow. “Support for the Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Fellows Program has been generously provided by Legacy Heritage Fund Limited.”  Please join us in welcoming Aaron to Statesville and our Congregation!  

Aaron is honored and delighted to serve Congregation Emanuel as the Legacy Heritage Rabbinic Fellow. A senior rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, he is concentrating in pastoral care and is a recipient of the Schusterman Rabbinical Fellowship. He is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned a BA in Anthropology and Jewish Near Eastern Studies. Aaron completed his first two 400 hour units of Clinical Pastoral Education as a chaplain intern at Bellevue Hospital in New York, where he provided pastoral care on intensive care, trauma, and adult and adolescent psychiatric units. This summer he is completing his third unit of CPE training, where his pastoral care is devoted to serving older adults on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. His synagogue fieldwork as a rabbinic intern and teacher spans across the Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to Florida, and throughout the Metropolitan New York area. Having sung in an a cappella group in college, Aaron served in both rabbinic and cantorial High Holy Day positions at Colgate University Hillel for the first three years of rabbinical school and subsequently with the Conservative Synagogue of the Hamptons. Complementing his studies in the classroom, he was selected for the cross-denominational CLAL Rabbis Without Borders Fellowship. Aaron is beginning his second year on the staff of Park Slope Jewish Center in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives.

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"It is a tree of life for those who grasp it, and all who hold onto it are blessed. Its ways are pleasant ways, and all its paths are peace. Turn us toward you, Adonai, and we will return to You; make our days seem fresh, as they once were."

              --The Torah Service, based on Proverbs 3:17-18

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I am passionate about being part of a community that celebrates Judaism as a tree of life. Rooted in the wisdom of our inherited tradition, it grows through faith and doubt, new truths, and the lived experiences of an ever-widening circle of people. I believe in the power of a diverse, fully egalitarian community that offers multiple paths for a living, evolving Judaism to inspire a sense of belonging, meaning, and connection. Through one-to-one relationships, shared meals, prayer, learning, and acts of kindness, caring, and social responsibility in our local and global communities, we can strive to renew our lives. I look forward to our being together during the year.

L'Shalom,

Rabbi Aaron S. Weininger

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