A native of Los Angeles and a UCLA alumnus, Rabbi Allen Darnov was ordained in 1986 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Our rabbi leads us in Shabbat and festival worship, he is always involved in our religious school activities and administration, and he personally instructs our Bar/Bat Mitzvah students. Rabbi Darnov also guides us in our Jewish family events, teaches adult education courses and counsels prospective "Jews-by-Choice.”
As in past pulpits in New York and New Jersey, Rabbi Darnov emphasizes the essence of Reform Judaism: that everything in the Jewish past is potentially illuminating for us; that the ethical and spiritual concerns of Jewish law govern its letter; and that because the biblical story of Adam and Eve precedes the story of Abraham and Sarah, Jewish history is found within the context of all human history, which we must serve and improve.
Due
to great admiration for the ancient world and biblical civilization
in particular, Rabbi Darnov recently earned a
doctorate in the field of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitics at the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America. He has taught topics in biblical
studies in several leading rabbinical schools in New
York City.
Rabbi Darnov is married to Cantor Avima Rudavsky Darnov. They have two boys, Adar and Doron.