• RabbiUlmer

• Cantor Weinberger

• Education Director

• Executive Director

Rabbi Moshe Ulmer has served as Interim Rabbi for congregations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, California, Vancouver and Buffalo. He served as Rabbi, Principal for a Long Island congregation as well as part-time VA Chaplain. An active member of the Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly, his practice and belief is based on a halachic expression of Judaism consistent with the mainstream of Conservative Judaism. He strongly supports the development of programs to attract unaffiliated and intermarried families.

Rabbi Ulmer attended Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and was ordained in June 1988. From 1985-86 he attended the University of Judaism in Los Angeles. He holds a Masters of Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles as well as a Certificate of Communal Service.

Rabbi Ulmer says his emphasis has been on restoring the joy of Shabbat and other Holy Days; engaging and involving congregants during services; presenting inspirational and provocative sermons; helping congregants enhance their spirituality; and leading congregations during difficult times of transition.

A graduate of Yeshiva University with a BA in Psychology and an AA in Jewish Studies, Stanley Weinberger spent his junior year at Bar IlanUniversity in Israel. He earned his Cantorial Degree in 1973 from the Cantorial Institute of Yeshiva University and a Commission by the Cantors Assembly in 1982. Cantor Weinberger has served as Music Director of three congregations, first at Congregation Agudath Sholom, Stamford, CT, 1972-79; then at West End Synagogue in Nashville, 1979-82; followed by Congregation Beth Israel, Worcester, MA, 1982-89. In each of these congregations, the Cantor also served as Bar/Bat Mitzvah instructor. He returned to West End Synagogue as Cantor after eight years as the owner of a printing business in Worcester.

Miriam Halachmi, our Education Director, is a native Israeli. She graduated from David Yellin Teacher's College, Hebrew University and SUNY Buffalo. Her degrees are in Teaching, Counseling and Psychology.

In Israel Mrs. Halachmi taught and later was a counselor. In the United States, she was an exchange teacher in a Hebrew high school and also taught in day schools, including Akiva. Since 1980, Miriam has spent many hours of dedicated work as Education Director of West End Synagogue.

Besides working for us, she also teaches Hebrew at Vanderbilt University.

Stephen Potash (Steve) is originally from Swampscott, MA, a coastal town seventeen miles north of Boston. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati and went on to the University of Michigan where he received a master’s degree in public administration.

Steve spent four years in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a nursing home administrator in the New England area managing large skilled nursing care facilities. He returned to Michigan in 1973 where he was responsible for developing the Governor’s Executive Budget for the Medicaid program and designing reimbursement systems for nursing homes and hospitals, among other duties. By the late 1970s, Steve headed up an office in the Michigan Department of Management and Budget responsible for developing the Governor’s Executive Budgets for the Michigan Departments of Public Health, Mental Health and Social Services.

Steve took an early retirement from the State of Michigan in June 1997 and followed his wife Ellen, to Nashville after she decided to accept a position with a health information company in September 1996. Steve volunteered with the Red Cross helping tornado victims in 1998 and had some interesting experiences delivering meals to people from Red Cross emergency response vehicles. For seven years Steve was very involved as a volunteer ombudsman representative for Bordeaux Long Term Care, a large, Metro Government-owned nursing home that serves the indigent in Davidson County. During this time, Steve worked with several West End Synagogue committees and served two terms on the WES Board of Directors. Steve and Ellen have two children and four grandchildren, two of whom are students in the WES religious school. He is delighted that, in February 2008, he was offered the position at West End and where he sees nothing but good times ahead.