As the eighth senior rabbi in Temple Israel’s 165-year history, Rabbi Micah D. Greenstein has served his congregation for three decades, sustaining its position as the largest synagogue in Tennessee and the Deep South. Reflecting Temple Israel’s commitment to serving the greater community, Greenstein was recognized as the first “Memphian of the Year” by Memphis Magazine in 2013.
Notable honors include “America’s Top 50 Rabbis” by Newsweek/The Daily Beast in 2012 and 2013, Memphis City Council’s “Humanitarian Award” in 2011, “President’s Humanitarian Award” in 2012 by Memphis Theological Seminary, where he has taught future ministers about Judaism since 1992, and the “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ‘Be The Dream’ Legacy Award” in 2016.
Rabbi Greenstein served as two-time president of the Memphis Ministers Association in the 1990s and as an Executive Committee member of the National Civil Rights Museum, where he continues to serve on its Board of Directors.
Greenstein served on the National Board of the NAACP and, in 2005, became the first rabbi to preach in the Washington National Cathedral on a Major State Day, Tennessee Day.
A Cornell University National Scholar and Harvard University Kennedy Fellow, Rabbi Greenstein earned his undergraduate degree in Economics and a Masters in Public Administration. After completing a Masters in Hebrew Letters at the Los Angeles campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), Greenstein was ordained and, 25 years later, received his Doctor of Divinity degree from HUC-JIR in Cincinnati. His greatest blessings are his wife, Sheril, and their children Cara (husband Alex), Jake, and Julia.
