Rabbi Barry Block

Rabbi Barry Block has been our rabbi since 2013. A Houston native, Rabbi Block received his undergraduate education at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he graduated magna cum laude and phi beta kappa. He was ordained in 1991 at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, from which he received an honorary doctorate in 2016.

Rabbi Block previously served Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, Texas, from 1992 to 2013.

Rabbi Block has served Reform Judaism nationally and regionally as a member of the Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and Chair of its Resolutions and Nominating Committees, and as President of the Southwest Association of Reform Rabbis. He is Dean of the faculty at Union for Reform Judaism’s Henry S. Jacobs Camp, a role he held for 21 years at the Union’s Greene Family Camp in Texas. He is a member of the President’s Rabbinic Alumni Council of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Rabbi Block is the editor of The Mussar Torah Commentary, published by the CCAR Press in 2020. His writing appears in chapters and articles in several CCAR Press anthologies and other publications. He blogs at the CCAR’s Ravblog.

A former board member of Just Communities of Arkansas, Rabbi Block is Past Board Chair of Planned Parenthood of South Texas. In 2013, he completed long service to Methodist Healthcare Ministries, the largest non-governmental provider of indigent health care in south Texas, and Methodist Healthcare System, the largest hospital group and second largest private employer in San Antonio. His service there included several terms as Chair of the Healthcare System’s Ethics and Compliance Committee. In 2012, Human Rights Campaign bestowed its Equality Award upon Rabbi Block at its annual gala in San Antonio.

Rabbi Block is the proud father of Robert and Daniel.

To contact Rabbi Block, email bblock@bnai-israel.us.