Our Rabbis

Con­gre­ga­tion Aha­vath Sholom is for­tu­nate to have the ser­vices of two rab­bis dur­ing 2011–2012.

Rabbi Andrew Bloom

Rabbi Andrew Bloom was born in New Jer­sey, grew up in Mary­land, and made aliyah at the age of 19 to Israel. There, Rabbi Bloom served for 2½ years in the Israeli Army as a com­bat medic in an artillery unit in Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza, as well as serv­ing as his unit’s med­ical chem­i­cals expert dur­ing the Gulf War. Upon being hon­or­ably dis­charged in 1991 at the rank of Sergeant, Rabbi Bloom stud­ied edu­ca­tion and his­tory at the State Teach­ers College-Seminar Hak­ibutzim. It was there that he met his wife, Michal, also a stu­dent in edu­ca­tion and his­tory. They were mar­ried in the sum­mer of 1993.

Rabbi Bloom grad­u­ated with a B.Ed. and teach­ers cer­tifi­cate with hon­ors in 1995. Dur­ing his last year of under­grad­u­ate work, Rabbi Bloom served as teacher at the Herziliyah Gym­na­sium, Israel’s old­est Hebrew High School. Upon com­ple­tion of his under­grad­u­ate stud­ies, Rabbi Bloom entered Rab­bini­cal School at The Schechter Insti­tute for Judaic Stud­ies in Jerusalem, the Jew­ish The­o­log­i­cal Seminary’s Israel branch. He orga­nized two inter­na­tional con­fer­ences for Con­ser­v­a­tive rab­bis and their spouses in Jerusalem.

Dur­ing Rabbi Bloom’s stud­ies, he served as a stu­dent rabbi in Jerusalem at Con­gre­ga­tion Kiryat Hay­ovel, a com­mu­nity com­posed largely of Russ­ian immi­grants. In 1997, Rabbi Bloom and his wife wel­comed their son, Daniel. In July of 2000 their daugh­ter Maya was born, and August 2004 their daugh­ter Lia was born. Rabbi Bloom also served as a cri­sis coun­selor for Eng­lish Speak­ers at Shaarey Tzedek hos­pi­tal in Jerusalem. Rabbi Bloom’s rab­binic the­sis was on “The Psy­chol­ogy of the Mourn­ing Process.”

Upon com­ple­tion of his stud­ies, Rabbi Bloom served for a year as a rabbi in Eng­land. Dur­ing this time Rabbi Bloom served on the Beit Din of the Con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment in Eng­land. He fur­ther spoke at local churches, lec­tured about Chanukah at a local non-Jewish preschool, and par­tic­i­pated in reli­gious dis­cus­sions on the local radio station.

Rabbi Bloom served con­gre­ga­tions in New Jer­sey for the past 11 years. Dur­ing this time he cre­ated an inno­v­a­tive fam­ily B’nai Mitz­vah pro­gram, led Adult Bar and Bat Mitz­vah classes, and taught adult edu­ca­tion classes on top­ics such as “Jew­ish Bio­med­ical Ethics” and “Prayers of Heal­ing.” Rabbi Bloom also co-created a Shirey Shab­bat early fam­ily ser­vice. As a result of this ser­vice, Rabbi Bloom com­piled and authored a prayer pam­phlet for chil­dren 7 and younger. Rabbi Bloom also played an inte­gral role in his synagogue’s Early Child­hood Pro­gram, Hebrew School, and Hebrew High School programs.

Rabbi Bloom empha­sizes out­reach to non-affiliated mem­bers of the com­mu­nity, as well as in-reach and reten­tion of mem­bers. This out­reach has included the involve­ment of inter­faith fam­i­lies as active par­tic­i­pants in all syn­a­gogue facets, within the lim­its of Halacha as under­stood by the Con­ser­v­a­tive movement.

Rabbi Bloom is very inter­ested in pas­toral coun­sel­ing and grad­u­ated from the Post Cen­ter of Men­tal Health’s post-graduate cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram as a pas­toral coun­selor. Rabbi Bloom used these skills to serve as one of the hos­pi­tal chap­lains at the Pas­cack Val­ley Hos­pi­tal in north­ern New Jer­sey and as the Rum­son Police Department’s first-ever Jew­ish police chap­lain. This was one of the great­est hon­ors of his life.

Rabbi Bloom has always played a large role in the greater com­mu­nity. He was hon­ored by lead­ing and par­tic­i­pat­ing in many com­mu­nal events, such as Memo­r­ial Day and Vet­er­ans’ Day cer­e­monies both in North­ern and Cen­tral New Jer­sey, and by author­ing and lead­ing an invo­ca­tion at Arling­ton National Cemetery.

In his spare time, Rabbi Bloom is an avid sports enthu­si­ast, field archer, and Harry Pot­ter fan.

Rabbi Bloom believes that his great­est accom­plish­ment in life is mar­ry­ing his wife and the birth of his three children.

Need to con­tact Rabbi Bloom? You can email him, or call the office at 817.731.4721.

Rabbi Gary Per­ras, Asso­ciate Rabbi

Rabbi Gary Per­ras, a mem­ber of the Rab­bini­cal Assem­bly with over 40 years of expe­ri­ence in the rab­binate, is our new Asso­ciate Rabbi. He came to us in 2010 from Jack­sonville, Florida, and served as our Interim Rabbi dur­ing 2010–2011.

Need to con­tact Rabbi Per­ras? You can email him, or call the office at 817.731.4721.