OUR RABBIS
Meet Our Rabbis
The backbone of Moriah’s strong and vibrant community
Rachel Kohl Finegold
Rabba
Rabba Rachel (“Ra-khel”) Kohl Finegold has served as the rabbinic leader of Moriah since the fall of 2023, bringing energy and creativity to her teaching and her leadership. She strives to offer a Judaism that is intellectually rigorous while also joyful and personally fulfilling. She brings Torah that is deeply rooted in traditional texts and also embraces the modern world.
Rabba Finegold previously served as the Associate Rabba at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal for ten years, as the first Orthodox woman to serve as synagogue clergy in Canada. Prior to that, she served as a member of the clergy at Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel Congregation in Chicago for six years. In both congregations, Rabba Finegold was the driving force behind many new initiatives to engage young families in synagogue life, and spearheaded new offerings for young professionals in their 20s and 30s. Rabba Finegold holds a BA in religion from Boston University, completed the Scholars Circle at the Drisha Institute in New York, and was ordained as part of the inaugural class of Yeshivat Maharat. Rabba Finegold served as the president of the Montreal Board of Rabbis and a vice president of the International Rabbinic Fellowship. She participated in the second cohort of the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI) Fellowship, a program to train rabbis to become change agents in the communities that they serve. Her first educational love is Jewish camp; she has served on the rabbinic staff of Camp Yavneh, and has been a participant and staff for M² - the Institute for Experiential Jewish Education.
A New York native, Rabba Finegold lives in Deerfield with her husband, Rabbi Avi Finegold, and their three daughters.
Sam Fraint Z”L
RABBI EMERITUS
Sam Fraint was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., to first-generation American Jews whose roots were in Russia. He was educated in public schools through college graduation. Growing up in a secular family, Sam had very little formal Jewish education until he entered the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He did possess a decent repertoire of synagogue skills and Jewish experiences before he started Reb School. These were courtesy of Camp Ramah, USY, trips to Israel, and a life-long habit of shul-going.
Sam met Deena Segal at Ramah and they were married in 1975. They began their family in New Jersey and moved to Chicago in 1983 for what they intended to be a three-year break from the east coast.
Rabbi Fraint devoted most of his years in the rabbinate to Moriah Congregation. He was very proud of the degree and direction of Moriah’s development over the course of his three-decade tenure as its rabbi.