Rabbi Dr. Linda Henry Goodman

Union Temple of Brooklyn

Biography of Rabbi Dr. Linda Henry Goodman

A native New Yorker, Rabbi Linda Henry Goodman is a graduate of the High School of Music & Art, and holds a Bachelor’s degree from The Mannes College of Music and an M.A. from Queens College. During the 1970's, she was a member of the faculties of Mannes College and The State University of New York College at Purchase. In addition, she appeared often as piano recitalist, accompanist, and chamber player.

In 1980, she entered the Rabbinic School of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, first at the campus in Jerusalem, and later in New York. There she earned an M.A. in Hebrew Literature. As a student, Rabbi Goodman served as Student Chaplain at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as Lenox Hill Hospital and the Hospital for Special Surgery. She also received awards in Homiletics, Bible, Hebrew, and Humanities.

Upon her ordination in 1985, Rabbi Goodman became the first woman to join the Rabbinic staff of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York, which is the largest Jewish house of worship in the world. Subsequently, she went on the serve as Rabbi of the Nassau Community Temple in West Hempstead, and Hillel Director and Jewish Chaplain at Adelphi University. She also spent several years as an Adjunct Instructor in the Theology Department at Molloy College, and as Adjunct Professor of Jewish Studies at the NY Theological Seminary. Since 1992, Rabbi Goodman has served as Rabbi of Union Temple of Brooklyn, which is the longest established Jewish congregation in Brooklyn and Long Island. In 1999, she also earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Hebrew Union College.

Rabbi Goodman has been a leader in the community in a number of areas. She helped to found a Jewish coalition in West Hempstead in service to the Interfaith Nutrition Network, which operates a soup kitchen and shelter. She and her congregants at Union Temple now have initiated an outdoor canteen which will operate one Sunday a month outside CHIPS, a soup kitchen and shelter in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Rabbi Goodman also serves on the executive board of the New York Metro Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and the Clergy Advisory Council for RCRC on the national level as well. In 1996 she received the Roe v. Wade Award from the New York and New Jersey affiliates of RCRC. She is currently an officer of the New York Board of Rabbis, and sits on the Board’s Interfaith Relations Committee. In 2000, she received the prestigious and Rabbi Israel and Libby Mowshowitz Award for Public Service, and in 2002, the Zagelbaum Family Award for Chaplaincy, both from the New York Board of Rabbis. She is also a member of the Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and sits on their Resolutions Committee as well. Formerly she served on the CCAR’s Committee on Jewish Sexual Values, and on the Advisory Board of Transcontinental Music Publications. She also currently serves on the UAHC Admissions Committee in the Greater New York Council of Reform Synagogues.

Rabbi Goodman’s husband, Rabbi Stephen Wise Goodman, is Rabbi of the Garden City Jewish Center, and an attorney in the Law Department of the New York City Housing Authority. The Goodmans have a 14-year-old son, Philip.

rabbi@uniontemple.org