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MEET OUR CLERGY
Meet the Clergy
Spiritual Leader
Rabbi/Cantor Gastón Bogomolni
CANTOR GASTÓN BOGOMOLNI BRINGS VERSATILITY AND WORLDLY APPEAL AS NEW SPIRITUAL LEADER OF TEMPLE BETH EL IN WEST PALM BEACH
“Renaissance man” is often defined as a person who has a wide range of interests and expertise in several areas. There could not be a better description for Rabbi/Cantor Gastón Bogomolni, the new spiritual leader at Temple Beth El in West Palm Beach.
As a classically trained, yet modern, contemporary Hazzan, musician, educator and wellness expert, Rabbi/Cantor Gastón brings extensive experience and an undeniable energy to his new position. For more than two decades, his versatile and highly spirited work has resonated in synagogues and educational centers throughout Latin America, Europe and the U.S.
“Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni puts the ‘spirit’ in Spiritual Leader,” says Alan Bell, TBE’s Executive Director. “He brings so much to the service, the community and the Synagogue.”
Music and education run deep in Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni’s life. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he earned his bachelors in voice performance and pedagogy, a master’s degree in world music, and wrote his pioneer thesis on the Repertoire and Performance Practice in the Conservative Synagogue in Argentina. He is currently enrolled in a Sound Healing certification and masters in 3rd generation Therapies from ISEP in Barcelona. Since 2016, Bogomolni has been the professor of Nusach and Trope at the Seminary in Argentina.
He began his rabbinical studies through the Seminario in Argentina in 2016 and he completed with all his studies and will receive his ordination in June of 2023.
Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni’s spirituality began from an early age. At 13, he was serving congregations in Argentina. At 18, he began as the spiritual leader of the Jewish communities of Sosúa, and later Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. “The ambassador of Israel and I were the head leaders for Jewish presence leaders for the country,” he said.
Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni soon was offered cantorial posts throughout Latin America, eventually choosing to move to Barcelona to join Comunitat Jueva Atid as Hazzan and youth director. A skilled musician, he co-founded Spain’s first Klezmer band and founded Kef, an entertainment Jewish Agency to help bring Sephardic culture back to the country.
After three years in Spain, he moved to the U.S. to join Beth El Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska. He served the congregation for six years, eventually succeeding his mentor, Cantor Emil Berkovits. In 2003, at age 25, Bogomolni became the youngest member of the Cantor’s Assembly.
In 2008, Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni began seven years as cantor with Temple Aliyah in Needham, Massachusetts. He then turned his attention south to Aventura, Florida. After seven years as full time Hazzan at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus, he retired from the full time pulpit. In 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic, He and his wife, Marcela Gómez-Bogomolni, a clinical social worker, business owner, teacher, coach, energy healer and journalist, opened T.A.L. Community Mental Health Center, a conventional and holistic therapeutic center in Miramar, FL.
TAL CMHC, alongside with their non-profit, Tzimtzum Corp, work with individuals, families, groups, and area schools, helping students, teachers, parents and counselors deal with anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and panic attacks prevalent in modern society. They also offer workshops and holistic retreats.
A Kabbalah and Mussar practitioner, his work across cultures and traditions have introduced Cantor Bogomolni to the pain people have suffered, and the healing that pastoral and therapeutic work can provide. Their “Mindfulness Shabbat,” “Reflections & Havdalah” programs are very well received. Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni also is the founder of WebParasha, member of the Board of Shalshelet, and the co-editor and co-compiler along with Cantor Ari Litvak of Ruach Hadarom, the first Shabbat Anthology of music composed in South America.
Throughout his cantorial career, Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Neo-Hasidic, Classic, Renewal, Latin and Folk influences have informed Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni’s unique spiritual experience when davening. Now 45, Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni is in his prime as a singer, an educator, rabbinic counselor, a scholar and healer who embraces cultures and all Jewish denominations. As a spiritualist, he is willing to meet individuals anywhere along their journey to enlightenment, including those exploring conversion or questioning their own faith.
“Rabbi/Cantor Gastón is the kind of professional that brings everything together in one place – leadership, spirituality, responsibility, music, learning and mindfulness,” said his wife, Marcela Gómez-Bogomolni, a therapist, activist and community leader who not only partners with her husband on many of his programs, but leads several herself at the synagogue.
“He is marvelous with teens, children, toddlers and families as well as the elderly. His work overseas in Europe, Israel and South America has broadened his perspective on many important issues and subjects. All of these experiences make him the perfect leader for the Beth El and the Jewish community in West Palm Beach,” she added.
Marcela, born in Colombia, said the local Hispanic Jewish community will have a new spiritual home as Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni hails from Argentina and is fluent in English, Hebrew and Spanish. Under his guidance, Temple Beth El will be adding new programming geared to the Latino audience.The synagogue’s new website, in fact, can be translated from English to Hebrew, Spanish and Portuguese.
From an aspirational standpoint, Rabbi/Cantor Bogomolni’s mission is to help parishioners and congregations relate their spirituality to their lives and become better citizens of the world.
As the West Palm Beach Jewish community continues to evolve, he sees Temple Beth El under his guidance as a foundation for a re-emerging Jewish community. New generations of congregants, from young professionals and families to anyone seeking a spiritual home, will find Temple Beth El and the Center for Jewish Spirituality a foundation for Judaism, education, cultural awareness, wellness, arts, music, and healing.
Help ensure the success of our Synagogue. Contributions of any size are welcome.
Rabbi Emeritus, Rabbi Leonid Feldman
Rabbi Emeritus
Rabbi Leonid Feldman
Rabbi Emeritus, Rabbi Leonid Feldman, is a living example of the drama of modern Jewish history. Born in the former Soviet Union, Rabbi Feldman has experienced violent anti-Semitism, imprisonment in Russia as a Zionist activist, Jewish rebirth, and freedom in the West. His life experiences enable him to teach and lecture on Judaism with a passion and perspective that is unique and exhilarating.
The spiritual leader of Temple Beth El since 2005, he is an Associate of The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, and the President of the Ami-Da Institute for training Russian Jewish leaders. Rabbi Feldman is the first and only Soviet-born Conservative rabbi in America. His emotional return to his hometown of Kishinev was featured on NBC’s Today Show, as well as on Israeli national television.
Rabbi Feldman has been a visiting professor at the Jewish University of Moscow and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He has served as a scholar for the Wexner Heritage Foundation and as Director of Education for Soviet Émigrés in Italy. He has lectured in 37 states and 19 countries. Rabbi Feldman has testified before the United States Congress and Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and addressed the California Senate and Florida House of Representatives. In 2000, he delivered the keynote address to over 3,000 people at the UJC Young Leadership Conference in Washington, DC. In 2002, he was the keynote speaker at the Evangelical Christian Convention in Nairobi, Kenya.
He has been the subject of feature articles in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Jerusalem Post, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, Insight Magazine, Moment and many other general and Jewish publications. Rabbi Feldman holds graduate degrees in rabbinic studies from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, in Education from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and in Physics and Theater Arts from Kishinev State Pedagogical Institute in the USSR. He has completed course work towards a PhD in International Relations at the University of Miami.