Hayim HerringRABBI HAYIM HERRING received his undergraduate education at the Joint Program of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and Columbia University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Columbia and with distinction from the Seminary. He received his rabbinical ordination from the Seminary in 1984 and a doctorate in Organization and Management from Capella University’s School of Business in 2000, where he concentrated his studies in the area of non-profit management.

For ten years, he served as rabbi of Beth El Synagogue in Minneapolis, first as associate and then as senior rabbi. He then worked at the Minneapolis Jewish Federation for seven years, where he helped to create one of the leading-edge continuity initiatives in the country, leaving as Associate Executive Director in 2002. He then was appointed as the first Executive Director of STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal), established in 1999 by philanthropists Edgar M. Bronfman, Charles Schusterman (z”l) and Michael Steinhardt. Herring continues to lead STAR today, whose mission is to renew Jewish life through congregational innovation and leadership development. One of STAR’s signature initiatives is Synaplex™, a national synagogue renewal effort with over 130 participating congregations.

Rabbi Herring serves on numerous national boards, including the editorial board of the educational magazine of the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA), the UJC’s Jewish Renaissance and Renewal Professional Advisory Committee, the Lippman-Kanfer Institute, the Rabbinical School Advisory Committee of Hebrew College and the National Jewish Policy Center (formerly, the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies), where he is a Senior Scholar. He has volunteered extensively in his home community on behalf of Jewish youth and teens, serving causes including Jewish camping, supplemental schools and day schools. Rabbi Herring is a founding member of the Alumni Association of Capella University.

Rabbi Herring has conducted studies and published articles in the areas of Jewish continuity, Jewish adolescence, Jewish identity-formation in postmodern America, Conservative Judaism, new organizational models of the American Jewish community, re-envisioning the synagogue and the rabbinate in the United States, and the role of continuing education for congregational rabbis. Currently, he is researching the impact of denominational ideology on Jewish life.
Rabbi Herring is married to Terri Krivosha-Herring, a prominent business attorney. They have two children and have resided in the Minneapolis area since 1985.