Most folks at Sim Shalom just call him Rabbi Steve, and he’s usually the first face you’ll see on a Friday night. He opens the Zoom room at 6:30pm Eastern to schmooze before Shabbat services, and he loves meeting new people.
Where he comes from
Rabbi Steven Blane grew up in Jersey City and went to Orthodox Jewish day schools, including the Yeshiva of Hudson County and Rogosin Yeshiva High School. He went on to earn a degree in music education, with a focus on voice. Music has been at the center of his work ever since.
Music and theater
Before becoming clergy, he sang and acted on and off Broadway, including in the show Strider, and wrote plays. In 1986 he co-founded Blane DeRosa Productions, which makes audiobooks and children’s audio programs.
Cantor, then rabbi
He trained as a cantor with Hazzan Noah Schall and served congregations in Mississippi, New York, and New Jersey through the 1990s and 2000s. He studied with Rabbi Joseph Gelberman and was ordained a rabbi in 2001, and later led Congregation Beth Tikvah–New Milford Jewish Center.
When he began officiating at interfaith weddings, the Cantors Assembly gave him a choice: resign or be expelled. He resigned in 2009. That moment helped shape everything that came next.
Building something new
Rabbi Blane founded Sim Shalom as an online synagogue where everyone has a seat at the table: Jews by birth, Jews by choice, interfaith families, seekers, and people who don’t belong anywhere else. He is also Dean of the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute (JSLI), which has ordained more than 250 rabbis and cantors.
He’s the founder of Jewish Universalism, a way of Jewish life built on kindness, welcome, and moral courage. For more about him, visit Rabbi.net.
Come say hello
Rabbi Steve built Sim Shalom so that nobody would have to pray alone or feel like a stranger. Join him on Zoom on a Friday at 6:30pm Eastern, or any weeknight at 7pm, and introduce yourself. He’d love to meet you.