Rabbi Ethan Bair, an accomplished Jewish community leader, has joined the Syracuse University community as Hillel’s new rabbi and will serve as Jewish chaplain at Hendricks Chapel. Rabbi Bair brings over ten years of experience to Syracuse with a commitment to building interfaith partnerships to create an empowered spiritual Jewish community. “I am thrilled to be joining Syracuse Hillel and the Syracuse University community as campus rabbi and Jewish chaplain,” commented Rabbi Bair. “Hillel was instrumental in my own Jewish journey as an undergraduate at Oberlin College, and I am here to be a point of connection, mentor and resource to Jewish students, as they grapple with questions of meaning, purpose, true self and Jewish community throughout their time at Syracuse and beyond.”
For the past year, Rabbi Bair served as college rabbi and Hillel director at Hamilton College and prior to that he spent eight years as a congregational rabbi, most recently at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach. He was ordained as a Reform rabbi at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles in 2011, after which he served as the campus rabbi at USC Hillel and helped establish the Los Angeles office of American Jewish World Service. Rabbi Bair will work to support the students at Syracuse University as both rabbi and Jewish chaplain, providing them with the tools they need to enhance their Jewish experience in the coming years.
Originally from Boston, Rabbi Bair is a trained singer and graduate of Oberlin College where he triple-majored in Religion, Jewish Studies and German Studies. After graduation, he went on to study at Humboldt Universität in Berlin as a Fulbright Fellow.
“We are thrilled to welcome Rabbi Ethan Bair as our new campus rabbi. At Syracuse Hillel, we pride ourselves on supporting all our students. I am confident that Rabbi Bair will be a wonderful resource for our community, helping us in our mission-driven work here on campus.” said Jillian Juni, executive director of Syracuse Hillel.