17 Facts About Steven Blane

Steven Blane is an American rabbi, cantor and recording singer-songwriter.

Steven Blane is the founder and dean of the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute, an online, one-year rabbinical school, and founder and spiritual leader of Sim Shalom Synagogue, an interactive Universalist cyber-synagogue that offers live weeknight and Shabbat synagogue services to an international community via computer hookup.

Steven Blane was raised in an Orthodox family in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Steven Blane attended elementary and junior high school at the Yeshiva of Hudson County and had an Orthodox bar mitzvah.

Steven Blane attended the Rogosin Yeshiva High School run by the Lubavitch movement in Jersey City.

Steven Blane wrote and produced Benjamin Poe, a 1981 off-off-Broadway musical thriller.

At age 34 Steven Blane undertook private studies to become a cantor and was accepted into the Cantors Assembly, the association of Conservative cantors.

Steven Blane received his rabbinic ordination in June 2001 from Rabbi Joseph Gelberman of the Rabbinical Seminary International in New York City.

Steven Blane chose this trans-denominational seminary for its short ordination time as opposed to five years at the Reform Hebrew Union College and four years at the nondenominational Academy for Jewish Religion.

Steven Blane founded the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute in New York City in 2010.

The rabbinical program for Jewish Professionals is student-driven, with Steven Blane serving as moderator for student online chats.

Steven Blane conducts a once-weekly, 2-hour videoconferencing session which teaches "traditional davening and praying" followed by student-led discussions on subjects such as Jewish law, holidays, or festivals.

In 2012, Steven Blane ordained Dario Hunter, an openly gay man born to a Muslim father and African American mother who was fired by the synagogue where he was rabbi for opposing financial support for Israel, as well as a former Catholic from Brazil.

Steven Blane is the founder of Sim Shalom Synagogue, an interactive Universalist cyber-synagogue, which offers live weeknight and Sabbath synagogue services to an international community via computer hookup.

Rabbi Steven Blane is the founder of the new Jewish movement Jewish Universalism, launched in 2015 to foster Jewish worship and rituals without restrictions.

Steven Blane is listed as the officiating rabbi at various types of wedding ceremonies, including interfaith weddings between Jews and Christians.

Steven Blane had previously lived in Haworth, New Jersey and lives with his wife and children in Manhattan.