Rabbi Micah Greenstein
Rabbi, Temple Israel, Memphis TN
About Speaker
Rabbi Greenstein has served Temple Israel, Memphis’ historic 170-year-old congregation, for over three decades, sustaining its position as the largest synagogue in Tennessee and the Deep South. He is a two-time past President of the Memphis Ministers Association which was instrumental in ending the sanitation strike in the aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. Reflecting Temple Israel’s commitment to serving the greater community, Greenstein was recognized as Memphis Magazine’s first “Memphian of the Year” in 2013. Greenstein was the first rabbi to preach at the Washington Cathedral on a Major State Day for Tennessee in 2005. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Rabbi Greenstein served on the Clergy COVID-19 Task Force with Bishops and Adjudicatory Heads of the Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim faith leaders. Rabbi Greenstein has served on the National Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and represented the Reform Movement in the World Zionist Congress. He has mentored Israeli Reform Rabbis, including the establishment of the first non-Orthodox synagogue in Shoham, Israel, outside Tel Aviv. Honors include the 2011 Memphis City Council’s Humanitarian Award, 2012 President’s Humanitarian Award by Memphis Theological Seminary, and the 2016 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Be The Dream" Legacy Award. Rabbi Greenstein was named among America’s Top 50 Rabbis in 2012 and 2013 by Newsweek/The Daily Beast. He served on the national board of the NAACP and on the Executive Committee and Board of the National Civil Rights Museum. In 2019, Rabbi Greenstein was named one of the "Top 40 Change Makers for Memphis." Since the 1990s, Greenstein has published on Southern Rabbis and Black Civil Rights, facilitated interfaith and interracial dialogue with national and international delegations visiting Memphis, and in 2018, Rabbi Greenstein served as emcee of the global MLK50 commemoration at the National Civil Rights Museum and has been a keynote speaker at The Interfaith Ramadan Iftar sponsored by the Memphis Islamic Center since its inception 16 years ago.