Rabbi Shamash in the news
It All Begins Here
Rabbi Shamash Steppingstone Park leads families in song & prayer
Rabbi Shamash joins LSJC
It All Begins Here
Dear Friends and Congregants;
We are pleased to announce that Rav Hazzan Brian Shamash has joined our congregation as religious leader beginning on July 18, 2026. Please join us for his first Shabbat morning with us to welcome him to our community.
With over 28 years of experience in congregational leadership and as a Jewish educator, we believe that within the next few months we will begin to see a revitalization to our beloved home. Rav Shamash will be bringing his vibrant energy and stalwart dedication to direct the growth of LSJC while building connections within the Great Neck, New Hyde Park, and Eastern Queens Jewish communities and beyond.
Rav Shamash was raised in a home that blended his father’s Babylonian Iraqi-Jewish heritage with his artist mother’s Ashkenazi roots, teaching him that Jewish identity is a symphony of diverse melodies. This led him to begin his career as a Hazzan, but his deeper study into halacha as well as liturgy has yielded an ever greater appreciation for the resilient and evolving nature of Jewish thought, forwarding him through a Rabbinic Ordination last year. To quote Rav Shamash, Judaism is a “dynamic living laboratory for the soul.”
We welcome Rav Shamash, his wife Emily, and their three beautiful children (Ella, Maya, and Ethan) to our synagogue and look forward to all we will learn and engage in together.