Rabbi Steven Morgen, Associate Rabbi
Rabbi Morgen coordinates Adult Education programs at Beth Yeshurun and runs the Conversion Program for those interested in joining the Jewish faith and people. His community involvement includes outreach in interfaith activities, teaching in Jewish and non-Jewish venues, serving as board member of the regional boards of the ADL and the AJC, and a past board member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston and Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston. He is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, he grew up in a family that was active in the Reform Temple in Tucson. While earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of Arizona, Rabbi Morgen was active in the campus Hillel House.
Before going to law school, Rabbi Morgen went to Israel to study for one year: six months at the WUJS Institute in Arad and six months at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem.
After the year in Israel, Rabbi Morgen earned his J.D. at the UCLA School of Law in 1983. While at UCLA, he lived for a year and a half in a Jewish student “co-op” house called the Westwood Bayit. He also participated in a Talmud study group at the Law School sponsored by the Hillel House.
While working as a corporate/securities lawyer in Los Angeles, Rabbi Morgen became an active member of the Library Minyan at Temple Beth Am. He occasionally delivered sermons for the minyan, and studied Talmud by telephone during his lunch hour with friends.
He took a year off from his legal practice in 1987-88 to go back to Israel and study again at the Conservative Movement’s Bet Midrash in Jerusalem. It was during this year that he met his wife, Diane Dorf, who was studying to be a Cantor at Hebrew Union College.
Rabbi Morgen returned to the practice of law for a few more years before deciding to enroll in the Rabbinical School at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, went to Israel for a third year, and finished Rabbinical School at The Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, in May 1998.
Rabbi Morgen accepted a position as Rabbi at Congregation Beth Yeshurun upon graduation, and has lived in Houston since July 1998. He became associate rabbi in 2002. Cantor Dorf and Rabbi Morgen have one son, Daniel.
