Rabbi Noach Lawrence, JD

Rabbi Noach is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom of Bloomington, IN, the hometown of Indiana University. He has developed creative, renewing prayerful experiences that fuse classic liturgy with modern Jewish writers and songwriters, incorporate discussion, and unearth mindfulness in traditional Jewish texts. His innovative adult study classes include Crisis of Justice: Israel’s Supreme Court and its Ethics of Power, blending his passion for Talmudic teachings with his first career in law and politics, including his work at the Israeli Supreme Court. He also teaches New Song • Shir Chadash: Modern Jewish Song Lyrics, exploring how artists like Leonard Cohen and Regina Spektor inherit Jewish texts and give them modern, personal twists.

Previously, he served Temple Isaiah in the Bay Area as Assistant Rabbi for two years, and served Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains, NY for three years as a rabbinic intern. In his first career in law and politics, Rabbi Noach worked at the US Senate, the Israeli Knesset, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and the UN International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, all of which inform his rabbinic work. In the Bay Area, he represented Judaism's voice as a board member of Hope Solutions, an interfaith nonprofit that strives to remedy homelessness.

Rabbi Noach's writing can be found in CNN Opinion, Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the interfaith online publication Patheos. He was a member of the Shalom Hartman Institute's Rodan Family Fellowship for East Bay Jewish Communal Professionals in 2022-23.

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Rabbi Noach grew up in the Boston area, and cherishes his bike rides down the path that was originally Paul Revere’s ride. He received his BA with distinction from Yale, his JD from NYU School of Law, and ordination from the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He is married to Katie, a geriatrics and palliative care doctor.​​

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"For the first time in my life, I have found sacred texts to be meaningful, enjoyable, and relevant."

–Adult study participant

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"You were the perfect rabbi for my girls. Every time they thought they couldn't do it, after they met with you they felt they could."  

–Mother of twin bat mitzvah students

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