Rabbi Marc Margolius has been spiritual leader of West End Synagogue since 2010. He also currently directs alumni programs for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, a center for the cultivation of Jewish contemplative practices among rabbis, cantors, educators and lay leaders. Rabbi Margolius previously conceived and directed for five years the Legacy Heritage Innovation Project, an initiative supporting systemic educational transformation in congregations across North America, Europe and Israel, and served as Director of Jewish Life and Identity for the Jewish Community Centers of Philadelphia.
As spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Am Israel in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania from 1989-2003, Rabbi Margolius helped develop a national model of the synagogue as a Shabbat-centered community constructed around intergenerational learning. He served as adjunct faculty at the Center for Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania, and his work has been published twice in Sh'ma's annual anthology of outstanding High Holiday sermons.
Ordained in 1989 at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Margolius graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School. He has long been active in interfaith matters and social justice issues. As a legal services attorney, he specialized in civil rights and poverty law, and served as staff attorney for the Commission on Law and Social Action of the American Jewish Congress, Pennsylvania Region.
Rabbi Margolius lives in Manhattan with his wife, Rabbi Ayelet Cohen; he is the proud father of Max, Sam, Galia, Meital and Ziv. Though born in Brooklyn and raised in Westchester, New York, he is a dyed-in-the-wool Philadelphia sports fan.
