ABOUT ME
"My sacred task as rabbi is to ignite the God-given hidden spark (Or HaGanuz) within each person, and connect this light to others through building spiritual community. The tool of ignition, inspiration, and agitation is our Torah, 70 Faces and all, and my task is make Torah come alive (through diverse venues) in the present so it will live in the future. I seek to be a madrich/guide and leader who can help others traverse through the windy pathways of life. I strive to connect to my congregants and students through our stories, finding each other within our own narratives and journeys."
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Rabbi David Baum has served as the first full-time Rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Kodesh since the summer of 2009. Rabbi Baum received his rabbinical ordination from The Jewish Theological Seminary and received his Master’s Degree in Jewish Education from the Davidson School in May 2009.
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Born and raised in South Florida, Rabbi Baum attended Conservative Synagogues in both Miami and Plantation, Florida. He attended the University of Florida where he graduated with a Bachelors degree in Psychology and a minor in business administration. During college, he engaged in leadership roles at the University of Florida Hillel and with Koach, the Conservative Movement’s college outreach movement, and spent summers working in various capacities at Camp Ramah Darom, the center for Southern Jewry.
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As a rabbinical student, Rabbi Baum developed his rabbinic voice in various settings including: pulpits across the country; teen and adult education; Hillel work at the University of Florida; interfaith work at the Auburn Theological Seminary; and social justice work as a Seminary Summer Intern with Interfaith Worker Justice and The Seminary Leadership Project through JOIN for Justice.
Rabbi Baum is the immediate past President of the Palm Beach County Board of Rabbis, past president of the Southeast Region of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), served on the board of directors for the Levis Jewish Community Center of Boca Raton, and currently serves as rabbi director on the board of directors for the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. Nationally, Rabbi Baum is the former co-chair of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Resolution’s Committee, is the co-chair of the RA’s Strengthening Democracy Committee and sits on the Rabbinical Assembly’s Social Justice Commission, and on its Executive Council.
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Rabbi Baum has presented at various national conferences including the Rabbinical Assembly, the Jewish National Fund, and JOIN for Justice. Rabbi Baum was a Rabbi for Israel with the Jewish National Fund and is currently a member of the Rabbinic Advisory Committee with Israel Bonds.
Rabbi Baum is an alumnus of the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI) Fellowship (cohort 2), a two year program that supports and encourages rabbis in areas of innovative thinking and institutional transformation, and was one of fourteen rabbis chosen to be a Global Justice Fellow with American Jewish World Services from 2019-2020.
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Rabbi Baum lives in Boca Raton with his wife, Dr. Alissa Baum, the Assistant Clinical Director of the Renfrew Center, and their three children, Avi, Harrison and Layla.