Rabbi Carl M. Perkins, Rabbi Emeritus

Rabbi Carl M. Perkins became the spiritual leader of Temple Aliyah in 1991, and assumed emeritus status on July 1, 2022. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, Rabbi Perkins earned his A.B., summa cum laude, at Haverford College. He taught for several years at the Commonwealth School in Boston as a Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow. Before pursuing the rabbinate, he earned his J.D., cum laude, at Harvard Law School, and practiced law for several years in Boston. Rabbi Perkins was awarded a Wexner Fellowship to pursue rabbinical studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, where he was ordained and awarded a masters degree in Talmud and Rabbinics.

In 2003, Rabbi Perkins received the CJP Rabbinic Award at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Jerusalem. Subsequently, he participated in a three-year program of study at the Shalom Hartman Institute, at the conclusion of which he was named a Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Institute. In 2009, and 2015, he co-led trips to Israel sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) for Christian clergy from the Boston area.

Rabbi Perkins’ academic and professional interests include Talmud and Midrash, Jewish education, and keruv (outreach to interfaith families). He has taught and lectured widely in the Boston area, including at Boston College Law School, where he taught Jewish law. He is currently an Adjunct Instructor in Jewish Law at Hebrew College Rabbinical School.

Rabbi Perkins has published articles in Conservative Judaism, Judaism, The American Rabbi, InterfaithFamily.com, Sh’ma, and Jewish Values Online. He is the author of the revised edition of Embracing Judaism, an introduction to Judaism for prospective Jews by Choice, originally written by his late father-in-law, Rabbi Simcha Kling.  He wrote an article exploring his work as a darshan (interpreter of Jewish text in synagogue) entitled, “Serendipity and Pedagogy:  Presenting the Weekly Parashah Through Rabbinic Eyes,” which was published in Turn It and Turn It Again: Studies in the Teaching and Learning of Classical Jewish Texts, edited by Jon A. Levisohn and Susan P. Fendrick (Academic Studies Press: 2013).

The Rabbi is also actively involved with many community-wide organizations. He has served on the Keruv and Publications committees of the Rabbinical Assembly, and on the Boards of Trustees of the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Boston,  and Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh and Education Center. He is a past president of the Needham Clergy Association and a past vice president of the New England Rabbinical Assembly.

Several years ago, Rabbi Perkins participated in a research fellowship program at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania as the Rabbi Samuel T. Lachs Fellow in the 2015 cohort of LEAP, a program developed by CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Coincidentally, Rabbi Perkins had been a student of Rabbi Lachs, z”l,  at Gratz College and Bryn Mawr College in the 1970s.

For additional writings from Rabbi Perkins, please click on the links below:

Rabbi in Residence Leslie Gordon

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