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Rabbi Andrew Bloom was born in New Jersey, grew up in Maryland and made Aliyah at the age of 19 to Israel. There, Rabbi Bloom served for 2½ years in the Israeli Army as a combat medic in an artillery unit in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza as well as serving as his unit’s medical chemicals expert during the Gulf War. Upon being honorably discharged in 1991 at the rank of Sergeant, Rabbi Bloom studied Education and History at the State Teachers College-Seminar Hakibutzim. It was there that he met his wife, Michal also a student in Education and History. They were married in the summer of 1993.
Rabbi Bloom graduated with a B.Ed and teachers certificate with honors in 1995. During his last year of undergraduate work, Rabbi Bloom served as teacher at the Herziliyah Gymnasium, Israel’s oldest Hebrew High School. Upon completion of his undergraduate studies, Rabbi Bloom entered Rabbinical School at The Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies in Jerusalem, the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Israel Branch. He organized two international conferences for Conservative Rabbis and their spouses in Jerusalem.
During Rabbi Bloom’s studies he served as a Student Rabbi in Jerusalem at Congregation Kiryat Hayovel, a community composed largely of Russian immigrants. In 1997, Rabbi Bloom and his wife welcomed their son, Daniel. In July of 2000 daughter, Maya was born and August 2004 daughter, Lia was born. Rabbi Bloom also served as a crisis counselor for English Speakers at Shaarey Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem. Rabbi Bloom’s rabbinic thesis was on “The Psychology of the Mourning Process.”
Upon completion of his studies Rabbi Bloom served for a year as Rabbi at Saint Albans Masorti Synagogue in England. During this time Rabbi Bloom served on the Beit Din of the Conservative movement in England.
Rabbi Bloom joined Temple Emanuel in Woodcliff Lake in May 2000 as its Assistant Rabbi. During this time he created an innovative family B’nai Mitzvah program and taught adult education classes on topic such as Jewish Biomedical Ethics, Prayers of Healing and Adult Bar and Bat Mitzvah classes. Rabbi Bloom also co-created a Shirey Shabbat early family service. As a result of this service Rabbi Bloom compiled and authored a prayer book for children 5 and younger. Rabbi Bloom also played an integral role in his synagogue’s Early Childhood Program, Hebrew School and Hebrew High School programs. During his five years at Temple Emanuel, Rabbi Bloom also officiated at hundreds of life cycle events.
Rabbi Bloom is very interested in pastoral counseling and just finished his course work and received his certification as a Pastoral Counselor in a Doctor of Ministry program at Hebrew Union College and the Post Graduate Center of Mental Health in New York City. Currently, Rabbi Bloom is working on his doctoral thesis titled “The image of God that 12 year olds hold and how an integrative God image assists teenagers overcome the obstacles of peer pressure.”
Rabbi Bloom serves on the Monmouth County Human Relations Commission as a representative of the Shore Board of Rabbis.
Rabbi Bloom says that his greatest success in life was marrying his wife Michal and the birth of their three children.
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