Meet Rabbi Tilsen
Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen has been the spiritual leader of the Congregation since 1993. A native of Mendota Heights, Minnesota, he is a graduate of Columbia College in New York, where he studied Political Science and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. He received a Masters degree and Rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1991. While in Rabbinical School he studied in Jerusalem for three years, where he met his wife, attorney Miriam Benson. Rabbi Tilsen and Ms Benson have four children. They reside in the Westville neighborhood of New Haven. Rabbi Tilsen is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, the global organization of 1,600 Masorti-Conservative rabbis, and of the New Haven Area Rabbinical Assembly, the local organization of Masorti-Conservative rabbis.
Messages from Rabbi Tilsen
- Who Restores Life: Yom Kippur Yizkor 5769 – 2008
- A Place in the Sun: Kol Nidrei 5769 – 2008
- No God But...: Rosh HaShana 5768 – 2007
- Challenge & Acceptance: Kol Nidre 5768 – 2007
- Against the Flood: Parashat Noah 5767 – 2006
- Conservation And Renewable Energy: Kol Nidre 5767 – 2006
How Many Jewish Leaders Does it Take to Screw-In a Lightbulb?
- Ma`alin BaQodesh: Ascension in Holiness: Rosh HaShana 5766 – 2005
- Out with the Old, In with the New: Yom Kippur Yizkor 5765 – 2004
- Lo Alekha: Every Effort Counts: Rosh HaShana 5765 – 2004
- The People's Torah: Rosh HaShana 5764 – 2003
- LeHitgaber: Perspective and Coping: Yom Kippur Yizkor 5764 – 2003
- Who Can You Trust? Rosh HaShana 5763 – 2002 (Day 1)
- Life Eternal: Yom Kippur Yizkor 5763 – 2002
- Our Hope Continues: Rosh HaShana 5762 – 2001 (Day 1)
- The Danger of Extremism: Rosh HaShana 5762 – 2001 (Day 2)
- Kol Nidre Message 5762 – 2001
- Yizkor Message 5762 – 2001
- Wandering in the Wilderness: A Summer Devar
- The Power of the Pushke
- Predicting the Past
- Slow Down: Rosh HaShana 5760 – 1999
- Will the "Real" Judaism Please Stand Up?
- Faces: A Yizkor Message 5759 – 1998
- Only God Remembers: A Yizkor Message רק אלהים זוכר
- Don't call me "non-Orthodox"
- Wild Indians & Wicked Witches
- What Shul Do You Belong To?
- Smile, You're on Candid Camera or Big Brother is Watching You
- Chews by Choice
- Israel in Our Hearts
- Who are the Real Jews?
- Not By Might: A Hanuka Message
- The Miracle of Hanuka
- Tefillin While You Wait
- The Right Page
- The Chicken that had no Heart
- It's even worse...
- Women & Tefillin
- Farshem nit dein mamen
- Faxing God
- My Great-grandfather Wasn't Orthodox
- Why Should I Be Good?
- My First Cousin
- The Problem of Purim
- Material and Spiritual Emancipation
- Please Knock Loudly Do Not Ring Bell
- Torah Manifesto
- Right vs. Right
- Everyone is a Winner
- The Voice of Jacob
- Mitzva Indigestion
- Please Don't Leave
- Cross Dressing & Deuteronomy 22:5
- Sex Reassignment Surgery & Deuteronomy 23:2
- Same-Sex Marriage
- Is God Made Up?
☮ Writings on Nonviolence by Rabbi Tilsen
- Nonviolent Resistance of the Jews to Roman Occupation
- Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Israel
- Domestic Violence in Classical Halakhic Sources
- Motifs of Nonviolence in Shivhei HaBesht (Tales of the Ba`al Shem Tov)
- The Cycle of Violence
- Hunting in Law & Tradition
- Animal Rights & Wrongs
- Seeing God's Face: Jacob & Esau
- Ottoman Land Registration Law as a Contributing Factor in the Israeli-Arab Conflict
Rabbi Tilsen's Family Tree
Dear Rabbi: Answers, Advice & Helpful Household Hints
- Food, Kosher, Kashrut, Kosher for Passover
- Death & Dying
- Shabbat
- Prayer & Synagogue Ritual
- Hanuka
- More Topics
Congregation Beth El–Keser Israel
85 Harrison Street
New Haven, CT USA 06515-1724
☏ (203) 389-2108
Fax (203) 389-5899
Return to BEKI welcome page
Email to Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen: jjtilsen@beki.org