Rabbi Ronald B.B. Symons came to Temple Sinai in 2008 as Director of Lifelong Learning through the support of the Meyer Sivitz Lifelong Learning Initiative. His work in the Midrash Center for Jewish Lifelong Learning enables him to supervise and mentor our educators and provide direct learning opportunities for congregants across the generations.

Passionate about congregation based community organizing, Rabbi Symons also serves as the Director of  Tikkun Olam Center for Jewish Social Justice.  In this role, he works in partnership with our lay leadership and the leadership of other congregations through the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network in organizing our efforts to serve those in need within our Greater Pittsburgh community.

An innovative Torah teacher, Rabbi Symons is committed to text-based, exciting and meaningful learning that leads to intellectual, spiritual and socially responsible Jewish living. He is a lover of Jewish learners and Jewish learning, and strives to bring the two together in all possible circumstances.

Rabbi Symons is available to meet our congregants’ spiritual, lifecycle and pastoral needs aside from his work in lifelong learning and social justice.

Rabbi Symons is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Jewish Studies and Hebrew with distinction . Ordained by Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, he studied in both Jerusalem and New York. He holds a Master’s of Arts in Hebrew Literature from HUC and a Master’s of Science in Educational Administration and Supervision from Pace University in White Plains, New York. Rabbi Symons is a graduate of the Day School Leadership Training Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the AviChai Foundation.

Rabbi Symons has served as the Chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Association, serves on the board of Hillel – Jewish University Center, the executive committee of PIIN and is active in many local communal endeavors.  He is the Vice President of the Gamaliel Foundation’s National Clergy Caucus which strives to bring clergy of a ll faiths from around the country into strategic conversations about congregation based community organizing.