“Ideas That Animate the Passover Seder & Their Ritual Embodiments”

Passover is rooted in the Israelite redemption from Egypt and its observance is commanded in the Book of Exodus. The seder, the meal with its attendant rituals and its book, the Haggadah (The Telling) evolved over time and continues to do so. Its text and rituals enunciate central ideas and values of Judaism that resonate throughout the ages.

Rabbi Gary S. Creditor was installed as the senior Rabbi of Temple Beth-El, Richmond, Virginia on October 3, 1993 and retired as Rabbi Emeritus in June, 2014, concluding a forty-year career in the pulpit Rabbinate. He instituted many programs in Adult Education such as a weekly Talmud class and, a weekly class in Basic Judaism. He was instrumental in returning post B’nai Mitzvah to participate in services and Torah reading. Under his direction the Mollie Brown and Sylvia Janus Mikvah was built at Temple Beth-El that serves the entire central Virginia and Shenandoah Valley Jewish communities.

Rabbi Creditor served on the Board of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond and its committees in many capacities. He was a member of the Richmond Rabbinic Association and served as its chairman. Rabbi Creditor is a long-time member of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, serving on its Board of Directors and is chair of the Living Wage Certification Program. He has spoken to a wide and diverse spectrum of institutions in Richmond: the Kiwanis Club, the Governor’s School for Governmental and International Studies, and at the Jewish Women’s Room and Jewish Women’s Club at the Weinstein Jewish Community Center. Rabbi Creditor participated with Governor Tom Kaine in the memorial program for students and faculty who died at Virginia Tech, and many interreligious programs held around Richmond following the tragedy of September 11th, 2001.

Rabbi Creditor is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, of the Washington Board of Rabbi, the Washington-Baltimore region of the Rabbinical Assembly, and the New York Board of Rabbis. He served congregations in New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut and Long Island, New York before ascending to position in Richmond.

Rabbi Creditor was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York in 1976, where he received his MA in Talmud (1974) and Bachelor of Hebrew Literature (1971). He graduated from Columbia University G. S. with a B.A. in Far Eastern Religions (1971). As part of these programs he studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1968-1969, 1973-1974). In 2003 he received his Doctor of Divinity (Hon.) from J.T.S. recognizing more than twenty-five years of Rabbinic service.

We are thankful that Rabbi Creditor is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Richmond and are grateful he will be speaking to our club on the Passover.