Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik, spiritual leader of The Forest Hills Jewish Center, was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1981. Immediately upon his ordination, he served as Assistant Rabbi under the late Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser for almost three years. With Rabbi Bokser’s death in 1984, Rabbi Skolnik assumed the rabbinic leadership of the congregation, and has served in that capacity ever since.
In addition to his responsibilities at The Forest Hills Jewish Center, the largest Conservative congregation in Queens, Rabbi Skolnik is involved in numerous communal activities. A past president of the Commission on Synagogue Relations of UJA-Federation , past chairman of its Committee on AIDS and member of its Board of Directors, he also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Solomon Schechter School of Queens, and the Board of Governors of the New York Board of Rabbis. He is the incoming President of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international organization of Conservative rabbis, a Vice President of the Zamir Choral Foundation, a member of the Board of Directors of MERCAZ, the Zionist arm of the Conservative movement, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Masorti Foundation.
Rabbi Skolnik has published numerous articles- he is a frequent contributor to the print edition of The Jewish Week- and he writes a weekly column for the Jewish Week’s online edition under the heading of “A Rabbi’s World.” He has lectured extensively throughout the New York area, and has appeared on national radio and television. His collaborations with the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble on “The Chanukkah Story,” “The Birthday of the World: Music and Traditions of the High Holidays,” and “A Taste of Eternity: A Musical Shabbat,” have received wide critical acclaim. These productions, commissioned by Public Radio International, feature scripts written by Rabbi Skolnik, and read by Theodore Bikel and Leonard Nimoy.
Rabbi Skolnik is married to Robin Segal Skolnik, the Middle School Librarian at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School in Manhattan. They have four children: Rabbi Hillel Skolnik, who serves as the Rabbi of the Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation in Florida, and is married to Rabbi Sharon Barr Skolnik; Leora, who is married to Rabbi Yonatan Warren, a Lieutenant (jg) in the United States Navy serving as a chaplain in Okinawa, Japan; Talya, who is completing her third year at Barnard College and is studying in Copenhagen for the spring semester; and Matan, who is completing the NATIV gap year program in Israel and will attending the University of Michigan in the fall. They also have two grandchildren, Dafna Zahava and Liav Noam, the son and daughter of Hillel and Sharon.
