Program Description: Join us for lunch with our special guest, Rabbi Michael N. Stevens
Guest Bio: Mike Stevens was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in New York City and Long Island, where his family was actively involved in many aspects of Jewish cultural, educational, and religious life. He is a graduate of Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, and received his M.A. in Music Composition from Hunter College of the City of New York. Before entering rabbinic school, Mike taught elementary school music for two years in Brentwood, New York, and served for three years on the faculty of the Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia. Mike was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1976, and served congregations in Warren, Ohio; Montreal, Canada; and Allentown, Pennsylvania before starting his thirty years as Rabbi and Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Beth-El in Munster, Indiana in 1987. While in Indiana, Mike served as a Guest Lecturer in the Department of English and Philosophy at Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, Indiana. He taught a freshman Humanities course, The History of the Human Experience as Expressed in Art, Literature, Music, and Philosophy, and a seniorlevel English class, The Bible as Literature: Old Testament (1996-2013). Mike has composed more than four dozen musical settings of prayers and biblical texts, as well as marches and other pieces for concert band and orchestra. Mike and Judy Stevens moved to Holly Springs, North Carolina, in 2017, and are blessed with four wonderful children and ten beautiful grandchildren. Now retired from the congregational rabbinate, Mike continues to write liturgical music, teaches the Adult Hebrew classes at Beth Shalom here in Raleigh, and accompanies the choir and soloists at Beth Shalom at Shabbat and holiday services. Mike also serves as the accompanist for the 5th Grade Chorus at the Oakview Elementary school in Holly Springs, and plays piano twice a month at the Windsor Point Retirement Community in Fuquay-Varina. Mike’s wife, Judy, was born in Hungary, the child of Holocaust survivors. Together, Mike and Judy are with the Holocaust Speakers Bureau, doing presentations about the Holocaust for schools, colleges, and churches.
