Staff and Officers
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The Shul. The People. The Community.
Stony Brook Hebrew Congregation (SBHC) is a warm and inviting community synagogue serving the Orthodox community in Stony Brook and the surrounding areas. We are a diverse bunch: professionals, students, retirees, young families, empty nesters, rationalists and seekers. We are a shul and community where everyone counts.
Rabbi Jeremy Perlow
Rabbi
Rabbi Perlow is a passionate teacher who believes in building community through Torah learning, community engagement, and personal relationships. After studying in Israel for two years at Yeshivat Shaalvim, Rabbi Perlow earned a BS in Accounting from Sy Syms School of Business and is completing a MA in Bible at Bernard Revel Graduate School. He received his Semicha from Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchonon Theological Seminary.
Growing up in Northbrook, Illinois, Rabbi Jeremy Perlow’s early years were greatly influenced by his parent’s dedication to Jewish communal life. Previously, he served as the Rabbinic Intern of Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, NJ and of Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. In addition, he served as the Interim Rabbi of Congregation Ohav Sholom in Manhattan.
Rabbi Perlow has taught Torah to a wide variety of levels of learners, and currently serves as a Middle School Rebbe at Hebrew Academy of Nassau County. In Stony Brook, he also serves as the Orthodox Rabbi of Stony Brook University’s Hillel. His wife, Devora, is currently pursuing a PsyD in School Psychology. Together, the Perlows enjoy opening their home and building relationships with the diverse members of the Stony Brook community.
Dr. Helmut Strey
President
Dr. Helmut Strey, who hails from Munich, is a biophysicist. When he and his wife (Dr. Lily Mujica-Parodi, an associate professor in computational neurodiagnostics at Stony Brook) were both offered positions at Stony Brook University in 2003, they initially considered commuting in from various neighboring Jewish communities. However, they fell in love with the Stony Brook Jewish community and with the beautiful area, and decided that they wanted to raise their family in Stony Brook. They have been an integral part of the SBHC family ever since. Helmut holds dual positions as the Director of the Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnologies (www.streylab.com) and Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Stony Brook University. As part of his research, he develops micro- and nanotechnologies for applications in basic and applied research. He received the Dillon medal for research in Polymer Physics from the American Physical Society in 2003. Helmut has been the president of SBHC for the past several years. He and his wife have raised their three children, as well as chickens and an assortment of other pets, in the heart of the Stony Brook community. Helmut recently converted to Bayesianism and is passionate about making things, soccer, and table tennis.
Dr. David Ebin
Founder and Vice President
Dr. David Ebin is a native of Los Angeles. However, he traveled to the East Coast for his education, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Harvard and his Ph.D. in
mathematics from MIT. Dr. Ebin accepted a professorship at Stony Brook University in 1969 and served as the Chairman of the Math Department from 2004 to 2009. In addition to his love of mathematics, Dr. Ebin has been involved with fostering the growth of the Jewish community for most of his tenure at Stony Brook. He served as the local chairperson for the UJA and worked with others to found a Jewish high school in Suffolk County. However, his labor of love over the years has been the Stony Brook Hebrew Congregation. Together with Dr. Paul Poppers and Dr. Thomas Netzel, z”l, Dr. Ebin established this congregation in 1981 in response to a growing need in the Stony Brook community. He and his wife Barbara have been the warm, loving, and tremendously dedicated backbone of the SBHC community since its founding. David met and married his wife Barbara while at Stony Brook, where they raised four children and now are the grandparents of ten. The Stony Brook Hebrew Congregation has provided the religious community foundation for their four children and a second home for many of the grandchildren as well.