 A native New Yorker, Rabbi Linda Henry Goodman holds a Bachelor’s degree from The Mannes College of Music and an M.A. from Queens College. During the 1970's she was a member of the faculties of Mannes College and The State University of New York College at Purchase. In addition, she appeared often as piano recitalist, accompanist, and chamber player.
In 1980 she entered the Rabbinic School of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, first at the campus in Jerusalem, and later in New York. There she earned an M.A. in Hebrew Literature. As a student, Rabbi Goodman served as Student Chaplain at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as Lenox Hill Hospital and the Hospital for Special Surgery. She also received awards in Homiletics, Bible, Hebrew, and Humanities. In 1999 she earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Hebrew Union College.
Upon her ordination in 1985, Rabbi Goodman became the first woman to join the Rabbinic staff of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York. Subsequently she went on to serve as Rabbi of the Nassau Community Temple in West Hempstead, and Hillel Director and Jewish Chaplain at Adelphi University. She also spent several years as Adjunct Instructor in the Theology Department at Molloy College, and as Adjunct Professor of Jewish Studies at the New York Theological Seminary. In 1992 Rabbi Goodman became the first woman to occupy our pulpit here at Union Temple as Rabbi of the Congregation.
Rabbi Goodman has long been a leader and spokesperson in the community, particularly in the areas of Reproductive Rights and fighting hunger. She helped to found a Jewish coalition in West Hempstead, spanning all segments of the Jewish community, in service to the INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network) in Hempstead. She serves on the Executive Board of the New York State Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and also has served on the Clergy Advisory Council for RCRC on the national level in Washington. She also is a member of Concerned Clergy for Choice in affiliation with Family Planning Advocates in Albany. She is a recipient of the Roe v. Wade Award from the New York and New Jersey affiliates of RCRC. She currently holds the office of Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis, the first woman in the organization’s history to do so. She was awarded the prestigious and Rabbi Israel and Libby Mowshowitz Award for Public Service, and the Zagelbaum Family Award for Chaplaincy, both from the New York Board of Rabbis. The Zagelbaum Award was primarily in recognition of her emergency pastoral service to the community in the wake of 9/11. She also has served on the Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and the CCAR Committee on Jewish Sexual Values. Currently she serves on the CCAR Resolutions Committee. She is a member of the Rabbinic Advisory Board of the Reform Jewish Voice of New York State, and is also a member of the Rabbinic Council of ARZA.
Rabbi Goodman’s husband, Rabbi Stephen Wise Goodman, is Rabbi of the Garden City Jewish Center, and an attorney in the Law Department of the New York City Housing Authority. The Goodmans’ son Philip is a student at Binghamton University.
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Maria Dubinsky 
We have been blessed at Union Temple with the talents and exuberance of student cantors on the highest level, who have contributed greatly to the life of our congregation. We are fortunate again this year to welcome another outstanding student cantor, Maria Dubinsky. Born and raised in Moscow, Maria made aliyah to Israel in her teens, and graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. She served in the Israel Defense Force for two years, and worked as a Hebrew-Russian translator in the “Vesty” newspaper, and the “Ot, Ltd,” and “SK Orbit Ltd” companies. She performed throughout Israel as a soloist in the Philharmonic Singers and in various solo and chamber music groups. In addition, she sang in the choir of the New Israeli Opera. She was awarded first prize in the Rubin Academy of Music’s chamber music competition, and was a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship for musical excellence. In addition, she directed the children’s vocal ensemble in the Neve-Eliezer School in Tel Aviv, and taught Hebrew in the Beit Alicia home for older adults. On a private basis, both in Israel and in New York, she has taught Hebrew, Russian, music theory, and Bar/Bat Mitzvah lessons. Maria is entering her fourth year at the Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music. For the past two years, she has served as a biweekly Student Cantorial Intern at the Garden City Jewish Center. Their rabbi, Rabbi Stephen W. Goodman, sings her praises to the hilt and commends her to us with great excitement. The daughter of an Orthodox hazzan, Maria is committed to the Reform Movement, and hopes to return to Israel to contribute her talents to the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. We welcome Maria into our midst, along with her husband Arkady and their little daughter Maya. We hope that her time with us will be mutually happy and fulfilling. We all will have a chance to welcome her formally at our pre-Selichot reception on Saturday evening, September 20th, beginning at 8:00 PM.
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 Biography of Jan-Piet Knijff
Jan-Piet Knijff [pronounced Yahn-Pete K’nife, or simply JP] holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York as well as the Artist Diploma from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Born in Haarlem, The Netherlands—home of the world-famous Christiaan Müller organ at St. Bavo’s Cathedral—he won both the first prize and the Audience Prize at the International Bach Competition in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1997, and moved to the tri-state area in 1999.
In addition to his position as Organist and Music Director of Union Temple of Brooklyn, Dr. Knijff is currently Organist-in-Residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College/CUNY, where he teaches organ and chamber music; Director of Music at Emanuel Lutheran Church, Pleasantville, NY, where he conducts two choirs and works with amateur as well as professional orchestras; and Concert Organist in Residence at St. Paul’s Church National Historic Site, Mount Vernon, NY (Henry Erben organ, 1835). He also performs frequently as continuo organist and harpsichordist with the Bach Choir and Players at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan.
Dr. Knijff has performed worldwide on organ, piano, and harpsichord as recitalist, accompanist, chamber music player, and concerto soloist. He played the harpsichord solo in the world premiere of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto grosso No. 4/Fifth Symphony with the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and accompanied the Haarlem Cathedral Choir (boys and men) on an extended tour in Japan. He played second harpsichord to Glen Wilson in a commercial recording of Bach’s Fourteen Canons (Teldec). He has performed organ concertos by Hindemith, Poulenc, Monnikendam, and de Klerk; harpsichord concertos by Bach and de Falla; and piano concertos by Mozart and Lancen with professional and semi-professional orchestras.
Dr. Knijff has contributed articles to journals such as Het Orgel, The Tracker, The Diapason, and Pianowereld. Before coming to America, he was for many years a music journalist for Haarlems Dagblad, the world’s oldest extant newspaper. He has served as an adjudicator for the International Young Organists’ Competion in Opava, Czech Republic, 2002. As a bass-baritone, he has performed principal roles in Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Patience, and Iolanthe, as well as solo parts in a musical theater production celebrating the music of Irving Berlin and in opera scenes from Mozart and Thomas.
Dr. Knijff makes his home in South Salem, NY with his wife Brigitte Pohl-Knijff, a licensed acupuncturist and teacher of therapeutic arts.
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