Born and raised in Philadelphia, Rabbi Katz received his B.A. from Temple University, and a Bachelors of Hebrew Literature from Gratz College. He was awarded a Masters Degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he received his Rabbinic ordination. In 2005, JTS awarded the rabbi the degree of Doctor of Divinity.
Rabbi Katz has been strongly involved in the institutions of Conservative Judaism. He was a regional president of United Synagogue Youth; a staff member for twenty years at Camp Ramah; past president of the Rabbinical Assembly of Nassau-Suffolk; a founder of the Solomon Schechter High School; and a class Rabbi at the Schechter Day School of Nassau County, in Jericho. He also serves on the Conservative Bet Din, the Rabbinic Court supervising conversions on Long Island.
The Observant Life: The Wisdom of Conservative Judaism for Contemporary Jews distills a century of thoughtful inquiry into the most profound of all Jewish questions: how to suffuse life with timeless values, how to remain loyal to the covenant that binds the Jewish people and the God of Israel, and how to embrace the law while retaining an abiding sense of fidelity to one’s own moral path in life.
Written in a multiplicity of voices inspired by a common vision, the authors of The Observant Life explain what it means in the ultimate sense to live a Jewish life, and to live it honestly, morally, and purposefully. The work is a comprehensive guide to life in the 21st Century. Chapters on Jewish rituals including prayer, holiday, life cycle events and Jewish ethics such as citizenship, slander, taxes, wills, the courts, the work place and so much more.
