By Gefen Miller
Rabbi Abe Friedman is truly a renaissance man. Besides being a spiritual leader and teacher, he is a musician, artist, deejay and entrepreneur.
Beth El Congregation recently announced that Rabbi Friedman has joined the Pikesville synagogue’s clergy team. An Atlanta native who attended Boston University, Rabbi Friedman has served congregations across the country, including in Chicago, California and Philadelphia.
“Rabbi Friedman will serve our Beth El community part-time for this program year, bringing with him a wealth of experience, warmth and insight to enrich our spiritual life and educational programs,” posted Beth El on social media. “In the fall, we will be commencing a full search to hire a full-time rabbi to begin working with us on June 1, 2026.”
Ordained in 2010 by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles, Rabbi Friedman earned an MBA in nonprofit management from American Jewish University and an executive certificate in faith and social impact strategy from the University of Pennsylvania.
Most recently, he served for a decade as senior spiritual leader of Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Philadelphia’s Center City district.
“I am delighted to welcome Rabbi Friedman to our clergy team. His compassion and genuine ability to connect with people will be a wonderful addition to Beth El’s spiritual life,” said the congregation’s Rabbi Steven Schwartz. “Rabbi Friedman brings not only skill and insight, but also a warmth that I know our Beth El community will embrace.”
Rabbi Schwartz, who came to Beth El in 1998 as assistant rabbi under Rabbi Mark G. Loeb, will retire as senior rabbi next spring, to be succeeded by Rabbi Dana Saroken. Rabbi Saroken, founder and spiritual director of The Soul Center, came to Beth El in 2007.
In addition to his pulpit work, Rabbi Friedman is an avid musician. He plays electric guitar, among other instruments, under the name of “DJ Aluminum.” He is also founder of Peddler Effects, which custom designs and builds guitar-effect pedals..
Rabbi Friedman and his partner of 22 years, Rebecca Krasner, have four children, Odelia, Azzi, Yonah and Miri.
In his spare time, Rabbi Friedman enjoys bowling, mini golf, cycling, hiking and drawing chalk images based on the weekly Torah portion.
What attracted you to Baltimore’s Jewish community?
My partner, Rebecca Krasner, is the [incoming] executive director of The Associated’s Center for Countering Antisemitism and Hate. So we came to Baltimore really for her to take that position.
Through a mutual work acquaintance, I was connected to someone who knew I was looking for a position in Baltimore. They told me there was an opening at Beth El and connected us.
Your impressions of Charm City so far?
I don’t know that I’ve ever lived in as vigorously friendly a Jewish community as we’ve found in Baltimore, and Pikesville in particular. It’s just been so lovely to meet our neighbors and feel that people are really excited to get to know new people.
I think especially in a place where there’s so many multi-generational families to still be so welcoming and embracing of newcomers has really felt great for us.
How do you think your rabbinate at Beth El will be different than your most recent pulpit in Philly?
Well, there I was the senior rabbi of a small congregation, about 350 households. [That synagogue is] also in the heart of downtown, a much more urban-based congregation.
Also, Beth El has so many families with really deep roots in the congregation, and that’s something that’s interested me in the short time I’ve been there, to be able to hear these stories of people who are raising children in the congregation where they — and in some cases, even their parents — were raised in.
How does music play a role in your life?
I’ve always just loved music. At a young age, it was all about lying on the floor in my bedroom, listening to an album on the stereo. I started playing guitar in college about 25 years ago, and around the same time I also started deejaying, just kind of as a hobby.
About eight years ago, I started picking up piano [and] really returning to guitar seriously, practicing and learning new styles of playing. Then in 2021 or 2022, I developed real interest in the hardware side of music — electric guitar led me to found Peddler Effects, where I do custom and boutique guitar-effect pedals.
How do your music and faith intersect?
Judaism has helped me be more connected to music [and] to art more generally. For the past year-and-a-half, I’ve been doing large chalk art designs based on the weekly Torah portion in parks around where we were living in Philadelphia.
I think the visual pieces and the music have just helped me understand the artistic dimension to Jewish text, Jewish study and Jewish learning. It has helped me appreciate that when our sages were writing Midrash and reading Torah and crafting Jewish rituals, they were engaged in art. So it has helped me appreciate a Shabbat morning service as an artistic and emotional experience, to be able to look at a particular midrash and see the message and moral lessons in it.
How does art in general impact your perspectived as a spiritual leader?
It’s given me a different sensitivity to human experience. Both the artistic pieces and my personal deep connection to Hasidic teachings have a distinct and personal experience of the world.
Art is the journey that has brought us to this conversation, this class, this interaction, this life cycle moment, to be able to appreciate the richness of each person’s Jewish connection as they encounter it and as they bring it with them into the moment that we share together.
Gefen Miller is a Jmore editorial staff intern.
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