Rabbi Andy Shugerman is excited to become the inaugural Development Director for Beth Shalom, a Squirrel Hill resident, and an ELC parent. He most recently served as the Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC) and the lead professional for Men of Reform Judaism (MRJ), a combined role that matched his unique career path as a pluralistic rabbinic educator and professional fundraiser over the past dozen years.
Rabbi Shugerman honed his skills as a rabbi, teacher and major gifts fundraiser while serving for four years as Rabbinic Fellow in the Florida Regional Office of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), from which he received ordination and a master’s degree in Jewish Education in 2009. His success in that position and his passion for transforming organizations from within led him to become the lead fundraiser for United Synagogue Youth (USY) while serving as the first Director of Major Gifts at United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ).
Rabbi Shugerman earned his BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University, where he was a Schiff Undergraduate Fellow. In addition, he studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, worked for the Masorti/Conservative Movement in Israel, and attended the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. Rabbi Shugerman trained before and during rabbinical school in congregation-based community organizing (CBCO); those skills, along with intensive clinical chaplaincy work at Los Angeles County Jail and at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, prepared him for the tremendous work of helping to rebuild Congregation Shir Chadash of Metairie, Louisiana, following Hurricanes Katrina and Gustave.
Rabbi Shugerman and his wife Karen Kranson are sad to leave Brooklyn after almost eight years there, but they are thrilled for their son Lev to be joining the ELC and to be closer to their family in Squirrel Hill.