About Rabbi Jack Shlachter

Yes, science and religion can be paired…I am a Ph.D. physicist, a rabbi, and a rabbinic member of OHALAH, a professional trans-denominational association of rabbis and cantors.

I have been conducting religious services for most of my adult life. Being gifted with a strong voice allows me to serve as shaliach tzibbur as well as rabbi. I routinely officiate at lifecycle events, from baby namings, b’nai mitzvahs and weddings, to funerals and memorial services, and I teach and lead Torah discussions.

After receiving my PhD in physics from the University of California at San Diego, I was hired full-time at Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico, where I spent the bulk of my scientific career. During my early years in Los Alamos, I served as one of the lay leaders at the Los Alamos Jewish Center (LAJC) and started serious study of Judaism. In 1992, I began working privately towards ordination with Rabbi Gershon Winkler, who had relocated to New Mexico. For nearly two decades subsequent to my June 1995 ordination, while simultaneously working as a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, I provided part-time rabbinic support to the LAJC using the Conservative liturgy. Along with Los Alamos lay leadership, I continue to support  the LAJC; I’m also Rabbi at HaMakom: the Place for Passionate and Progressive Judaism in Santa Fe, about 40 minutes south of Los Alamos. HaMakom was founded by Rabbi Malka Drucker.

From summer 2019- Dec 2021, I took a sabbatical from HaMakom, while living in New York and working at Brookhaven National Laboratory. During that time, I had the pleasure of serving as spiritual leader for the Jewish Center of the Moriches.

I’m the proud parent of two young adults: Dov is a computer engineer in Seattle, Washington, and Orli is living in Ireland after completing graduate work at University College, Dublin. Now that my kids are grown, I travel around the globe with my wife Beverly doing itinerant rabbi-ing. In 2012, I was thrilled to be invited to officiate at High Holiday services in Or Chadasch, Vienna, a city which was my second home for three years.

For Rosh HaShanah 2013, I served as Cantorial Soloist at Mt Sinai, Cheyenne in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

For five consecutive years starting in 2014, I conducted High Holidays services in Beijing, China at Kehillat Beijing. High Holidays 2018 marked my seventh trip to Beijing, serving the progressive Jewish community there. After three High Holidays (2019-2022) on eastern Long Island, I returned to my congregations in New Mexico.