Rabbi Ari S. Lorge joined Central Synagogue’s clergy team in 2013. In 2024, in addition to his rabbinic role, he was chosen to serve as the Senior Director of the Clergy Study.

 

Rabbi Lorge was ordained as a rabbi by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati, Ohio. He comes to the rabbinate as a product of the Reform movement, including its summer camps and national youth group. He grew up in Skokie, Illinois, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

 

As a rabbinical student he was privileged to serve numerous congregations as well as Hillels in the Midwest and the South. Additionally, Rabbi Lorge spent a summer serving as a Critical Care Chaplaincy Intern at a Chicago-area hospital.

 

Rabbi Lorge serves on Jewish Women International’s Clergy Taskforce to End Domestic Abuse and served as its Co-Chair for five years. He was also selected by the Reform movement to be a mentor for new rabbis coming out of rabbinical school. Rabbi Lorge is the current Book Review Editor of the Reform Jewish Quarterly, a journal for the Reform Jewish rabbinate. He has also served as a member of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Youth Engagement Advisors, the Ackerman Professorship Advisory Council at HUC-JIR, the B’nai Ya’akov Council of the American Jewish Archives, and as an adjunct instructor at HUC-JIR.

 

Rabbi Lorge loves to play guitar, bake, pickle, and see theatre.