Rabbi Jacob Adler grew up in Cranston, Rhode Island. He attended Hebrew School and Hebrew High School at Temple Beth Torah in Cranston (now Temple Torat Yisrael in East Greenwich, Rhode Island). After receiving an A.B. in philosophy and mathematics and a Ph.D. in philosophy at Harvard, he came to Arkansas to teach at the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas. He soon became one of the lay leaders of Temple Shalom.
Encouraged by the late Joe Rosenberg, one of the founders of the Temple, he began rabbinical studies in 1998 at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. By studying and teaching in alternating years, he was able to complete his studies in 2006.
Rabbi Jacob is married to Hayya Knopf and has two children, Luu (Mordechai Yitzchak Chanah) and Lily (Esther Rachel Orit). After serving Temple Shalom for 34 years as lay leader, student rabbi and rabbi, he retired from the temple’s pulpit in 2020.
Rabbi Jacob, jadler@post.harvard.edu, continues to teach philosophy and Jewish studies at the U of A.