Rabbi David N. Young is proud to have joined the Congregation B’nai Tzedek community in July of 2013. Prior to joining CBT, he served as the Associate Rabbi at Temple Sinai in North Miami Beach, FL for seven years. While there, he served as Regional Rabbi for NFTY-STR, served as a chaplain for the North Miami Beach Police Department, and sat on the Advisory Board of the Association for Jewish Special Education. He also earned a URJ Belin Award for his Social Action work in New Orleans, LA, with Rabbi Andy Koren from Greensboro, NC, for their work repairing flood damage that still remains following Hurricane Katrina.
He has a wealth of youth, teaching, camping, and pulpit experience. He has served congregations in North Miami Beach, Florida; New York, New York; Fairbanks, Alaska; Steubenville, Ohio; Weldon, North Carolina, and has taught middle school, high school, and adults. In addition, Rabbi Young spent two summers at the Reform movement’s Crane Lake Camp in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, four summers at Camp Coleman in Cleveland, Georgia, and currently spends his summers working with two URJ camps: Kutz Camp in Warwick, New York, and Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, California.
He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was very active in his theatre troupe and in B’nai Brith Youth Organization. He received a B.A. in Theatre from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Pursuing his love for acting, he moved to Los Angeles, only to discover that his love for Judaism was stronger. He was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York, in 2006. Rabbi Young brings all of his passionate commitment to Jewish life to youth, social action, educational and spiritual programming, and he loves working with families at cornerstone moments in their lives.
Rabbi Young is married to Cantor Natalie Young and they are the proud parents of three children: Gabriel, Alexander, and Isabella. They also have a dog, Orion, who they rescued in 2014. Off the bimah, he enjoys theater, cooking, brewing beer, and doing CrossFit (so he can keep eating his cooking and drinking his beer). He also is a member of the Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, the CCAR Convention Committee, the board of the Orange County Alzheimer’s Association, and the FBI Citizens Academy.
Rabbi Young posts regularly to his blog, www.rabbidavidyoung.blogspot.com.