Rabbi Akiva Nelson is a 2025 graduate of Hebrew College Rabbinical School in Newton, MA. He served as a Rabbinic Intern at Temple Beth Zion (Brookline, MA) and was Rabbinic Intern for two years at Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Massachusetts. Rabbi Akiva has already deeply inspired and engaged our community through joyful and impactful prayer, creative teaching, meaningful pastoral care, and thoughtful communal leadership and connection.
Rabbi Akiva loves leading musical prayer services and has previous experience leading worship as a Cantorial Soloist. He regularly leads meditation and contemplative chant, and in 2025, received certification as a Jewish meditation teacher from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and Or HaLev. Rabbi Akiva is dedicated to building an inclusive, accessible, and spiritually enlivening synagogue community where Jews and all people are able to feel belonging and successfully navigate prayer, ritual, holiday, and learning spaces.
Born in North Carolina, he received his BA from Columbia University and he spent the first chapter of his career working at the intersection of environmental sustainability and entrepreneurship. Rabbi Akiva and his wife Carly Margolis have made their new home in White Plains.