Rabbinic Pastor Carl Viniar

Program Co-Director of the Rabbinic Pastor Program, Director of Studies, Member of the Education Circle.

Rabbinic Pastor Carl was ordained as a Rabbinic Pastor in January 2022, the culmination of a 45-year journey to becoming clergy. During the course of his studies, he served as the Rabbinic Intern and LGBT+ fellow at the Abramson Center for Jewish Living, where he did pastoral work, led programs on identity, and researched issues on the exercise of religious freedom versus discrimination. Currently, at Congregation Kol Ami, he is co-chair of the Scholar in Residence committee, and one of the coordinators of the Shabbos morning programing, called Spice Up Your Judaism, where he has led programs on such diverse subjects as Me Too and Judaism, Things I Did Not Learn in Hebrew School, Living With Purpose, and Science and Religion. Prior to ordination, he had been a practicing attorney for over 40 years, and a pioneer transformative mediator, having mediated and negotiated family settlements in over a thousand matters, as well as real estate, construction, and partnership disputes.  He was a founding partner of his law firm, the founder of a Mediation Center, and a founding board member of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators. He was a clinical professor at Rutgers Law School and taught Negotiation and Conflict Resolution in the Professional MBA program. He is an author, having completed A Guide to Premarital Counseling for Clergy Working with People Remarrying or Marrying Later in Life.