Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro (’08) Reflects on 15 Years at Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah

March 18, 2025

by Braden Hamelin for Baltimore Jewish Times

Rabbi Yerachmiel Shapiro has been the spiritual leader of Moses Montefiore Anshe Emunah Congregation in Pikesville since 2010, and he has seen the Modern Orthodox shul evolve over the years under his leadership.

Shapiro joined the synagogue clergy after two years leading Congregation Beth Shalom in Red Bank, New Jersey, and quickly discovered that he enjoyed the people within the community, leading him to move his family to the Baltimore area.

“I came in and really, really enjoyed the people there. They were very down to earth. Certainly 15 years ago it was a much older synagogue in terms of the age of the congregants. I got the position, and I moved with my family here. That was 15 years ago, and ever since then we’ve been growing,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said that in the years since he took over at the synagogue, he hasn’t gone around changing the customs and traditions radically, but they’ve introduced several new programs that have been successful.

Shapiro said they’ve kept their original programs like the brotherhood, sisterhood, book club and more, while adding a new Hebrew school during the pandemic, building an addition to the lower floor of the shul and starting an Orthodox conversion program.

They also started a residency program to train new rabbis out of rabbinical school, and the synagogue is currently helping train its fourth rabbi.

“We’re very proud of that program, and the rabbis who have graduated have gone on to run their own congregations in St. Louis, in Boston and in New York,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro and the congregation also dealt with serious challenges during the pandemic. It was a time unlike any Shapiro had experienced in his career, and he received life-changing news in his personal life at the same time.

While the world was upside down, Shapiro found out that he had cancer. He said the synagogue community rallied around him during the difficult time, and now that he’s cancer-free, he looks back on how it made him a better rabbi.

“The cancer itself created a tremendous closeness between me and God. And I don’t think I was ever in my life as close to God as I was when I was asking for my life. It’s left me feeling grateful and more empathetic to people who are going through illness,” Shapiro said. “I don’t just say that I’m sorry or that I’m here for them, but I also have a sense of the pain and the disruption of their lives that illness causes. It helps me be a better rabbi.”