Staff
Rabbi Abraham
Interim Rabbi
From Rabbi Abraham’s Welcome Letter: My name is Joel Abraham and I am pleased and excited to be joining the congregation for the next year as interim Rabbi. I am honored to be a link in the chain of Beth Miriam tradition, including Rabbis Joe Goldman and Cy Stanway. I know that I hold in trust the relationship that members of this congregation have had with past rabbis and I hope to tend and strengthen those relationships for your new rabbi who will be with you after I leave next year.
The job of an interim rabbi is to help prepare a congregation for its next steps, as well as be there as spiritual leader during a time of transition. I am not here to change the congregational culture, but I am here to help you see what needs to be dusted off, say a respectful farewell for what might be retired, and imagine what new things will bring the community together and forward. In the best sense, this is a moment to dream all sorts of possibilities that can be tried out, in preparation for the dawn and a new rabbi.
I have been a congregational Rabbi for 27 years – mostly growing up and serving in New Jersey. I believe that Judaism needs to lead us outside the walls of our Temple building or else it is doing us and the world no good at all. Our tradition provides us comfort, but also challenge. Our congregation should provide the same.
I look forward to meeting you as we go forward together. Please feel free to reach out and make an appointment, or stop by during my posted office hours. I’m happy to meet at the Temple, walk to the beach, or grab a meal or a bite nearby. However, I will reveal my hidden agenda – although it will be nice to get to know you, I will actually be asking you what brings you to this community as well as what you do and can bring to it. A congregation is the sum of the efforts of all of its members, much more than the product of its clergy. We work together on this shared dream.
Miriam, the prophet, was an enabler. She provided the water for our ancestors as they wandered the wilderness. In the moment of miraculous transition, when we found ourselves truly free – safe from Egyptian slavery – she realized that people needed a moment, and led them, with her timbrel, in a song of thanksgiving and rejoicing.
I hope that we will be able to drink from the well of our Jewish tradition, and find time to give thanks and rejoice together in the Temple Beth Miriam that we can begin to imagine.
Rabbi Cy Stanway
Rabbi Emeritus
Rabbi Cy Stanway, our Rabbi Emeritus, served Beth Miriam for from 1998 -2025. After serving at Beth Miriam, Rabbi Stanway is working as an interim rabbi at Temple Shir Shalom in Gainesville, Florida from 2025-2026. Rabbi Stanway has a degree in psychology from York University and Toronto, Canada, where he grew up. He has a Masters degree from the Hebrew Union - College Jewish Institute of religion in Cincinnati and received ordination as a Rabbi in 1987. Rabbi Stanway served congregations in Hattiesburg, Mississippi as well as Las Cruces, New Mexico before coming to Temple Beth Miriam in 1998.
Rabbi Stanway continued to teach a a myriad classes, including Talmud, Torah, Theology, Hebrew, Introduction to Judaism, New Testament, Teen Academy, Confirmation as well as many other “one off” classes.
Since coming to Beth Miriam, Rabbi Stanway has officiated at hundreds of B’nai mitzvah, weddings, namings, brit milah, and funerals.
Rabbi Stanway was also the head chaplain of the Long Branch, NJ police department and active in community affairs in the Long Branch area.
He has been a frequent contributor to the radio show Jewish Facts and FaithFaith on CHRI in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.
He has three children, Abraham, Naomi, and Sara Ann.
Beth Aitken
Temple Administrator
The Temple Administrator is here to serve you and help you in any way possible. Beth is your immediate contact point at the temple and she is responsive and professional. To reach her, call the temple at 732-222-3754 or email tbmoffice@templebethmiriam.org.
Anna Vernick
School Principal
Anna Vernick grew up at TBM and started teaching in the religious school in 2018. The 2025-2026 school year will mark her first as the religious school principal.
Anna double majored in K-8 education and creative writing at Kean University, where she also got her Teacher of Student Disabilities certificate and won the statewide Distinguished Clinical Intern Award. She then got her Masters in Trauma-Informed Education at Columbia College SC and began her journey in public schools. She currently teaches in-class resource kindergarten in Wall, NJ.
When she is not at school or temple, you can find her making pottery, snuggling with her dog, Tank, or listening to an audiobook on the beach.
Tello Delgado
Building Superintendent
Tello is the heart of maintenance at Temple Beth Miriam and has been instrumental in keeping the Temple running seamlessly for many years. His dedication and quiet efficiency ensure that everything operates just as we have come to rely on.