Joan Friedman

Rabbi Joan S. Friedman

Rabbi Joan S. Friedman is the Lincoln Professor of Religion and professor and chair of History, at Wooster. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Jewish history from Columbia University, and was ordained as a reform rabbi by Hebrew Union College. She began teaching at Wooster in 2004. With an interdisciplinary focus on history and religious studies, Friedman’s research and teaching includes American Judaism, Jewish law, and American Jewish pop culture. She teaches a range of courses from Israel/Palestine: Histories in Conflict to The Hebrew Bible, among others. As chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis Responsa Committee since 2019, she is the primary author of decisions in Jewish law that guide Reform Judaism in North America. Friedman is also associated with the Association for Jewish Studies, American Historical Association, Jewish Law Association, and the Women’s Rabbinic Network. She was the National Jewish Book Award Finalist for the publication of “Guidance, Not Governance”: Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof and Reform Responsa in 2013, a book about influential rabbi Solomon Bennett Freehof, who died in 1990. 

Rev. David Rice

Rev. David A. Rice

The Reverend David A. Rice is pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Wooster and a member of the Wooster Board of Trustees. He grew up in Taiwan as a son of Presbyterian missionaries. Rice is a former professional opera singer, performing in regional opera houses and concert halls across the U.S. and at the opera house in Wuppertal, Germany, and as a guest artist in other German opera houses from 1989-96. He earned a bachelor’s in music and theater from North Park University in Chicago, and a Master of Music in voice performance from Northwestern University. After being called to ministry in the late 1990s, Rice earned a Master of Divinity from Columbia Theological Seminary. From 2000-2014, he was pastor and head of staff at First Presbyterian Church in Anniston, Alabama. He was named pastor and head of staff at First Presbyterian Church of Wooster in April 2014.