Our Clergy

Rabbi – Estelle Gottman Mills

440-263-5571   |   cbjplymouthrabbi@gmail.com

Rabbi Estelle Gottman Mills grew up in Greensboro, N.C. She earned a B.A. with honors in Jewish History from the University of Michigan and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 1992. She and her husband, Rabbi Steven Mills (Zichrona Livracha) are the proud parents of three children, Rafi, a 2015 Lehigh University engineering graduate working in Schenectady NY, Sivan, a 2017 University of Pennsylvania graduate working in Philadelphia and Noa, a 2021 Skidmore College graduate studying for her doctorate in occupational therapy at Tufts University.

For most of her career, Rabbi Mills served as the rabbi of Congregation Kol Chadash in the Cleveland suburb of Solon and as the rabbi of Congregation Kol Am in the St. Louis suburb of Ballwin. For her innovative and cutting-edge programming, Rabbi Mills has been awarded the prestigious Legacy Heritage Innovator Grant, a Union for Reform Judaism Incubator Grant, and a URJ Belin recipient.

A gifted educator, Rabbi Mills passionately believes that strong, high-quality Jewish educational opportunities and programming for all ages from seniors to the youngest learners are essential to strengthening and growing today’s congregations. For her, the response to declining involvement in congregational life is not watering down content; rather the answer is to make Jewish experiences valuable, meaningful and accessible by embracing innovation.

In the news:

Congregation Beth Jacob’s New Rabbi Embraces Innovation – Old Colony Memorial article, December 2021

Videos from Rabbi Mills’ Installation are available here (temporarily)


Rabbi Emeritus – Rabbi Lawrence Silverman

We thank Rabbi Silverman for his many years of distinguished service to the CBJ community. Born and raised in the Boston-area, he has called Plymouth his home since 1973.

Rabbi Silverman served as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Jacob in Plymouth through July 2021.  For more than 40 years, Rabbi Silverman has been a treasure of knowledge and wisdom for us and the greater Plymouth community.

Achievements and Professional Associations

  • Certified as a Teacher of Judaica
  • Member, Central Conference of American Rabbis(CCAR), the Northeast Region of the CCAR, the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis
  • Treasurer and past President – Plymouth-area Interfaith Clergy Association
  • Chaplain – Plymouth County House of Correction and Wrentham Developmental Center
  • Member – Institutional Review Committee, Jordan Hospital, Plymouth
  • Teacher, Jewish Community High School (Midrasha), in Cranston, RI; and in the Plymouth-area