Rabbi Javier E. Cattapan joined Congregation Achduth Vesholom in the summer of 2010 after serving for 12 years as spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel-Shaare Zedek in Lima, Ohio.
A native of Buenos Aires, Rabbi Cattapan came to the United States in 1994 to attend Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. In Argentina, his education included the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano (Conservative) and the University of Buenos Aires. He also taught at a Jewish high school and conducted services weekly at his local congregation.
During his years of rabbinical school, he served as a summer rabbinic intern in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and San Jose, Costa Rica. As student-rabbi, he served the Jewish communities of Ramat Gan, Israel; Hancock, Michigan; Fargo, North Dakota; Midland-Odessa, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. His camp experience includes working at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute as a counselor in the all-Hebrew unit Chalutzim, and at Camp Ben Frankel in Carbondale, Illinois.
He received his M. A. in Hebrew Letters in 1997, and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati the following year. In 2004, Rabbi Cattapan earned his M. Phil. in Hebraic and Cognate Studies. After ordination, he served as Visiting Instructor of Modern Hebrew at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and completed course-work towards his Ph. D. at HUC-JIR in Cincinnati.
Rabbi Cattapan lives with his partner of more than 15 years, Kris Gray. Kris is an employee of the U.S. Postal Service. He began his postal career as a mail carrier in Dayton, Ohio, and is currently the Postmaster in Van Wert, OH. Rabbi Cattapan and Kris formalized their union at a huppah ceremoney on December 31, 2008. On August 3, 2011 they were legally wed in the State of New York. They live in the southwest area of Fort Wayne with their dog, Plato.