ABOUT US
Services at the LAJC are often led by knowledgeable lay-leaders in the community.
Rabbi Jack Shlachter supports our community, and additionally we invite other rabbis and cantors to lead services or events.
SHABBAT SERVICES
Shabbat evening services are held every Friday. Most often, members lead services and provide refreshments for the post-service celebration or Oneg. The current service times are provided in our weekly email: Shabbat Shalom. There is generally more English in the Friday night service than in the Saturday morning service.
We hold Shabbat morning Torah services about every other Saturday. Shabbat morning service dates and times are also listed in our Shabbat Shalom eblast newsletter.
A guide to leading Shabbat evening services is available to help members. This guide lists common prayers and readings with pages numbers and notes as to traditions special to the LAJC.
RABBI
DR. JACK SHLACHTER
Rabbi Jack was ordained by Rabbi Gershon Winkler in 1995 and served as both rabbi and cantor at the Los Alamos Jewish Center for many years, teaching adults, B'nai Mitzvah students, and the Post Bar/Bat Mitzvah class as well as conducting life cycle events and representing the Jewish community in the broader Los Alamos community. He is also currently active as rabbi at HaMakom, The Place for Passionate and Progressive Judaism in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Rabbi Jack travels to provide rabbinic services both domestically and abroad.
He served as a rabbi for the 2012
High Holidays at Or Chadasch in Vienna, Austria and for the 2014-2018
High Holidays at Kehillat Beijing in China. He served as spiritual leader at the
Jewish Center of the Moriches on
Long Island (NY) from 2019-2021, as
2024 High Holidays clergy in Bangkok, Thailand, and as 2025 High Holidays
clergy in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Rabbi Jack formerly worked as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory & Brookhaven National Lab. He and his wife, Beverly, reside in Los Alamos.
OUR COMMUNITY
The Los Alamos Jewish Center is a small, unaffiliated congregation that serves Jews from a variety of backgrounds and traditions. Our membership consists of about 50 families; most of our members live in Los Alamos or White Rock, but we also have members that reside in Santa Fe, the Española Valley, and Colorado. Our members include singles, young married couples, households with school-age children, "empty-nesters," and retirees. We welcome interfaith families and people new to Jewish practices. We also welcome visitors, summer students, staff on temporary assignments, and LANL postdoctoral appointees. Services are open to all, with no tickets required for High Holidays. A friendly, vibrant community, the LAJC offers relaxed Friday night and Saturday morning services. Shabbat services are led by lay leaders or by the rabbi. We welcome your participation, and look forward to meeting you. Casual dress.
For more information on membership, please contact our
Membership Chair
WORSHIP
The Los Alamos Jewish Center is an unaffiliated, egalitarian congregation. Men and women participate equally in all religious aspects of our congregation, and participation in all aspects of the service, from readings to leading prayers to reading from the Torah is encouraged and appreciated.