Our Clergy

Rabbi Lucy H.F. Dinner, Senior Rabbi

Rabbi Lucy Dinner has served as the Senior Rabbi of Temple Beth Or, in Raleigh, North Carolina for over three decades. Rabbi Dinner received her undergraduate degree in Public Policy Analysis from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and earned her master's in Hebrew Letters and Rabbinic Ordination at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. After ordination Dinner served as Associate Rabbi at Shaare Emeth Congregation in St. Louis for five years, Rabbi Dinner’s return to North Carolina offered her the opportunity to bring her devotion to the rabbinate back to the State that had inspired her to merge her passion for public welfare with the values of her faith. 

Rabbi Dinner focuses her rabbinate on building concentric circles of community that deepen commitment to the inner community and emanate to the greater community in Tikkun Olam bringing healing to the world. Rabbi Dinner models this through her leadership locally and nationally in hunger relief, education, and racial justice. She has served Judaism’s Reform Movement as the chair of the rabbinic Committee on Peace Justice and Civil Rights and the vice-chair of the Commission on Social Action. She has led several trips to Guatemala where Temple Beth Or supports Nueve Generacion in providing educational scholarships to youth, following them from preschool to college. She sits on the Triangle Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee and the North Carolina Martin Luther King Commission. Dinner has served on the executive board of Rise Against Hunger and she collaborates regularly with faith and community leaders throughout North Carolina. 

Rabbi Dinner believes that building sacred relationships is the key to bringing meaning to life and building upon the blessings of the world. 
 

Zemer Lexie Nuell, Director of Music and Community

Zemer Lexie has served as the Music Director of Temple Beth Or for 16 years.  

TBO has been called a ‘Singing Congregation of the South”.  In her 17 years at TBO, our Music Director, Lexie Nuell, has worked hard to keep TBO’s love of music and communal singing going strong.  She has created unique, music focused services that speak to folks across the generations. Congregants rave about the music during High Holy Days and our children love singing together at Religious School. 

Zemer Lexie's team currently teaches music every Sunday in our Religious School for grades K-6.  She also directs the temple’s audition-based volunteer High Holy Day Choir. 

Zemer Lexie has expanded her duties to include increasing community engagement.  In addition to working with our Membership Committee, she is the lead on our Mazel Tots program.