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 since 2008.  A native of Kansas City and a graduate of the University of Kansas, Zemer Lexie and her husband, Isaac Nuell, now consider themselves North Carolinians.  They are the proud parents of three Temple Beth Or Preschool graduates, Mira, Noa and Ayla.

In her 17 years at TBO, Zemer Lexie 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 music team currently teaches music every Sunday in our Religious School for grades K-6.  She is the  director our B'nai Mitzvah program and also leads the temple’s audition-based volunteer High Holy Day Choir.  In 2019, she started our extremely successful Mazel Tots program, serving families with children aged 0-5.

Zemer Lexie believes in the power of bringing people together. Over the years, her duties have expanded to include leading our community programs and member engagement initiatives. She is trained as a Chaplain, completing 800 clinical hours in Clinical Pastoral Education at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh.  She is passionate about Interfaith community work and currently serves on WakeMed's Spiritual Care Professional Advisory Group.