Last summer, Rabbi Fabián Werbin took a delegation of Kol Shalom members to his home country of Argentina. Earlier this year, the Rockville synagogue hosted an educational program on Latin American Jewish literature.

Suffice it to say, the Kol Shalom community comprises a number of Latin Jews and a membership that cares deeply about Latin Jewish culture.

Enter its new rabbi: Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald, a first-generation American and the grandson of Holocaust survivors who fled to Peru.

“Rabbi Werbin attracted a number of other Latino Jews to the community, and I know when I interviewed [at Kol Shalom], many of them were very excited that I’m a native Spanish speaker — I consider myself Latino and I grew up speaking Spanish,” Gruenwald said.

He recalled fond memories of summers visiting his grandparents in Peru.

“Peruvian culture and the country are near and dear to my heart,” Gruenwald said.

The rabbi, who began at Kol Shalom in June, recently relocated to Rockville from the West Coast.

Ordained in 2008, he served Denver’s Hebrew Education Alliance, a large congregation that was originally founded as a school in 1928, for 16 years.

Gruenwald spent the past year as the interim Jewish chaplain at The Claremont Colleges in California. He knew he wanted to return to being a pulpit rabbi though.

“As much as I enjoyed working with college students, that’s a small chapter in a person’s life,” Gruenwald said. “What I really enjoy about congregational work is really the whole gamut … I love working with young children and families and caring for people throughout every stage of life.”

Kol Shalom was the perfect landing place for the rabbi who sought a smaller shul.

“I deliberately was looking for a small congregation where I could know people and be of service to people more personally,” Gruenwald said. “What I love about being a pulpit rabbi is walking alongside people in their life journey and in their search for meaning and purpose through the lens of Judaism, through spirituality and learning, and through engagement in the broader world, really the fullness of the human experience from birth to death.”

He understands this cycle perhaps better than most. Gruenwald and his wife, Melanie, lost their 13-year-old son, Koby, to a brain tumor in 2018. They have twins who will start college in the fall.

Gruenwald, who is passionate about Jewish education, said he hopes to bring some of the curricula and Jewish educational work he’s done in Denver to help grow Kol Shalom’s preschool program and religious school.

He spoke to the rapid growth of Kol Shalom’s preschool, which opened last fall with nine students and now houses 21 across three classrooms.

“[I’m] really looking ahead to growing the cohort of younger families with kids from preschool and up,” Gruenwald said. “I really just got here, but I see a lot of potential in this part of Montgomery County to reach younger adults and young couples and families that are perhaps moving out of the closer suburbs or from the city into these outer suburbs.”

He plans to meet community members for one-on-one coffee chats, with the goal of connecting with at least one person of every member household in the next year.

“What I really love about this community is I continue to meet fascinating people — highly accomplished, talented, smart people who’ve worked in science and medicine, law and in and around government — and I’m just fascinated by that,” Gruenwald said.

The Kol Shalom community is more than their professional achievements, he said.

“This is a very volunteer-led community with some very smart and thoughtful people who want to see their community thrive.”

Gruenwald grew up in a “very active Jewish family” in Southern California.

“I always enjoyed religious school and learning, but I initially pursued a career in academia,” he said.

He holds a master’s in anthropology and women’s studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, but didn’t finish his dissertation for a Ph.D.

“I think what shifted for me was that I was always interested in religion and religious ritual, and that was the focus of my research,” he recalled. “At the same time, I was getting much more involved as a student in Hillel and inspired by my Hillel rabbi.”

He described his involvement in the Jewish student organization as a turning point.

“I realized that I didn’t want to be an impartial observer of Jewish life — instead, I wanted to be a leader of religious life — and my passion for Judaism and the Jewish people, I couldn’t keep that objective in my work as an academic,” Gruenwald said.

After leaving his Ph.D. program, Gruenwald worked for the Jewish Federation Los Angeles. During this time, he met Rabbi Bradley Artson, the dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, who mentored him and eventually suggested that Gruenwald attend rabbinical school.

“After giving it some thought, I decided to do it, and I’ve been pleased with that decision ever since,” Gruenwald said.

Rockville is thousands of miles from the places he’s considered home, but Gruenwald is ready to set down new roots.

“I’m really excited about getting to know the D.C. metro area,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the people and helping the congregation to grow and thrive.”

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com