Peter W. Stein

To his 400-family congregation at Cranston’s Temple Sinai, Rabbi Peter Stein is a spiritual leader, also eager to provide emotional and educational support. To the broader community, he sees himself as “a voice for inclusion and interfaith understanding, and an advocate for justice and peace.”
His work would seem never-ending, yet it is a calling that in his 40 Under Forty application he wrote has left him “humbled by the opportunities that have come to me.”
Stein has worked as a rabbi for 10 years, the last six in Rhode Island at Temple Sinai.
He calls his congregation a “family of families, where children are embraced and given every opportunity for personal growth and exploration.”
He serves as president of both the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis and the Cranston Clergy Association. The dual leadership roles “are efforts to create dialogue, cooperation and understanding among diverse populations.”
In 2007, he participated in an interreligious program at the Vatican that helped lead to educational and social programs for churches and synagogues in Cranston.
“I envision future efforts to help the hungry, homeless and vulnerable populations in our state,” he wrote.
In 2008, he was awarded a Brickner Fellowship through the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the National Center for Leadership and Learning. The year-long program was focused on social activism and helped him learn how to be an effective community advocate.
Under his leadership, the Cranston Clergy Association has taken a lead role in helping provide food for the Harrington Hall homeless shelter. The association has also worked to increase understanding and tolerance in the community. •