Rabbi Locketz joined Bet Shalom as Assistant Rabbi in June 2004 and in June 2006 became Associate Rabbi. He has an extensive background in Jewish Education and a desire to foster Jewish communal participation. Having been deeply involved in the Union for Reform Judaism’s youth and camping movement as a longtime camper at Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute, an active participant and regional president in NFTY, Rabbi Locketz learned early on that Jewish life was based primarily on relationships, study, and commitment. He hopes to influence positive growth in all these areas during his rabbinate.

Rabbi Locketz is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin in Madison where he received an undergraduate degree in Hebrew and Semitic Studies. During his University years, he served as the Senior Advisor for youth programming at Temple Beth El in Madison. Following graduation, he worked for the Union for Reform Judaism Great Lakes Council as the NFTY Regional Director for NFTY’s Northern and Chicago Regions. He also served as the Assistant Camp Director of Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

Rabbi Locketz received his M.A.H.L. in 2002 and was ordained from the Cincinnati Campus of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in June of 2004. During his time as a student, Rabbi Locketz, along with his wife Debbie, served as youth group advisor for Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati. He also served as student rabbi for the Mattoon Jewish Community Center in Mattoon, Illinois. Rabbi Locketz also was Rabbinic Intern at Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, North Carolina; Temple Sholom of Chicago, Illinois; and for two years at the Valley Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio. As Rabbinic Intern at the Valley Temple, Rabbi Locketz helped develop an Internet based Religious School program for seventh and eighth grade students.

While at HUC, Rabbi Locketz traveled to Poland to dialogue with Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic graduate students from Germany, Poland, and the United States about Interfaith Relations fifty-five years after the Holocaust. In Cincinnati, he also completed one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education and spent a summer as a Chaplain at the Cincinnati Children’s’ Hospital.

One of Rabbi Locketz’ academic passions is American Jewish History. His rabbinic thesis is entitled, Joseph Rauch: A Bibliographical Study, where he details the rabbinate of Rabbi Joseph Rauch who was ordained in 1904 and died in 1957.

Rabbi Locketz is a fourth generation Minnesotan from Minneapolis. He is married to Deborah Locketz (formerly Rothschild) and they have two daughters, Emma and Adina. When he is not at Bet Shalom, Rabbi Locketz enjoys woodworking, fishing, amateur construction projects and playing with his girls.

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