Rabbi Binyamin Marwick became our Rav in July 2010.  During the previous year, he served as our Interim Rav.

For the previous three years, Rabbi Marwick served as director of the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Johns Hopkins University.  In that capacity he was the rabbi for Orthodox students, faculty, and staff at the University’s Homewood campus.  He presented weekly shiurim on a wide variety of topics and levels (including gemara b’iyun, a gemara bekius shiur that focused on learning methodology, halacha, Jewish philosophy, Jewish history and Biblical Hebrew grammar). He also learned individually with campus community members and provided counseling and guidance to students.  He was responsible for overseeing campus kashrus and the Orthodox minyan.  A significant achievement there was the construction of an eruv that includes a large portion of the University’s Homewood campus and adjacent neighborhoods.

Rabbi Marwick grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and graduated from the Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington. He received his Rav U’Manhig and Yoreh Yoreh semichas from Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, where he learned for nine years. Before that, he learned in Eretz Yisrael for three years—two years at Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh and one year at The Chevron Yeshiva in Yerushalayim. 

While learning at Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, Rabbi Marwick trained for several years with Baltimore’s Beis Din L’Inyonei Ishus, concentrating on hilchos gittin.  He studied hilchos nidda with Rav Yaakov Hopfer and hilchos kashrus through the Star-K.  He also worked as a rabbinic intern for Rabbi Moshe Hauer at Congregation B’nai Jacob Shaarei Zion, where he taught daily shiurim on Toldos Am Yisrael and halacha, also providing rabbinic coverage when Rabbi Hauer was away.

In addition, he taught Jewish History and Biblical Hebrew Grammar at Ner Israel’s Beren High School (Mechina) for five years and had administrative responsibilities there, serving as an intern to the principal, Mr. Jacob Shuchman

In addition to his rabbinical degrees and training, Rabbi Marwick earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Talmudic Law from Ner Israel Rabbinical College.  He later earned a Masters of Science degree in Education and a certificate in school administration from Johns Hopkins University.  He also passed the CPA exam in Delaware.  He is now working on a doctorate in Talmudic Law at Ner Israel. His dissertation is called Dikduk Liv’nei Yeshiva: Revitalizing the Teaching of Biblical Hebrew Grammar in Yeshiva Day Schools. 

Rabbi Marwick’s wife, Rebbetzin Dr. Miriam Marwick, served as co-director of the Jewish Learning Initiative program at Hopkins.  She grew up in Queens, New York, and attended Prospect Park High School.  She earned Masters and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.  Before that, she earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Columbia University and, concurrently, a Judaic Studies teacher’s degree from the Rika Breuer Teachers Seminary. 

Rebbetzin Dr. Marwick has been an instructor at Baltimore’s Maalot Institute, a teaching assistant in the Electronics Design Lab at Johns Hopkins University, and a post-doctoral fellow there.  She has authored and co-authored a number of articles in her area of study.  She currently works for the Institute for Defense Analysis, a think tank funded by the Department of Defense.

The Marwicks have four children:  Moshe, Chana, Aliza, and Avraham.