Having served for seventeen years in the voluntary capacity as Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Gifted and Talented Department of the Norfolk Public Schools, Rabbi Forman extended his community service to include work with the Family Life Education Committee's Community Involvement Team; active membership on the Steering Cabinet of the first Bio-Ethics Committee of Eastern Virginia Medical School; Adjunct Chaplain of Sentara Hospital's Trauma Unit, and as the Intermittent Chaplain of the Veteran's Administration in Hampton, Virginia. Rabbi Forman is on the National Israel Bonds Rabbinic Cabinet, and participated in a Rabbinic Mission to Israel in 1989.

Rabbi Forman has served on the Boards of the Jewish Family Service, the Jewish Community Federation and Beth Sholom Home, and has been involved in founding the Ghent Interfaith Task Force for Senior Citizens. Currently representing the Jewish community on the South Hampton Roads Interfaith Cable Television Committee, the Rabbi, also a former Board member of the Tidewater Pastoral Counseling Services and Lee's Friends, has also participated with the Ghent Clergy, the Torch Club, and the Southeastern Virginia Ecumenical Association, under the leadership of Bishop Charles Vache. Rabbi Forman has received numerous awards and honors, including the Brotherhood Citation of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Torch Club Award for the Outstanding Speech of the Year, and the Lion of Judah Award from the National Israel Bonds Association.

Rabbi Forman has served Ohef Sholom Temple with distinction for thirty years as their Senior Rabbi, and in November of 2000, he was honored with the title of Rabbi Emeritus. Over the years, both the Congregation and the Rabbi have worked hard developing educational, liturgical, theological and communal achievements and accomplishments; not only for the temple membership, but also the Jewish people, here and abroad, the Tidewater Community and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

From 2001-2002, Rabbi Forman served as Interim Rabbi for Congregation Ner Shalom, in Woodbridge, Virginia; a congregation largely comprised of government employees working in and around the Pentagon. The Rabbi created an interfaith dialogue between the National Conference of Community and Justice, members of the surrounding Jewish communities, and various Churches and Mosques in the area. He developed workshops for teachers and students, conducted Torah Study groups; taught B’nai Mitzvah students; attended interfaith dialogue meetings and adult education programs. He was especially praised by Temple Ner Shalom for his ministry to the congregation and the entire Woodbridge area during the September 11 crisis, guiding from the pulpit and personally counseling those closely affected by the Pentagon explosions following the terrorist attacks.

The Rabbi has embarked on a mission based on his Doctoral Dissertation that seeks to find a place in Jewish life for the non-Jew, who is marrying into Judaism or choosing to inquire about Reform Judaism. Rabbi Forman is frequently called upon to perform interfaith and intercultural marriages, both nationally and internationally.  He recently performed the first wedding by a Reform Rabbi in Avila, Spain in five hundred years, between a young Jewish businessman and the Catholic daughter of a Countess and the Minister of Agriculture; who is the curator of the Spanish Art Museum in New York. The Rabbi discovered that the bride’s roots go back to 1492 when her forebears, Senor and Senora Moses Rubeo built a Cathedral, donated it to the Catholic Church and became Conversos. The wedding ceremony focused on the close ties between the Catholic and Jewish communities, and the intentions of the city of Avila to welcome Jews back in a spirit of love and forgiveness.

Over the past three years, and in conjunction with the Department of Arts and Letters, and the Philosophy and Religion Department of Old Dominion University, Rabbi Forman founded the Institute of Jewish Studies and Interfaith Understanding. He assisted in the fundraising along with his lay committee; and together with the University, they raised enough funds to begin the program. Meetings are currently being held to decide how best to implement and plan the program, and the fund has grown into an endowment; the goal of which is to reach three million so that full professorships, lectureships and scholarships may be developed and new school and communal programs implemented.

Accolades