Rabbi Grundfast received his undergraduate degree in Marketing with a minor in Social Work from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey. He was ordained as a Rabbi in June of 1979 from The Academy for Jewish Religion in New York City. While in rabbinical school he served as the student rabbi for the Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes Synagogue in Wyckoff, New Jersey. In addition, he also held the position of assistant to the director of Hillel at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ. He has taken graduate courses in Jewish Studies at Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ and at Gratz College in Philadelphia, PA.

He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis.

Rabbi Grundfast is married to his wife Judy and they have two children, Rachel and Joseph.

Rabbi Grundfast’s first full time pulpit was as the associate rabbi of Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, Texas, for nine years. While in Houston he served as the secretary of the Houston Board of Rabbis. He helped found and later served as president of the Rabbinical Assembly, Southwest Region. He also served as president of the Kallah of Texas Rabbis, the oldest on-going interdenominational rabbinical retreat program in the nation.

In 1988 he and his family moved to Savannah, Georgia where he assumed the pulpit of Congregation Agudath Achim and served for there for four years. Rabbi Grundfast became the rabbi of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Wallingford, PA in 1992 and served until June of 2001. While in Wallingford, he helped found The Main Line Muslim-Jewish Dialogue group in Philadelphia. Rabbi Grundfast was also an active member of the Swarthmore-Wallingford Interfaith Ministerium where he served as President during the 1998-1999 year. He also was elected as secretary of the Rabbinical Assembly of Greater Philadelphia.

Rabbi Grundfast also served as rabbi at The Jacksonville Jewish Center for three years.

Rabbi Grundfast assumed the pulpit of Beth El Congregation in Akron in August of 2004. He presently serves as President of the Ohio, Western PA and KY region of the Rabbinical Assembly. In Akron he is a board member of the Akron Jewish Community Federation and the Jerome Lippman Jewish Community Day School. He also is a member of the Akron Area Interfaith Council.

Off the pulpit he loves to spend time with his family, read, take long walks, work out at the JCC, bicycle and watch movies with his son. He is passionate about the greatest game ever invented where he continues on his quest to break 80!