Rabbi Pinsker, a native of Chicago, Illinois, was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. Prior to coming to the Shaarey Zedek, Pinsker has served pulpits in the Conservative movement in Niagara Falls (New York), Chicago, and San Antonio, Texas. In 1985 he founded the West End Synagogue, a new synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. From 1991-2002, he served as Rabbi of Congregation Darchei Noam in Toronto. Before accepting the position of Associate Rabbi and Scholar-in-Residence at Shaarey Zedek in 2004, he also served an interim year as Associate Rabbi at Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue in Toronto.

Rabbi Pinsker holds degrees from Antioch College and Temple University in Philosophy and Religion. He has taught courses in Jewish philosophy, theology, and history in university programmes wherever he has served, including Niagara Community College, Niagara University, Texas Lutheran College, B'nai B'rith Summer Camp Institute of Canada, and most recently at the Spirituality Diversity program at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. He has also taught Bible, Comparative Religions, and Jewish Spirituality in middle school and high school settings as well as Diversity Training for the Winnipeg Police Service Training Academy. A career-long advocate of inter-religious dialogue, he frequently joins other faith-community leaders in advocating mutual understanding and respect.

In 2001 and again in 2007, Rabbi Pinsker was honoured with degrees of Doctor of Divinity honoris causa for service to the Jewish community by Jewish institutions of higher learning, most recently by the Jewish Theological Seminary of the Conservative movement.

Rabbi Pinsker incorporates puppets, storytelling, and knowledge of a wide range of religions, science, history, anthropology, and folklore in showing people some of the the ways that belief, prayer, and spiritual disciplines are or can be an important part of living.

Rabbi Pinsker is married to Laurelle Harris Pinsker, an attorney, and is father to four children: three now-adult daughters pursuing careers in music, acupuncture, and medical research, and a thirteen-year-old son who hopes for a career as a neurosurgeon.