Rabbi Francine Roston is the founder of Glacier Jewish Community/B’nai Shalom which serves the Jewish community of the Flathead Valley in northwest Montana. She is co-founder of a local Interfaith Clergy group, and a regular volunteer for the Glacier National Park Citizen Science Program and the Abbie Shelter Domestic Violence Hotline. Rabbi Francine is also a mentor in the nationally recognized Clergy Leadership Initiative under the leadership of Rabbi Sid Schwartz. 

Before moving to Montana, Rabbi Francine served as a congregational rabbi for Conservative congregations in New Jersey for sixteen years. When Rabbi Francine was hired by Congregation Beth El in South Orange, NJ, she broke the “stained glass ceiling” as the first Conservative woman rabbi to serve a congregation larger than 500 households. She received ordination in 1998 from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York and a BA in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. 

After the Roston family traveled to Montana a few years in a row and fell in love with the lifestyle and natural surroundings, Rabbi Francine and her family moved to Montana in 2014. In the winter of 2016-17, her family and community experienced neo-nazi cyberterrorist attacks and threats. The lessons Rabbi Francine learned from this experience directed her to focus her studies and teaching in the areas of trauma, healing, resiliency, and mindfulness. 

Rabbi Francine is a trained teacher of the Community Resiliency Model helping individuals develop resiliency skills and guiding communities to be trauma-sensitive and resiliency-focused. She is also training toward teacher certification in Mindfulness Meditation under the direction of renowned teachers Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield.

The rabbi’s husband Marc Roston is a research fellow at Stanford University in the area of sustainability and finance. The Rostons’ daughter is a graduate of Northwestern University with a master’s from Oxford and currently works for a law firm in Washington DC. The Rostons’ son is a junior at Northwestern University and captain of the Crew team. The entire family is happiest at a Fire Lookout on the top of a mountain in Glacier Park enjoying peanut butter jelly sandwiches and the awesome views.