Rabbi Fasman’s journey has taken him from music to the rabbinate. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, but crossed the country to attend college at Cornell University and then Indiana University (where he received his doctorate in music and, more importantly, met his wife Alice).

Rabbi Fasman has always been a teacher. Both of his parents are retired teachers. He began his professional teaching career as a professor of music at Minnesota State University (Moorhead), a position he held for sixteen and a half-years. Meanwhile, he served as principal trumpet of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony and maintained an active career as a performer.

When the small Jewish community of Fargo, North Dakota, found itself without a rabbi, Mark was drawn into ever greater positions of leadership in the Jewish community. Eventually, he was president of the congregation, then rabbinic aide. He led High Holy Day and Shabbat services, directed the religious school, trained Bar/Bat Mitzvah students, and officiated at life-cycle events.

In 1995, he entered rabbinical school at the University of Judaism. Four years later, Rabbi Fasman was ordained in the first ordination class of the newly independent Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

Rabbi Fasman’s first pulpit was at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, where he served on the rabbinic staff for two years with Senior Rabbi David Wolpe.

Since 2001, he has been the rabbi at Shaare Zedek Synagogue in University City. Rabbi Fasman currently serves on the Executive Committee of the St. Louis Rabbinical Association, he is a member of the local Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative rabbis), and he serves on the boards of the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Jewish Federation, and the University City Symphony.