Board of Rabbis Installation Address Rabbi Judith HaLevy, President May 16, 2011 Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue A story is told of a rabbi who met a gatekeeper of a city. The Rabbi asked the gatekeeper For whom do you work? He replied, I work for the master of this city. For whom do YOU work? Not answering directly, the rabbi said I wish to hire you for my own employ And what will my task be? asked the gatekeeper. The rabbi replied, You will ask me every day, for whom do you work? All of us, rabbis and leaders of the Jewish community, are here to remind each other, every day that we work for the Boss. God, Torah and the Jewish people are one, and we are united in His service. I wish to say thank you first and foremost to God for bringing me to this time and place- raba emunatecha- great is Your faith in me. May I only be worthy of the task. I would like to thank all of you who made the effort to come this evening to the shores of Malibu- not an easy task in Los Angeles traffic: TO The Honorable Jacob Dayan, Consul General of the State of Israel Richard Sandler, Chairman of the Board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Jay Sanderson, President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles Susan Nissman, here on behalf of Hon. Zev Yaroslavsky, Supervisor, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Mayor John Sibert of the City of Malibu To Rabbi Denise Eger, a mentor and role model, and all of my rabbinic collegues who serve with me as officers and executive committee members on the Board of Rabbis To the members of the Interfaith Community who have joined me on this journey To The Board of MJCS, and to all the members of this synagogue who are here today, thank you for your unwavering support over these past fourteen years To the best Cantor in the Greater Los Angeles area, Marcelo Gindlin. My partner and friend- I can t do this without you. To the staff of MJCS, especially Maya Beinenfeld, who worked so hard to make this evening happen, and to Adrienne du Bois, Rabbi Carrie Benveniste and Rabbi Benny Katz, who guide this synagogue in so many ways. To the staff of the Board of Rabbis, to Jonathan Freund, Mayrav Saar, Gloria Juarez, who worked hand in hand with Maya to get all of you here and fed this evening To all of my teachers, especially my teacher Rabbi Jonathan Omerman, a true visionary. 1
To the Reconstructionist movement, who gave me a home, and especially to my friend and colleague Rabbi Sheryl Lewart, who has taught me so much. And my family- to my children Daniela and Eliam, who lived through years of REBMOM, to my daughter- in law Sara Jane, to my stepson Cort, my nephew Dan and Sara, to my brother Robert and his wife Dorothy, who are here from Florida (is this a bat mitzvah speech? I never had a bat mitzvah) My sister-in law Gail Toppel Sherman and her husband Mark, To my aunt and uncle, Norman and Helen Bragar, TO MY MOM, MAY BLANK, who passed away on December 12, but whose spirit is very much in this room, and to my partner Richard Erkes, who is always there for me, and knows more about the stresses of the rabbinate than anyone has the right to know. One special person deserves mention this evening, and that is Rabbi Mark Diamond, Executive Vice President of the Board of Rabbis and Southern California. Rabbi Diamond is the embodiment of a wise and sagacious leader, a Rabbi of rabbis. We turn to him for understanding, comfort and guidance as we struggle to balance our lives and serve our communities well. Our rabbinic community would be very different without Mark at the helm. In Perkei Avot, the Mishnah that we are studying at this time of year, we read: Who is honored? He who honors others. Rabbi Diamond is a leader who knows how to honor the uniqueness of each and every one of the 330 rabbis that comprise the Board of rabbis of Southern California. Look at the rabbis in this room. Together, we reflect the diverse tapestry that is the Jewish community of Los Angeles. When I am introduced, the first remark that I always hear is You don t look like a Rabbi! What does a Rabbi look like in 21 st century America? Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of the Reconstructionist movement, envisioned an evolving American Jewish civilization. Look around this room- we have definitely evolved. Judaism has always unfolded to the beat of change. The pace may be glacial, with centuries of subtle redefinition, or explosive, as in this past century. It is the task of the rabbi to illuminate, affirm and pass on our Jewish values and traditions within a changing societal framework. George Greenberg spoke of the need for a relevant Judaism in his introduction. Relevant to whom? We serve very different communities, and I am certain that there are communities in Los Angeles who would not be comfortable celebrating Shabbat on the Beach- especially if you have to drive to get there. The Board of Rabbis encourages us to remember our similarities as well as our differences, as we work together to serve the Jewish people. The greatest change in Jewish practice in the 20 th century was clearly the ordination of women, and by now the change is so pervasive that my bat mitzvah students look at me skeptically when I tell them that I finished Hebrew school without a bat mitzvah, while my brother was called to the torah at thirteen like all of his ancestors. No one ever suggested that I attend Rabbinical school after college. Yet here I am, following Rabbi 2
Denise Eger, the first woman to hold the position as President of the Board of Rabbis. I am proud to welcome Reb Mimi Feigleson to the Board of Rabbis, as an Orthodox woman teaching in a Conservative rabbinical institution. But some stereotypes evolve very, very slowly. This week s Torah portion, B Chukotai, offers a glimpse into an arcane system that still leaves its mark. In Lev. 27 we read When anyone vows to the Lord the equivalent for a human being, the following scale shall apply: If it is a male from twenty to sixty years of age, the equivalent is fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary weight, if it is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels (Lev27 1:2) This was known as an endowment valuation, no, not a new fundraising idea, but a way to pledge the worth of one s life to Temple service- something we Rabbis certainly know about. Fifty shekels for a male- under sixty- and thirty for a female? Sounds like a modern day lawsuit to me! Women have stood on the margins of Jewish public life for over two thousand years, and that change from the margins to the center shifts slowly. The dynamic of change from the margins of Jewish life to the center, and back out again is a pulsing that brings new life into old forms and structures. I feel that my personal journey reflects that dynamic, moving from the center to the outskirts of Jewish life, and back to the center to over the course of a lifetime. My first Jewish memory is of standing knee high to hundreds of screaming and singing adults waving small paper blue and white flags on the first day of Israel s independence in Lakewood, New Jersey. I often wonder what my neighbors in the Yeshiva Gedola next door would think of my rabbinate. Urged by my Zionist parents (my brother here would say forced) I attended a Young Judea camp, Tel Yehuda, I then spent a year in Israel on the Machon lmadrechai chutz l aretz, training ground for youth leaders from abroad before attending college. A return trip to Israel, leading 250 American teenagers during my graduate years at Columbia led to a love affair with not only Israel but an Israeli- I married, and eventually made Aliyah- only to leave three years later on shlichut with my husband to Mexico City, where my children were born. This was Jewish life at the margins. The Centro Deportivo Israelita in Mexico City is the largest Jewish community center in the world, with over 20,000 members, in a country where Jewish life is insular. As program director, it was my task to keep the connection to Israel and the Jewish people strong. With a divorce, my life then took a detour- to Taos, New Mexico that seemed to be as far away as I could get from an organized Jewish community. The Talmud tells us Bimakom s ain anashim, tishtadel l hiot ish In a place where there is no appropriate person of responsibility, try to be that person. This was grass roots community organizing. No one had ever said to me, Why don t you become a rabbi? - But here I was, leading services, extending Shabbat and holidays to a scruffy group of Jews on the margins. I had always been a spiritual seeker, but this awakened my thirst for Jewish learning, and eventually to Rabbinic studies. My internship in Santa Fe completed the process, and I was ordained in 1992. I followed my teacher Rabbi Jonathan Omerman to 3
Los Angeles, to work with him For one year only in forming Metivta, a Center for Jewish Spirituality. In the nineteen years that I have served as a rabbi in Los Angeles, I have continued to glean from the margins of Jewish life in order to incorporate the dynamics of change into the center. Together with Savina Teubal, I founded Sarah s Tent, a Center for Jewish creativity, in 1994. This community, which formed around the study of women s Midrash and Jewish spirituality, has nurtured three rabbis and four chaplains to date-many early students of AJR. In 1996 I was hired as Rabbi here in Malibu. Just look over that cliffyou can see that we are on the margins, but also very much at the center of Jewish life, seeking a relevant Judaism. We are but one thread in the diverse tapestry that is The Jewish Community of Southern California. Whose arms can stretch wide enough to hold that multifaceted tapestry, that tallit of Los Angeles Jewry to the light? Only the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. The task of the Federation is to embrace and nurture the whole, beyond affiliation and denomination, and one of its most effective arms in directly reaching the diverse members of the LA Jewish community is the 330 members Board of Rabbis. I learned a great deal about Federation/ Board of Rabbis relations while playing with my five-year-old grandson Elijah over Passover break. He has a huge box of legos and little people, and we spent hours on the floor. Key elements in that box, it turns out, are the connectors and the transformers. That is the role of the rabbi, to connect and transform. Working together, we help to implement the essential initiatives of the Jewish Federation: Ensuring the Jewish Future, Caring for Jews in Need and Engaging the Community. Rabbis are the boots on the ground. We help to Engage the Community through prayer and teaching, social action, community celebrations and rites of passage, We engage the community from birth to death. We are the ones who guide Jews in need to the proper agency, often holding their hands on the way. We Ensure the Jewish Future with every torah that we pass from dor l dor, from generation to generation. Our support as the Board of Rabbis comes through our initiatives in community Learning, Professional growth, Interreligious Action, Social justice, Healing and Spirituality, Media relations and Israeli Advocacy. We re rabbis- we connect, and transform. In order to fulfill our mission as rabbis, we must not only transform others but also constantly transform ourselves. The Board of Rabbis provides a constant stream of professional development opportunities for the entire rabbinic community. This year, we are honored to have as the Keynote Speaker at our High Holiday Seminar, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, an Orthodox Rabbi who is widely recognized as one of the leading Jewish scholars of our times. Members of MJCS- now you know where those quotes in High Holiday sermons will be coming from! Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist or Reform- we all seem to speak about the same themes, and any good story told at the High Holiday seminar will make its way throughout all of the Los Angeles community, Israel Advocacy, always a first for me, is vital at this moment in time. The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles is sponsoring a 100 year Mission to Israel October 23-4
Nov 1. GET ON THE BUS! Michael, Elinor, Judith- you were on our Mission in 97- let s all go together.. Please urge everyone to join us in the Federation s Mission of the Century. For the fifth summer in a row, I will have the privilege of studying at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem during the month of July. I will forever be grateful for the support of Federation funding which enabled me to be a part of the three-year Rabbinic Leadership Initiative. I hope that I can repay your faith in me, in some part, through my work as President of the Board of Rabbis, as we continue to strengthen our connection to Israel. This year I hope that the Board of Rabbis can work together with the Federation to continue their outstanding program on Civil Discourse. The rabbis of the Talmud tell us that on Lag B Omer, which is coming right up, 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiba died of the plague due to senseless hatred. In Los Angeles this could be a major health problem! Civil discourse around difficult issues has become a priority. Last week, together with Rabbi Diamond, I attended a JPAC, (JEWISH PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE OF CALIFORNIA) advocacy and lobbying day in Sacramento. Having just spent four years guiding my own mother through the Jewish Home and its levels of care, I resonate deeply with the needs of the elderly Jewish population, and will continue to work with the Board of Rabbis to encourage services the our elderly in need. The emphasis on healing and spirituality, as most of you know, is essential to me, and I will try to incorporate more retreat time for rabbinic colleagues, as well as support for programs that affect the spiritual needs of our community. I have personally experienced the outstanding work of the chaplaincy and hospice programs that we support, and hope to expand the awareness of these programs for the greater community. I also hope to promote awareness of testing for Jewish Genetic diseases, including the cancer B raka gene, which is anything but a bracha, a blessing for Ashkenazi Jewish women. Media Relations are of growing importance in helping us to reach out to both the affiliated and non-affiliated communities of Los Angeles. This year, I hope to initiate a program with Jewish Life TV that twill interview individual rabbis from all denominations, providing an in depth look at their synagogue and its contributions for a TV audience. We will start with a summer broadcast of MJC&S Shabbat on the Beach. If you can t make it to the sand, stay turned! Inter-religious action has always been a cornerstone of the Board of Rabbis. Through interdenominational text study and missions to Israel, the Board of Rabbis has been able to foster a climate on collegiality and support among religious groups that I hope to continue. Following a bequest by a young man, David Jacoby- his father is here tonight- I helped to establish an independent 501(C) 3, Interfaith Inventions, which for six years has sent Moslem, Jewish and Christian children to camp. I hope that my personal passion for Inter-religious work will be able to continue throughout my term as President. So much good work has been done on the Board of Rabbis in this direction. 5
I see my task as President of the Board of Rabbis as one of continuation, not of great change. My model for this transition is provided in the nature that surrounds me. Perhaps you were blessed to see chains of pelicans crossing the sky as you drove to Malibu this evening. Sometimes they fan out in disarray, but then they rearrange themselves in on orderly, file, and each one leaving an appropriate space for the other. Soon, a pelican shifts to the side, and then slowly takes the lead. They rotate leadership throughout the journey, as do we on the Board of Rabbis. On the ground a pelican, like a lonely rabbi, is often clumsy and ungainly large beak (the neck is not good) and clumsy feet. But together, in the air, they are a symphony. I am proud and honored to be the Reconstructionist bird taking the moment of leadership of this soaring line, and hope that our journey together will be both beautiful and fulfilling. Thank you all for flying with me. 6