Clergy take new positions in community by Alissa Katz Noah Fabricant Noah Fabricant is a product of Reform Judaism's youth programs: His experiences in the movement's National Federation of Temple Youth and Union for Reform Judaism summer camps influenced his decision to become a rabbi. Now that he has his first job following ordination - as an assistant rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation in the District - Fabricant, 27, is hoping to learn a lot and build alliances. "My goal is to develop real, deep mentoring relationships with the other clergy and staff and as many congregants as I can get to know," he said. Fabricant, who comes to the area with his fiancee, Ali Harwin, a Yale University Law student, grew up in West Orange, N.J. Before entering Hebrew Union College, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he received a bachelor's degree in literature and a language citation in modern Hebrew - and was on the fencing team. As a rabbinical student, he interned at the K.K. Bene Israel/Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati and was a student rabbi at congregations in Terre Haute, Ind., and La Salle, Ill. During the 2008 academic year, Fabricant was awarded the Rabbi Morris H. Youngerman Memorial Prize for the best sermon preached in the HUC Chapel. He's also been a song leader at Union for Reform Judaism summer camps. Fabricant admits to being a bit nervous about his new job, particularly the idea that it's his first full-time professional job. As for the actual rabbinical duties, he's not too apprehensive. "The rabbi things are the easiest - leading services and life-cycle events," said Fabricant, a fan of Israeli poetry. "The seminary trains well." After spending time in the Midwest, Fabricant is happy to be back East, particularly in the Washington area. "[I like] the size of the Jewish community, engagement with cultural and civic life of the community, and I especially like WHC's size. It gives me opportunities to do things that are rare in congregation life," he said. Rachel Goldsmith When she would hold her babies in synagogue, Rachel Goldsmith used to hope that her children would one day be as comfortable with seeing one of their parents leading services as she had been seeing her father, a rabbi, on the bima.
The more she took it upon herself to stand before a congregation - as a shlicha tzibbur, prayer leader, and Torah reader - the more she loved it, thus beginning what would become a 10-year journey toward cantorial investure. Goldsmith, who grew up in Brookline, Mass. - she and her family are Red Sox fans - studied political science at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and holds an MBA and master of health services administration from the University of Michigan. Her first career was in human resources and benefits. This summer, Goldsmith - who graduated in May from the H.L. Miller Cantorial School at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York - began her third career: as a fully invested cantor serving as interim ritual director at the Conservative B'nai Israel Congregation in Rockville. In between, the 46-year-old taught at Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School's Lower School for three years, teaching tefilla, prayer, and running minyanim. She's also been a chazzan for High Holy Day services in Massachusetts and New Jersey, and had been an active member of both Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, which she and her family joined when they moved to Bethesda 17 years ago, and Congregation Beth El of Montgomery County, where she had studied with Cantor Abraham Lubin. Although Goldsmith had wanted to become a cantor for nearly a decade, she waited until her children were more independent so they'd be OK with her commute. "Amtrak and I became great friends," Goldsmith quipped about her weekly commute to New York for classes. "I took the 5:14 [a.m.] from New Carrollton and was in my seat [at JTS] by 9 and in school all day until 6 or 7," Goldsmith explained. "I'd sleep over at my sister's [home, which was on the Upper East Side], be at school for minyan by 7 [a.m.] and by 5, I was on the train coming home." She arrived home in time to tuck in her kids for the night. "The kids really only missed me a couple hours each trip," she said. Goldsmith knew she wasn't guaranteed a job coming out of the seminary, "but I really wanted the knowledge," she said. As interim ritual director, Goldsmith reads Torah, helps Cantor Josh Perlman to train b'nai mitzvah students and tends to the ritual needs of the congregation. Alison Kobey As a child growing up in the Boston area, Alison Kobey, 36, never even thought about becoming a rabbi. The world of business intrigued her, although an interest in Judaism led her to take Jewish studies classes while she was working on her economics degree at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Yet at Tufts, she decided to explore the rabbinate seriously. She said it's a fit because it combines her greatest passions into one profession. These passions include teaching, counseling, helping others and discussing theological questions. Following her graduation, Kobey, who holds joint roles as rabbi and education director at Congregation Or Chadash in Damascus, enrolled at the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College. She was ordained in 2000, and spent the next nine years as associate rabbi and director of lifelong Jewish learning at Temple B'rith Kodesh in Rochester, N.Y.
Having joined Or Chadash earlier this summer, Kobey, who loves reading and yoga, has immersed herself in synagogue life. She's held different social events for members and prospective members - some meet-and-schmooze events were in public parks, others in congregants' homes and ranged from wine and cheese receptions to potluck barbecues. She also wants to meet with more unaffiliated Jews to spark their interest in joining the congregation. "I am excited to be part of this great family and for us to learn and study and grow and worship and pray together," she added. Kobey, who has two young sons, is also focusing on bringing some spirit to Or Chadash's school. "I want the school to be a vibrant place where people want to be and want to learn and are excited about Judaism," Kobey said. "I want them to see it as stepping stones for any ongoing learning." She's also going to encourage young adults who become a bar or bat mitzvah to keep coming to synagogue. "[It's] a sacred milestone that's not an endpoint, but another beginning," Kobey said. Esther Lederman When Esther Lederman was 10 years old, her parents told her she had a choice to make about her future: She could have a bat mitzvah celebration, or wait a little longer and have a sweet-16 party. She chose the Jewish rite of passage. Her family dropped its membership at an Orthodox shul, moving to a Conservative one so Lederman could, as she puts it, have "the real thing," not just a Sunday morning service. Lederman received her B.A. in political science and Middle Eastern studies from McGill University in 1996. Before being ordained in 2008 at Hebrew Union College in New York, she held positions with the Israel Policy Forum in the District and directed a project on Middle East peace for the Union of Reform Judaism. Since her ordination, Lederman's been closely involved with Jewish Funds for Justice. Before taking her new position as the assistant rabbi at Temple Micah in the District, Lederman was a student rabbi at Beth Israel in Indiana, Pa., for two years and served as the rabbi for High Holiday services at a synagogue in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 2007. Most recently, she held the Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellowship at B'nai Jeshurun in New York. Lederman, 35, chose to leave Manhattan's Upper West Side in July because of the dymanic of Temple Micah. She was also drawn to it by senior Rabbi Daniel Zemel's leadership. "He inspires people to think about what it means to be a Jew in this world," she said. She was inspired as well by the congregants who interviewed her and their belief of not taking their Judaism and past for granted. Lederman likes to see different parts of the world outside of Ottawa, Canada, where she grew up. That's why she was looking forward to moving to New York when she did in 1997.
Her job as the national youth director for Habonim brought her to the States, and she was particularly eager to live in New York. The city had a vibrancy to life that was different from her hometown, according to Lederman. "I appreciated New York because you can become whatever you want to, which is what I did," she said. Combining her passion for religion and her love for traveling, Lederman spent numerous summers in Israel through her participation in the Labor Zionist Youth Movement, Habonim. Toby Manewith Toby Manewith had known since she was 15 that she wanted to be a rabbi. It was a passion she realized when, as a high school freshman, she started going to a Reform synagogue independent of her family. "I grew up in a congregation where the rabbi didn't know very many people's names and he certainly didn't know the kids' names," said Manewith, 43, whose family attended a traditional synagogue in Chicago where women were not permitted to lead services or read Torah. "Even though I really enjoyed being at Hebrew school, I wasn't encouraged and for the most part [I was] kept anonymous." Her Reform experience made her feel more welcome. "When I was encouraged to take leadership positions [at the Reform synagogue]... I knew I wanted to be a rabbi," she said. That encouragement made her say, "Wow," leading her to think that perhaps she could encourage others and make an impact in someone else's life. Her latest post is with Bet Mishpachah, a congregation founded by gay Jews that describes itself as an "egalitarian synagogue embracing diversity." As part its hiring process, the congregation did a self-study. "Bet Mishpachah has a small number of families with young children, and it's one of the areas of growth potential that they were interested in," Manewith says. "That's great because it melds with my interest, and we'll have a place to grow our families together," adds the rabbi, who returned less than two weeks ago from Russia, where she adopted a 2-year-old, Nate. She brings a diversity of rabbinic experience to the position. As an undergrad at Northwestern University, she studied political science and the history and literature of religions, and then enrolled at the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College in 1993. Following her ordination, she had a 10-year career with Hillel, working as a campus director for American and Syracuse universities and as an educator at George Washington University and Hillel's International Center. Manewith then spent several years as an independent Jewish educational consultant for many agencies, including the American Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, United Synagogue Youth, Smithsonian Resident Associates, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Washington DC Jewish Community Center. Before joining Bet Mishpachah, she had a part-time pulpit at Temple Micah, also in the District. Manewith also has passion for cooking.
"I'm known for showing up everywhere with cookies," said Manewith. "Chocolate chip cookies are always on hand." Yoel Oz Yoel Oz was the first boy to be born in his family for 40 years. His grandfather, who was active in Holocaust survivor groups and the Labor Zionists of America, was insistent about one thing: Unlike the other children in the family, who attended public schools, this young boy would get a yeshiva education. That set Oz on a path toward Orthodox observance, the rabbinate and his new job as the first official spiritual leader at the Orthodox Beth Joshua in Rockville's Aspen Hill. Until he was 14, he lived in Co-op City in the Bronx, N.Y. - "I'm like the last real Jewish boy from there," he quipped - then his family moved to the Bronx's Riverdale section, which he describes as culturally more like Manhattan. He attended the Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan, started to keep kosher and became Sabbath observant. "My mom was proud; she went along with it," said Oz, 29. "It would have been impossible if she hadn't been supportive," added Oz, whose Israeli Yemenite father and Polishborn child survivor mother divorced when he was 5. Raised by his mother, he considers himself a "cross between both worlds." "I have a very strong appreciation for my Yemenite heritage," says Oz, who spent a year in Efrat, studying at the Yeshivat Hamivtar, then went to Cornell University for a year before transferring to Yeshiva University, where he majored in political science with a minor in general and Jewish philosophy. In 2004, he enrolled in Yeshiva's Rabbi Isaac Eichanan Theological Seminary, which led him to a rabbinical internship at Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C., for the 2006-2007 school year. It was at Kesher Israel Rabbi Barry Freundel's seder table that he met the woman who would become his wife. (Yoel Oz is a Mets fan; Rebecca Oz is a Red Sox fan and, he quips, tells him that she wouldn't have gone out with him had he been a Yankees fan.) He spent the following school year in Washington working as an assistant rabbi at Kesher Israel and teaching at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy before returning to New York to finish up his seminary studies and get his ordination. Now, he's back teaching at Berman, while leading Beth Joshua, a congregation of about 25-30 families founded about a decade ago when Berman moved to the neighborhood. (The congregation is housed at the school.) "I hope to be able to provide more of a sense of community leadership in terms of the ability to attract more [modern Orthodox] people to the community and the synagogue," Oz says. Seth Phillips Seth Phillips owes his career to a No. 2 pencil and bubble test. As an incoming freshman at Pennsylvania State University, he was required to take a test to assess his career interests. "My two top scores were minister and military officer," says Phillips, who this summer became chaplain for the U.S. Naval Academy's Uriah P. Levy Center and Jewish Chapel in Annapolis.
"It was the height of the Vietnam War, and I was not considering the military," said Phillips, 57, who grew up in Ellicott City, Md., and Richmond, Va., "but the minister part made me look at my background and family." Well, not minister, but rabbi. So, after receiving his bachelor's degree from Penn State and a master's degree in public administration from Troy State in Alabama, he headed to Hebrew Union College and was ordained in 1979. The next 13 years took him to pulpits in Hamilton, Ohio; Melbourne, Australia; and Naples, Fla. In the early 1990s, the military was recruiting chaplains. "I got a postcard, asking if I was interested in being a military chaplain," Phillips recalls. That old college interest test came to mind. "I realized I was looking for a bigger stage, as it were, and the U.S. Navy seemed to have that," Phillips says. He's since served as a Navy chaplain with Marines in Okinawa; on a destroyer squadron in Norfolk, Va.; at the historic Commodore Levy Chapel, also in Norfolk; on a submarine base in Groton, Conn.; and with the Naval Support Activity in Naples, Italy. Additionally, he has served a few three-month missions to Iraq to provide Jewish services for deployed marines and soldiers. On one of those missions, he met up with his son's National Guard unit; he had participated in the unit's farewell ceremonies, but wasn't certain he'd see the troops in Baghdad. His assignment for the next three years is at the Naval Academy, where he's "responsible for the well-being of more than 600 midshipmen of all different religious backgrounds, and I am the rabbi at the Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center," says Phillips, a runner who has participated in 10 marathons in the past three years and is currently training for the New York City Marathon in November, his 42nd overall marathon. He's looking forward to that as well as to sharing the Levy Center with midshipmen and women, along with visitors, and influencing the next generation of naval officers. "And beating Army," he exclaimed, referring to the football rivalry between the Naval Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Ben Shalva As a college student at Vassar College in New York, Ben Shalva majored in Eastern religions, but also focused heavily on theater and music. He thought the latter two would be his career focus. A job at Camp Sabra, a JCC Association-affiliated camp in Missouri, changed that. A former Milwaukee resident, Shalva, the new assistant rabbi at the Conservative Congregation Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, ran theater and music programming at the camp and discovered he really enjoyed working in the Jewish world. "Something felt like coming home," he said. "The things I had to offer were what the kids were interested in, things they enjoyed." He was intrigued by the way visiting rabbis described rabbinic career as one that combined his skills with intellectual curiosity. Shalva, now 33, began to give the calling some thought.
A few summers after his 1999 graduation from Vassar, he enrolled in a one-year theater conservatory program. "But whenever I didn't have rehearsal, I was reading Jewish books," he said. After theater school, Shalva went to Israel and enrolled in a full-time ulpan language program to begin learning Hebrew. He applied to the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College's rabbinical program the following year. He took rabbinical classes in Jerusalem for two years before transferring and becoming ordained at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary. He was ordained last year. Shalva explained that he initially began his rabbinic studies at HUC because he'd grown up in a Reform synagogue and it didn't require any prerequisite knowledge except for Hebrew. But when his wife Sara's studies introduced the couple to traditional Jewish observance, they both began to find a more observant lifestyle attractive. After taking a class at JTS through its cross-matriculation program, Shalva realized the need for a switch. "[JTS] is where I belong - in a place where people are living the texts they are studying," he said. The rabbinate, he says, gives him a chance to be a part of congregants' lives. "I want to be in people's moments - in prayer, in study, in a moment when there is birth, a new stage of life, an end of a life. To just be there with my people at those moments is why I do it. It definitely gets me up in the morning," he said. "That, and a cup of coffee," he quipped. He's looking forward to his first pulpit, but by no means has given up his music. He plays several instruments, including the violin, piano, voice and guitar and maintains a Web site with original compositions. Songs, he said, bring his Torah ancestors alive. Neil Zuckerman For Neil Zuckerman, becoming rabbi at Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac is a homecoming of sorts. A University of Maryland graduate, he says "it's nice to be back in Terp country." Plus, he's not living far from his childhood rabbi from Harrisburg, Pa., Jeffrey Wohlberg, the rabbi emeritus at Adas Israel Congregation in D.C., president of the Rabbinical Assembly and someone who "was the model" of what Zuckerman thought a rabbi should be. In fact, in early 2008, he had interviewed to succeed the retiring Wohlberg, but ended up remaining at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, N.Y., where he had been a rabbi since 1999. In his college days, when he majored in speech and communication, Zuckerman hadn't considered becoming a rabbi. Law was more likely on the horizon. Although, he admits that he "certainly wasn't passionate about the law," his stepfather was a lawyer, he knew several other lawyers and, he says, "It seemed like a good way to make a living." Following his 1990 graduation, he worked in what he describes as an unmemorable job and realized that Jewish study and learning were becoming more important to him. "It was a gradual process of really wanting to be exposed to more serious Jewish life and learning," he says about becoming a rabbi. "There wasn't a lightning bolt."
Zuckerman took classes for two years at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary, then headed for Jerusalem in 1995 and spent a year in a nondegree rabbinic study program at the Solomon Schechter Institute of Judaic Studies. He returned to the States and then matriculated at JTS, where he was ordained in 1999. What he loves most about the rabbinate is the learning and teaching, "the way in which we teach by doing." In hindsight, he realizes that "if I could have articulated what I really wanted to do in college, I would have been in education," Zuckerman, 42, says, lamenting that "unfortunately in our society, that is not where financial security lies." At Temple Israel, he developed a family education program that grew enough to require its own full-time coordinate and he was instrumental in bringing the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School to Westchester County. A passionate Bruce Springsteen fan, he's attended some 100 of The Boss' concerts. "Those who are dedicated fans will sometimes pick up lyrical references" in his sermons, Zuckerman says. At Har Shalom, he hopes to create what he calls a "sacred community," where people come together for "prayer, study, acts of kindness, healing." Debra Rubin, WJW editor, contributed to this article. Content 2009 Washington Jewish Week Software 1998-2009 1up! Software, All Rights Reserved