Senior Rabbi Search Updates

Fellow Congregants,

The search process is “behind the scenes” most of the time, so it’s not obvious how many people have contributed to our progress. At this point, it’s worth it to say thank you to all who have participated in ways large and small:

• Congregants, you have supported this process with your interest, your opinions, your emails and your patience. Over 60 of you met with committee members one-on-one, and many more provided input through emails, group meetings and surveys.

• Past Presidents have continually provided wisdom and perspective. You dove into Unconscious Bias training — a first. When we want to impress guests, we introduce them to you.

• The Board, too, joined in Unconscious Bias training, and has provided continual guidance and support. It was a combination of congregant and Board input that created the criteria for our search.

• The Search Advisory Group jumped in with listening ears and willing hands, providing a breadth of perspective and fresh energy when it was needed most

• The Search committee itself has worked tirelessly since July, often meeting multiple times a week and staying up late into the night reviewing materials and doing all the many tasks required to continue our forward motion.

It is impossible to count the many volunteer hours that have been invested in our future since last July. But if we look at just the scheduled meetings and concrete deliverables, it certainly exceeds 4,000 hours. Beth Am has a long history of deep congregant involvement and sense of ownership, and we stepped up to that legacy again this year. Many thanks to all who have contributed so much.

We continue to welcome congregant input; you can send comments or questions to search@betham.org. Thank you.

Loree Farrar, Deb Radin and Ben Lloyd
Senior Rabbi Search Co-chairs

Fellow Congregants,

Our search continues, with a slight lull for turkey and cranberry sauce. Back in September, we had identified nine core competencies to look for based on congregant feedback (See “The Rabbi We Seek,” September 28). As we continue to meet and assess candidates, we thought it might be valuable to drill a little deeper into the criteria we are using, a few at a time.

Big Tent: an inclusive, collaborative leader. This was raised repeatedly in many contexts: religious observance, political perspective, racial and ethnic background, personal history, ability and upbringing. A Big Tent leader makes each individual feel personally welcome, and  is unafraid to make the systemic changes needed to ensure inclusion for those who might have felt left out in the past. A Big Tent leader helps all of us appreciate each others’ differences as elements which enrich, rather than erode, our community.

Emotional Intelligence. A competency that permeates all others. High emotional intelligence is reflected in 3 C’s: Consciousness (of your own emotions and impact), Compassion for those who are different, and deep Connection. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, “if you want to change lives, speak to people’s feelings, not just their minds. At the very end of his life, the greatest of all prophets, Moses, turned to emotional intelligence, knowing that unless he did so, his teachings might enter the minds of the Israelites, but not their hearts, their passions, their emotive DNA.”

Emotional intelligence incorporates Pastoral Care, the search for the Divine in the circumstances of our lives, with the goal of helping the congregant find meaning and purpose in his/her situation.

Spiritual Leadership. A great spiritual leader leads by example, and is deep in matters of the Mind, Heart and Soul. Spiritual leadership puts service before self-interest, inspires trust and nourishes wholeness. Spiritual leadership includes the ability to give inspiring and engaging sermons.

As we’ve said repeatedly, we welcome congregant input. Many have already reached out to us with valuable perspectives, shared thoughtfully with grace and gratitude. Thank you for being partners in this search. You can send comments or questions to search@betham.org. Our next update will be December 14, when we will continue delving into our core competencies.

L'Shalom,

Deb Radin, Ben Lloyd and Loree Farrar
Senior Rabbi Search Co-chairs

Fellow Congregants,

We have begun to receive applicants! It’s an exciting time in our search, when we begin to see the remarkable rabbis who lead our movement. As a reminder, the CCAR (the Reform movement rabbinic organization) requires us to keep the names of applicants confidential; the Jewish world is small, and we don’t want to create friction for our applicants and their current communities.

Since our last update on October 19, we’ve done a lot to prepare for this stage:

• Engaged the Board, Past Presidents, and Search Advisory Group in several in-person meetings, which brings a breadth of perspectives to the search that is unique at this stage.
• Identified a list of leading rabbis who interest us; we will research and reach out to them proactively, through our partners in the CCAR.
• Built a process to handle incoming applicants, which includes a conversation, online research, and a series of virtual interviews, leading to references and in-person meetings for top candidates.

November will be busy!

Want to talk informally about the search? You can always send comments or questions to search@betham.org. Our next update will be November 16.

L'Shalom,

Deb Radin, Ben Lloyd and Loree Farrar
Senior Rabbi Search Co-chairs

Fellow Congregants,

As we’ve been listening to you in both organized and casual settings, one question comes up again and again: what about our current rabbis? Indeed, we are fortunate to have three long-serving and talented rabbis at Beth Am. As of this writing, Rabbi Sarah and Rabbi Jon have both asked to be considered for the Senior Rabbi position. Rabbi Heath has indicated that he is eager to continue at Beth Am in his current role, for which we are grateful.  

Our objective as a Search Committee is to ensure that we get the very best rabbi to lead Beth Am into the future. In addition, we commit to treating all candidates with kindness — especially those whom we already know and love. This means that we need a process that is both thorough and respectful. Our plan to achieve this is as follows:

• All candidates will be evaluated against the same criteria, which were published last week.
• The process for all candidates, internal and external, will be similar, with extraneous elements removed. (For instance, we will not ask our current clergy to demonstrate sermons.)
• We will refrain from making a final recommendation to the Board until all candidates, both internal and external, have been reviewed. While this is more labor intensive, ultimately the congregation is better served by a comprehensive process.

As you can imagine, this is a sensitive time for all involved, particularly for our current clergy. You can help make the situation less awkward by not allowing the search to dominate conversations, and by continuing to treat all of our clergy with the care and tenderness they deserve. 

You are always welcome to share your perspectives with the Search Committee, as we’ve said many times. Be assured that we are already aware that each of our rabbis has many fans: the depth of your insight, particularly around specific interactions that may not be generally visible, is more helpful than the quantity of emails we receive.

Want to talk informally about the search? Join us at the First Friday Pre-Neg tomorrow night at 5:30 PM in the Sanctuary Foyer; we’d love to see you there. Of course, you can always send comments or questions to search@betham.org. Our next update will be released on Thursday, October 19.

L'Shalom,

Deb Radin, Ben Lloyd and Loree Farrar
Senior Rabbi Search Co-chairs

Fellow Congregants,

As we enter our period of deepest reflection, it is worth reflecting on the gifts we have received from others in the past year. Of course, I am speaking of the tremendous efforts and thoughtful suggestions of the Hazon Task Force. That work, which is based on input from hundreds of congregants, has been a foundation for the work of the Search Committee. For that we are truly grateful.

Hazon provided over 30 specific suggestions related to the search process, almost all of which will be reflected in some way. Some are relevant to stages of the search that lie ahead of us; others you have already seen. These include:

• Creating a Search Advisory Group, to broaden the perspectives of those directly contributing to the search
• Seeking broad input from a variety of stake-holder groups, as well as from individual congregants
• Deepening involvement of the Board of Directors, specifically with regard to establishing search criteria
• Maximizing visibility throughout the process

Perhaps the most thought-provoking input Hazon provided was their assessment of the most critical criteria for selection of our next rabbi, based on what they heard from congregants. Hazon recommends that our next rabbi should have:

Experience and skills with operating in a congregation that is similar to Beth Am in key dimensions (education, pastoral care, spirituality, worship, size, diversity of opinions on key topics, supervisory and management skills, etc.)

Not surprisingly, these align closely with criteria that congregants themselves have highlighted in recent listening meetings, survey responses, and individual conversations with Search Committee members.  They will certainly guide our search.

• Experience and demonstrable skills with helping people with divergent views feel comfortable within the big tent
• Management skills and leadership experience in addition to other rabbinic skills (e.g. pastoral, teaching)
• Experience with healing or reducing the impact of polarized views on key topics
• Patience to develop the trust of the Congregation by embracing what we do now, and only after that trust is there, start envisioning a future, and leading the Congregation towards that future

Thank you, Hazon, for the strong foundation which you have built, and on which we now stand.

As always you can send comments or questions to search@betham.org — we are eager to hear from you. You can also identify us at Beth Am gatherings by our name-tags, which have chairs on them. Our next update will be after Yom Kippur.  We hope to see you on Yom Kippur afternoon, when we will be leading a study session which will  delve into concepts of leadership.

L’shana tova u’metuka,

Deb Radin, Ben Lloyd and Loree Farrar
Senior Rabbi Search Co-chairs