Dear Beth El Family,
We hope you are staying healthy during this difficult time. Although our building is closed, we continue to plan for the future, when we will all be together once again in our spiritual home. With this in mind, we want to bring you up to date on some important developments regarding our clergy team.
Cantor Uri Aqua
After more than 30 years of distinguished service to Beth El, Cantor Uri Aqua has decided to retire upon the conclusion of his contract on June 30, 2020. Cantor Aqua and Judy intend to spend more time with their family, including visiting their children and grandchildren in Florida and Israel. Cantor Aqua will continue to have an office at Beth El and will still be teaching Israeli dancing in the area. Cantor Aqua has made a lasting impact on Beth El in so many ways. We have all benefited from, and appreciated, his unwavering commitment to the daily minyan, his skillful davening and Torah reading on Shabbat and holidays, and his tutoring hundreds of Bar and Bat Mitzvah students throughout the years. Cantor Aqua's dedication to the members of our community, serving as a source of comfort in times of loss and joining in joy with song in times of celebration, is immeasurable. Beth El has been fortunate to have Cantor Aqua as part of our professional team all these years and we know his legacy will continue to live on. We look forward to holding a celebration in honor of Cantor Aqua’s career at a date to be announced. We wish Uri and Judy all the best in this next exciting chapter.
Rabbi Zach Sitkin
We are excited to announce that Rabbi Zach Sitkin’s contract, which runs through June 30, 2020, has been extended for a 4-year term. Rabbi Sitkin has already become an integral part of our community and we look forward to his continued teaching, pastoral care, innovative programming, and the many things he does to make Beth El a dynamic and caring synagogue.
Clergy Search Committee History
We want to report on the results of our search for a third member of our clergy team. In the Fall of 2018, the synagogue formed a search committee to identify a leader, whether an ordained Rabbi or Cantor, who could help us further realize the vision of Beth El as a place infused with rich, vibrant musical and spiritual prayer. The job description also called for a person who could assist the Rabbis with all of the day-to-day tasks necessary for a pulpit Rabbi to carry out at a large and active synagogue like Beth El, such as providing pastoral care, officiating at life cycle events, preparing for and teaching adult education classes, implementing programming, and otherwise tending to the people who are the lifeblood of our kehilla.
Between January and April 2019, the committee received dozens of applications from both ordained Rabbis and ordained Cantors and conducted numerous video interviews. However, in keeping with the committee’s dedication to not hiring a candidate who was “merely satisfactory,” but rather one who could fill the requirements of the job description in a truly transformative way, no candidate was invited to Beth El for a Shabbat visit.
In December 2019, the committee resumed its search, again receiving applications from both Rabbis and Cantors, and this time saw several candidates who were much closer to what it was searching for. Four of the candidates met in person with the committee, and we had two candidates come for Shabbat visits: Cantors Arielle Green and Malachi Kanfer. After receiving feedback from the congregation and the committee, it became clear that Cantor Green was not the right fit for Beth El. Cantor Kanfer accepted a position with another synagogue a few days after his Shabbat visit. Nonetheless, two clear themes emerged from the congregation’s feedback: (1) an overwhelming number of people expressed their desire for a woman to be added to our clergy team, which is consistent with the vision that emerged from Journey, and (2) Cantor Gabriela Schvartz, who led High Holiday services in the Kasakove and has been our part-time Cantorial Intern for the past month, is an extremely talented Cantor and tefilah leader who should be retained in some capacity by Beth El.
The search committee and the synagogue leadership are in complete agreement with the congregational feedback.
Further, as noted earlier, one of our goals has been to retain a clergy member who could immediately join our Rabbis in providing the teaching, programming, and pastoral care that the past few weeks have made clear we all value and depend upon. In fact, it is anticipated that the traumatic experience we are all living through right now will continue to increase dramatically the need for pastoral care and spiritual nurturing over the next year.
Jessica Fisher
Our current Rabbinic Fellow, Jessica Fisher, who will be ordained as a Rabbi this Spring, and who many of us have had the privilege of getting to know this year, submitted an application for this position. She is someone who has already proven, through her work over the past year, that she can contribute significantly to realizing our vision and meeting our needs. The search committee, having met with Jessica and having solicited input from Rabbi Schuck and the professional staff, was remarkably impressed with her maturity, wisdom, charisma, work ethic, and ability to enthusiastically engage all of our many constituencies, and has concluded that she can be a transformative figure at Beth El. For all these reasons, and with the overwhelming support of the officers and the Board of Trustees, Beth El has offered, and Jessica has accepted, a position as a third full-time member of the clergy team.
We recognize that, although Jessica has been at Beth El this year, many people may not have had a chance to meet her, let alone interact with her. In fact, we had scheduled a Shabbat visit for Jessica on March 20 and 21, but as you know, the building was already closed because of the coronavirus. The Rabbinical Assembly deadline for us to make an offer to Jessica was Wednesday, March 25. Despite our request, we were unable to postpone the RA deadline, leaving us no choice but to proceed without having Jessica come for a Shabbat visit as part of the clergy search process.
Although it hardly serves as a substitute for a live visit, we are including links to Jessica’s senior sermon, delivered at JTS, and her recent zoom lunch and learn on the topic of “Being Physically Distant, but Socially and Spiritually Connected.” And, because Jessica continues in her role as Rabbinic Fellow, look for opportunities in the coming days and weeks to connect with her both virtually (visit bethelnr.org/livestream) and, hopefully sooner rather than later, in person.
We also recognize that Beth El is not immune from the global economic impact of the coronavirus. Our treasurer and our other officers have taken a very close look at the synagogue’s finances and concluded that hiring Jessica is the right decision at this time, especially given the increased need for pastoral care and Erica Leventhal’s imminent departure. To hedge against the economic risks in this uncertain time, we asked Jessica, who would normally have been offered a standard 3-year contract, if she would under these circumstances accept a one-year contract, with modified terms to reduce our costs, with the hope of extending her contract once we have a better understanding of the economic impacts of the coronavirus on the shul’s finances. This gives us flexibility going forward and Jessica has agreed to this arrangement.
Cantor Gabriela Schvartz
To pursue our musical vision, Beth El has decided to extend Cantor Gabriela Schvartz’s part-time cantorial internship until the end of the 2021 calendar year, when her current visa expires. Cantor Schvartz, who was ordained in December as a Cantor by the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano in Argentina, was supposed to have a one-year cantorial internship beginning at the start of the current fiscal year (July 2019), but did not receive her visa until the very end of January 2020. By extending her part-time internship, Cantor Schvartz and the congregation will experience the full benefit of this opportunity.
The Path Forward
Although the plan presented above is certainly not typical, we believe this team will have a transformative impact on our community. The path forward outlined in this email will further enhance our congregation’s vibrancy while diversifying our clergy team.
If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to clergyfeedback@bethelnr.org. As we continue to prioritize the health and safety of the community, please be patient in awaiting a response.
I want to thank the Clergy Search (co-chaired by Lauren Freeman-Bosworth and Rob Patchen), Human Resources, and Audit & Finance Committees, the Board of Trustees, and my fellow Officers for the countless hours, thoughtful deliberations, and strategic decision making over many months and especially during this difficult time.
Wishing you and yours continued good health and looking forward to a meaningful Passover.
Shabbat Shalom!
