When rabbi Robert Rothman started at his Long Island congregation, it had
175 member families. Now as he prepares to leave, there are over 550 members.
But perhaps his greatest impact was the nursery school program he created
-- Rothman seems to personally know every child and parent who comes to the
nursery.
"I'm not concerned with numbers," says Rothman when asked about the dramatic
growth in membership. "I'm concerned with the lives I touched, how I related
to the men and women in my congregation, how the values and ideas of Judaism
were transmitted."
Rothman is a man of varied interests. He's a therapist as well as a rabbi.
Brought up in the Bronx and ordained in 1957, he joined the navy and served
as a Marine chaplain in Okinawa, Japan.
During his tenure at the Community Synagogue, which is housed in an old
mansion near Long Island Sound, Rothman has been a very active member of the
interfaith community. After the Oklahoma City bombing, he held a prayer service
for the entire community. When the wave of church burnings struck the South
several years ago, he organized collections to help rebuild them.
Rothman is also the author of at least 30 published articles on theology
and contemporary religious thinking. He's taught counseling at Touro and Westchester
Community College and served as a chaplain at a hospital in Port Chester.
The professional skills that Rothman has obtained over the years -- working
in the community in areas outside of the synagogue -- are being added to the
programs of many rabbinical seminaries.
"There's a tremendous emphasis in the curriculum of enhancing the in-field
experience of the students in terms of professional skills," says rabbi Norman
Cohen, dean of the Hebrew Union College in New York.
This is echoed by Jean Rosensaft, national director of public affairs at
the Hebrew Union College. "The rabbinate is really changing in North America.
Opportunities for placement have expanded widely," she says.
"Many graduates go the traditional route as assistant rabbis or to smaller
congregations. Colleges are important....Others are involved in pastoral care
and counseling in a chaplaincy, in hospitals or homes for the aged, or with
the disabled."
Cohen also feels there are plenty of opportunities in counseling and hospital
chaplaincy, and that the school may make such an experience a mandatory feature
of the curriculum.
"It's not enough for the rabbi of the future to declaim Judaism from a
high pulpit. The Reform synagogue is changing to a more participatory, empowering
place for individuals. People are truly seeking to be more identifiably Jewish.
There's a need for rabbis to have their rabbinical training bear on the education
of Jews outside the synagogue."
Liberal seminaries are offering more courses and internships in nontraditional
rabbinical settings, as the American rabbi's job description continues to
evolve. "It's clear that training for the American rabbinate require a mixture
of teaching and pastoral work," says Cohen.
This branching out into other areas of the community is exactly the kind
of work that rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl does.
Frydman-Kohl has "opened up" the synagogue services to encourage more participation
and has encouraged the development of innovative ritual and educational programs.
He's reached out to teenagers, teaching at a high school, at the United Synagogue
Youth International Convention and at Camp Ramah.
"I have a history of involvement in various public causes, going back to
my days in high school."
Frydman-Kohl also has a special interest in outreach to individuals not
traditionally involved in the Jewish community, such as single adults, Jews
by choice and alcoholics.
Rothman sums it up best: "This has always been a receptive, responsive
and supportive congregation. When I came here, I had dreams for this community.
I think many of them -- for education, for worship, for personal involvement
-- have happened. My concern has always been with the individual. I pride
myself on the relationship I've had with my congregation. It's the lives I've
touched that have meant so much to me."
"I just left the pulpit after 30 years," says rabbi Steven Dworken. He's
the executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Council of America.
A rabbi's personal life has a lot of intrusions, he says. "Not only are
all eyes on you, but you're expected to live with all those eyes as well,"
he says. But he's quick to add that the work and the life are extremely fulfilling.
"I look back and see the lives that I've changed, and the letters I was
sent and phone calls I received when I announced I was leaving my congregation
after 23 years. I saw how I made a difference in people's lives," Dworken
says.
People from his congregation told him they couldn't imagine where they
or their children would be if he hadn't been part of their lives. "You can't
buy that," he says.
"It's about making a difference in people's lives -- their emotional lives,
spiritual lives, religious lives, the whole gamut."
He says there's a bit of a "fish bowl effect, but there are rewards also."