Senior Rabbi

We are seeking a Senior Rabbi for Pastoral Counseling and Care, Education Scholarship – text knowledge/ Halakhah/Hebrew), Prayer Leader, Public Speaking – sermonizing, framing, depth, Torah Reading & Pulpit. Our mission is, “To serve as a vibrant center for the practice and teaching of Conservative Judaism; to create a spiritual and social atmosphere in which Congregants feel part of a larger Synagogue family.” Our motto is, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.” We are and welcome a diverse population. We are informal and pride ourselves on a warm and inviting culture. Along with religious services, we have many programs to bring our members together – we are a very social congregation. We have weekly Minyan services (held virtually on Monday and Thursday and also in person on Sundays). There is a robust Coffee and Learn which attracts both members and non members. We have a program which is a study session for women. We have a Men’s Club, that sponsors many family events; a Sisterhood that sponsors events for its membership; we have various learning programs and the highlight of those is our Kristallnacht Program. We are especially proud of the work that is done by the Social Action Committee. We are also proud of our Kristallnacht program which is well attended by the Jewish and general community. We have concerts, we sponsor a book club, and have other diverse programs for our members to bring them to our shul for non-religious events. We also have a softball league, which includes B’nai Jacob and other synagogues. We are part of the Congregations of Orange Collaborative, who also works together in providing meals to families and solicits donations to our neighborhood food bank. We will maintain the warm, welcoming atmosphere. Members are drawn to our traditional egalitarian services. Our congregation is a very participatory congregation. Or Shalom is a welcoming and open house of worship and we provide an egalitarian service to all who wish to pray together in our synagogue. We encourage participation in our service from anyone who is present (member or not) and we utilize lay leaders in our membership in our service. Following the trends in other conservative shuls, we offer alliyot to all Jewish individuals and give “bat Cohen” and “bat Levi” honors as well. Our ritual rules allow for participation of non-Jewish spouses in life cycle rituals as allowed. We will continue our Kashrut Observance in the synagogue. Monday and Thursday minyans are zoomed. Our Shabbat services are zoomed and in person. Our Sunday morning minyan is zoomed and in person. We allow those on zoom to participate in our services. Examples: one of our congregants who attends Friday night services sings the prayer for the ill remotely. As long as we have a minyan in our building when reading Torah, we allow those in zoom to have an aliyah. Our new rabbi should be spiritual and share a love of Judaism with our congregation – prayer and ritual are a priority. Our synagogue is a warm and welcoming shul, and we expect that our new rabbi will reflect that culture. We have had a wonderful rabbi in Rabbi Wainhaus but the congregation is excited about welcoming a new rabbi. We hope that our new rabbi will infuse energy to our services (especially Erev Shabbat and Shabbat morning). We want someone who is innovative and creative. Great energy and ruach. We also hope that our new rabbi is confident and has the skills to respond to those who may seek them out for assistance and advice, as pastoral counseling is also a priority. Our congregants are also very social and our shul has many programs in addition to the religious services and we would like our new rabbi to get to know us and preserve that warm and welcoming culture. Our motto is “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.” We welcome diversity while following the rules of USCJ; we welcome congregants of all types (including intermarried couples and those interested in learning about Judaism). We want our new rabbi to reflect those values. We would like the new rabbi to be able to teach – scholarship is a plus. There are various programs that are opportunities for learning for our members, as well as non-members. We will remain egalitarian, so a new rabbi must also accept this. We expect the rabbi to provide spiritual guidance to our members and to participate in our services; be innovative and creative and bring new energy to the services. We want our new rabbi to be passionate about his or her Judaism and bring that passion to the rituals and all other events that the rabbi participates in or attends. We would like our rabbi to assist in increasing membership, especially welcoming young families to our congregation. We also want our new rabbi to provide pastoral counseling to the congregants. We welcome children at our services and expect that to continue – we let “kids be kids.” Most importantly, we want the assistance of the new rabbi to bring in new members and maintain our current membership. We have an aging population and would love to see new families with young children (but we welcome anyone who would like to join us). Above all, we want the new rabbi to preserve our welcoming culture and participate in the many social activities that we provide. There should be support for members who are in interfaith and interracial relationships. We have a combined Hebrew School with B’nai Jacob. We work together to form the educational program and set goals. The rabbi teaches classes and can offer suggestions. The rabbi should endeavor not to schedule rabbinical events during Hebrew School hours; and the rabbi should provide oversight for Bar and Bat Mitzvah programs. We would like the rabbi to teach music (Shirah) and participate in our preschool programs if applicable. Salary package: $110,000.00-$150,000.00 (Base compensation ($98,000.00-$138,000.00) & value benefits ($12.000.00 pension). Ample housing closeby. Search Committee Chair: Greta E. Solomon, [email protected], 203-339-2482. Website: www.orshalomct.org.

(12/29/23)