Senior Rabbi Search Updates

Fellow Congregants,
 
Thank you for all your thoughtful comments throughout the month of August. As of this writing, we have: 

• 161 responses to the Invitation to Provide Input
• 62 requests for individual meetings (by now you should have heard from us to set something up; if not, please drop a note)
• 8 listening sessions with the Search Advisory Group, including roughly 50 individuals
• Many, many conversations which inform our thinking

So what are folks saying? We want someone who is both brilliant and humble. Approachable, but with gravitas. Spiritual, and financially astute. As one congregant commented, “When you listen to what we want in a senior rabbi, it’s like God on a good day.” Here’s a word cloud that reflects the most common responses to the “give three words” question in the survey.* There’s a lot to chew on here!

We are analyzing all the comments in depth and will combine that analysis with input from congregant listening sessions, the Board, staff and program team to make our formal description that will be shared with applicants and with you after Yom Kippur. 

As this phase of the process is wrapping up, we will continue to keep lines of communication open:

• Search Committee and Search Advisory Group members will be easily identifiable at Beth Am events: our name tags will have chairs on them, so you can find us.
• There will be a study session on Yom Kippur, focused on aspects of leadership that you value.
• The Search Advisory Group will continue listening.
• Per your suggestions, Search Committee materials are now available on our website under “What’s Happening,” which doesn’t require logging in.

As always you can send comments or questions to search@betham.org — we are eager to hear from you. Our next update will be after Yom Kippur. We hope to see you on Yom Kippur afternoon to delve into concepts of leadership.

L’shalom,

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

*What’s a word cloud? A graphic representation of free text; the bigger the font, the more frequently the word appeared. Our word cloud shows the 60 most commonly used words to describe our next senior rabbi, outside of proper names.