Introducing Rabbi Sonia Saltzman

This week’s Torah portion is K’doshim, one of the most powerful and inspirational of Torah portions for its discussions of what can make us more holy as a people. The parashah begins and ends with God telling the people, “You shall be holy, because I, the Eternal, am holy.” The moral lessons and precepts contained in this portion are among the most profound teachings of the Torah. How fitting it is then that the Rabbinic Search Committee has this week selected a candidate to recommend to the Board and to the congregation as our next rabbi. For it is ultimately in the pursuit of guidance to greater holiness as a congregation that the committee has been reviewing résumés, interviewing candidates, traveling to other congregations to see candidates in action, and bringing rabbis to Temple Ohabei Shalom. 

Therefore, it is with great excitement and eager anticipation that we write to inform you that the Rabbinic Search Committee has this week selected Rabbi Sonia Saltzman and enthusiastically recommends her to be the next rabbi of Temple Ohabei Shalom. Rabbi Saltzman is a woman of great intelligence, maturity, warmth, and commitment, as well as possessing a delightful sense of humor. Rabbi Saltzman is currently the rabbi at Sha’arei Shalom in Ashland. In her previous career, Rabbi Saltzman was a senior manager in a nonprofit organization, and thus brings managerial experience to her calling in the rabbinate. Rabbi Saltzman lives in Newton, is married to Dr. Ned Saltzman, a urologist, and they have two sons. We look forward to introducing Rabbi Saltzman to the Board and congregation on a more formal basis in the very near future so that you will have a further opportunity to get to know her.

Rabbi Saltzman is thrilled to have been selected as our candidate and looks forward to the opportunity to grow together with us at Temple Ohabei Shalom. More details will be forthcoming, but we wanted to share this wonderful news with you as we move forward together.

Best Regards, 

Len Davidson and Shellee Robbins

A Quick Update – Not Much News Just Yet

After several months of planning, searching and conducting interviews, the search committee has narrowed the list of candidates to a small number of well-qualified and menschlich individuals. We’ve entered what might be called the due-diligence phase: We’re checking the candidates’ references and visiting the individuals at their synagogues so that we can observe them as they conduct services and interact with congregants. It has been a somewhat drawn-out process, because committee members have had to plan their visits according to when the candidates are conducting services.

The congregational gathering last month, on March 14, was a constructive and helpful meeting – the committee heard a range of opinions and concerns from TOS members. One question that came up at the meeting, and that has been raised in other conversations, is whether the final few candidates will be presented to the TOS community for a vote.

Community input is a vital element of the rabbinic search process, but the committee has had the benefit of weighing many factors that are not available to the community, such as interviews, references, observations, and reviews of written materials. We therefore feel that the committee has a responsibility to propose just one candidate.

While our goal continues to be to have rabbinic leadership for TOS in place by July 1, we are committed to finding the right individual for the position – our priority is making sure that the person we bring before the congregation is truly an excellent choice.

What Harvard Business School Has to Say About Our Rabbinic Search

I came across an article the other day about what corporate boards do when they’re looking for new CEOs, and I was struck by the parallels between CEO searches and our rabbinic search. A rabbi isn’t the synagogue’s “CEO,” of course, but like a corporation searching for an important executive, a synagogue searching for a new rabbi has to choose carefully among a limited number of diverse candidates while remaining mindful of the needs and desires of the organization’s many stakeholders.

The author, Rakesh Khurana of Harvard Business School, spent five years studying CEO hires and found a number of “best practices,” some of which are worth thinking about in the context of our rabbinic search.

The first: Ideally, the board should use the search as an opportunity for organizational introspection. It should examine the strategic and market challenges facing the company and identify the leadership attributes necessary to meet them. In our context, that would mean looking at where we are as a congregation, what our desires and challenges are and what kind of rabbinic leadership would best help us get to where we want to go.

Discussing issues like these is one of the purposes of TOS’s upcoming Congregational Meeting at 7:30pm on Monday, March 14, in Penn-Spero Hall. There will be an update from the Rabbinic Search and Planning Committee as well as a “State of the Shul” talk by congregational President Mike Weintraub – and plenty of time for congregational input and discussion.

Khurana says that in practice, few corporate boards take time out during a CEO search to discuss the company’s objectives and challenges. Instead, feeling pressure to fill the vacancy speedily, they rush to identify candidates. But he says organizations don’t have to rush. He cites a major consumer-products company whose board chose a respected director as an interim CEO, then proceeded to examine the company’s problems systematically. The board met with internal executives, analysts and customers to gain a better understanding of the strategic challenges the incoming CEO would face, and took time to assess the company’s future direction. Ultimately, the board was able to identify several candidates with the experience to guide the company as it made a strategic transition.

For the rabbinic search committee, it’s a point worth thinking about as we interview candidates. We’re trying to remain cognizant that in some circumstances, an interim candidate could be an excellent choice for TOS – it’s a matter of keeping the best interests of TOS in mind for both the short and long term.

Khurana’s next best practice is defining the candidate pool broadly. Boards should allow – even encourage – serious consideration of less-obvious candidates on the grounds that such executives would be more likely to bring about the kind of real change that companies need in order to thrive. A leader with a fresh perspective can help redefine the organization’s culture or strategy for the future.

In practice, most boards don’t encourage less-obvious candidates. They cling to conservative criteria, such as requiring that candidates bring experience as CEOs. The result can be a string of run-of-the-mill candidates.

Another best practice: Boards should recognize that a CEO is not a panacea. While the chief executive is an important element of how well the company does, there are many others. This is a particularly tough one to implement in practice, because many boards see the CEO as the main factor in company performance. But that outlook blinds board members to the contributions of other executives and to the importance of a well-functioning leadership team.

All these recommendations add up to the importance of being open-minded during a search and not letting the looming deadlines prevent the organization from taking the opportunity to reflect on what’s really important for future growth – good points for the rabbinic search committee and the entire TOS community to consider as we move into the next stages of the search process.

A Tale of Two Temples

Actually, this is a tale not of two temples but of one temple in two distinct phases of its life, and it has a bearing on the committee’s thinking about the rabbinic candidates we’re beginning to meet and interview.

If you think back to the 2007–2008 year, even before our previous rabbinic search, our congregation was transitioning from the retirement of Rabbi Emily Lipof, now our Rabbi Emerita, who had served for 18 years; the retirement of our executive director, Dottie Berman, who had served for 20 years; and the departure of Cantor Robbie Solomon, who had served for 14 years. Cantor Randall Schloss had recently been hired to be our new cantor, and Shari Churwin was settling in as our education director, after having served as curriculum director since 1995. Given all this, the search committee four years ago felt it was important to engage a rabbi who brought significant experience in a large, well-established congregation.

Today, we are in a much stronger position, and we appreciate the positive contributions made by Rabbi Franken over the past three years. We have a growing and vibrant congregation and an established clergy and administrative team in place. Cantor Schloss has been with us for nearly four years, bringing not only a great voice, but also his wisdom, talent and warmth to our community. He’s a versatile, experienced member of the clergy, and he’s deeply involved in – or takes a leadership role in – learning at all levels, directing the bar/bat mitzvah program, officiating at all life-cycle events, serving our community as pastor, caring for those in need, shaping the spiritual direction of our sacred community in collaboration with the Ritual and Religious Practices Committee, and being an active contributor to the Membership Committee, the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee. In addition, he has built up the music and worship program with energy and imagination.

Shari Churwin is doing a wonderful job as education director, presiding over a school that is growing once again and has been completely renovated to include the spectacular Trust Center for Early Education. The temple administration is in the very capable hands of David Brody, our executive director. In addition, participation in many kinds of temple activities by congregants has increased, new members have joined and the congregation’s finances are being overseen by a board that takes its fiscal responsibilities very seriously. And it doesn’t hurt that the worst of the global financial downturn seems to be behind us.

As the current Rabbinic Planning and Search Committee considers candidates for the position of rabbi that will be open on July 1, it is cognizant of the health and stability of the congregation and its leadership. We certainly are looking for candidates with excellent credentials and experience, as well as personal warmth and leadership qualities, but we now envision this candidate becoming part of a very well-functioning congregational leadership structure that already includes experienced professionals. That gives us significant flexibility: We can consider candidates with a wide range of backgrounds and experience – we don't have to limit ourselves to looking at seasoned rabbis in large established congregations.

Last week the committee conducted a few preliminary telephone interviews, and in the coming weeks we will be holding further discussions with some of the most promising candidates. They bring an array of impresive skills and ideas, so the interviews have all been fascinating. We’re looking forward to meeting some of the candidates in person.

How to Conduct a Rabbinic Search in Six Easy Steps

Members of the TOS Rabbinic Planning and Search Committee are often asked what a rabbinic search entails. Is it like a corporate candidate search? An academic search? Why does it take months and months? I’ll try to answer those questions, and in the process I’ll give an update on where the committee is in the search at this moment. Apologies up front for the length of this post!

My title for this post isn’t meant to be serious. None of the steps in conducting a rabbinic search are easy. While a rabbinic search is enjoyable on many levels – fascinating and eye-opening – every step involves a great deal of thought and preparation.

The committee’s first step, of course, was to establish priorities. Fortunately, extensive groundwork for this search was laid three years ago when the TOS lay leadership, drawing on broad congregational input, developed a Strategic Plan for the synagogue and a vision of what we want to be as a congregation. In addition, the prior rabbinic search committee sought the input of all members of the TOS community regarding the qualities they were looking for in a rabbi. This input was sought through a variety of means, including a survey, a dedicated search-committee email account, and several community meetings. The present-day search committee continues to draw on that rich source of information.

The community has made it clear that a well-rounded, full-time rabbi who has strong credentials and leadership capabilities – and who is an excellent fit for our congregation – is essential to the well-being of TOS. It’s the sense of the community that, if at all possible, we should engage such a rabbi to start July 1 of this year. The committee agreed that we won’t compromise on the quality of our selection based on time constraints. If we’re unable to find a superb candidate in that time frame, we will seek to find an excellent interim rabbi while the search for a longer-term rabbi continues.

We realize that the TOS community and its views are constantly changing, so I’d like to emphasize that committee members, who broadly represent the congregation, continue to be available to hear from and talk with people so that we can build on our understanding of the congregation’s views about the role of the rabbi and the types of candidates we should be considering. You can contact the search committee any time at searchcommittee@ohabei.org. The committee is actively seeking community input into the process and is planning to make information available to the congregation in a variety of formats. Our intention is to keep this important process as transparent as possible.

The second step of the process was to review our options. (If you’re interested in learning about the alphabet soup of organizations involved in the very complex rabbinic-placement process, you’ll find everything you ever wanted to know, and then some, at the end of this post.) Next was step three: We determined that the only realistic option for meeting our goal of engaging a fully qualified rabbi by July 1 was to work with the Academy for Jewish Religion and Hebrew College to identify candidates among their graduates. This is because the placement process for these two institutions is underway now, whereas the “peak season” for placement of candidates affiliated with Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion and the Central Conference of American Rabbis took place some time ago (most candidates who are affiliated with the latter two organizations and were seeking pulpits for July 1 have already been placed).

Step four: We contacted these organizations and received a number of promising résumés and other written materials from candidates. Step five was reviewing the candidates’ materials so that we could determine which candidates we wanted to interview by phone. Step six will come next week, when we conduct some of those preliminary screening interviews. We’ll keep you informed as the process continues, within the bounds of maintaining confidentiality.

So, yes, a rabbinic search is a bit like a corporate search, in that we are looking for a highly accomplished professional and a leader, and, yes, it’s a bit like an academic search, in that there are specified educational requirements as well as a calendar that must be adhered to. But at the same time, it’s unlike both, in that we are looking for something beyond leadership and credentials – a candidate who will be an excellent fit for our thriving TOS “family.”

More soon as the search proceeds…

Andy O’Connell

Rabbinic Planning and Search Committee member and Board member

Alphabet Soup

There are three main educational institutions whose graduates become rabbis for Reform congregations: The Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC–JIR), which has three U.S. campuses (New York, LA, Cincinnati) and one in Jerusalem; the nondenominational Academy for Jewish Religion (aka AJR – Rabbi Emerita Emily Lipof’s alma mater), in New York; and Hebrew College, located in Newton, Mass. After they leave school, rabbis tend to maintain their affiliations with the schools where they trained. Rabbis who attended the HUC–JIR generally become members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), a worldwide association that has established a number of rules governing searches involving its members. (The CCAR admits ordained rabbis who have not been trained at HUC–JIR, but the process is not as simple.)

The CCAR stipulates that once a synagogue engages with it to conduct a search for a CCAR member, the synagogue may not engage with candidates outside that organization. Furthermore, the normal CCAR process involves a search schedule under which synagogues begin searching soon after the High Holy Days to fill positions some nine months later. (So, for example, to search for a candidate to fill a position that will be open July 1, 2012, a synagogue begins its search with the CCAR after the High Holy Days in the fall of 2011.) To participate in a CCAR search, a synagogue must complete an application that includes information about its size and mission. A similar set of rules, with a shorter search schedule, applies to rabbis-in-training who are still in school at the HUC–JIR. Neither the Academy for Jewish Religion nor Hebrew College imposes such rules on synagogues considering their graduates.

Welcome to Our Blog!

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the blog of the Temple Ohabei Shalom Rabbinic Search and Planning Committee! Members of the committee will be using this forum over the coming months as one of several means for providing updates on the progress of the search as well as gathering feedback from congregants (we will also be running articles in Tidings and posting updates on the Temple’s website).

With the help of the president of our congregation, Michael Weintraub, we have formed a terrific committee of 16 people to fulfill the sacred duty of ensuring that Temple Ohabei Shalom makes a smooth transition to our new phase of rabbinic leadership. The committee is structured to be representative of the TOS community as a whole, yet small enough to be able to make decisions quickly, if necessary, and to schedule meetings around members’ busy schedules. To the many congregants who came forward and volunteered for the rabbinic search, you have our heartfelt thanks – we only wish the committee were able to accommodate everyone who wanted to participate.

The members of the committee are:

Len Davidson and Shellee Robbins, co-chairs

Mara Goldstein

Doug Gordon

Spencer Gould

Betsy Jacobs

Margie Kahn

Micah Katz-Zeiger

Andy O’Connell

Allison Rimm

Donna Rubenoff

Cantor Randall Schloss

Elena Singer

Shirley Spero

Laura Trust

Michael Weintraub, TOS President

We can all be reached via the search committee’s email box at searchcommittee@ohabei.org.

The committee started meeting last month to begin exploring options for maintaining the continuity of outstanding rabbinic leadership for our congregation and upholding the high standards that Temple Ohabei Shalom continues to stand for. In addition, the committee is charged with looking ahead to address the congregation’s long-term pastoral and administrative needs – thus the words “and Planning” in the committee’s title. As we move toward these dual goals in the coming months, the committee will solicit and welcome congregational input. Congregational meetings will be scheduled so that congregants can offer guidance to the committee and remain informed about the progress of the search and the planning process.

We will be updating this blog whenever we have meaningful news to report. Please feel free to leave a comment or to contact the committee as a whole or any of the members individually. Thank you for your good wishes and your support as we move together into a new era of growth and fulfillment for Temple Ohabei Shalom.

Best regards,

Len Davidson and Shellee Robbins