By Rita Weinstein, Special to JTNews
From Temple B’nai Torah’s beginnings in 1968, conducting services with a small Torah rescued from the Holocaust, through rebuilding after a devastating arson fire in 1977, TBT has led a diverse Jewish community to a place of leadership in Western Washington.
Now, as the Reform congregation boasts the largest religious school in the Puget Sound area, it is enjoying the fruits of its success in raising up a new generation of Jewish educators. Rabbinic interns Rachael Robbins, Neal Schuster and Sarah Mack, and cantorial intern Marla Goldberg, all partook of Jewish education at TBT. Now Neal is in Los Angeles, serving as an intern, and Rachael, Sarah, and Marla are at TBT. Among their tasks are leading worship, developing the religious school curriculum, working on a new prayerbook, participating in rabbinic and premarital counseling and sitting on the Beth Din at lifecycle events. While it is unusual to have so many interns associated with a congregation at one time, it is a logical result, considering the active leadership provided by TBT’s rabbis and board in supporting internships.
Rachael Robbins, entering her second year in the rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College, found herself at TBT (while it was still on Mercer Island) after awakening to her Jewish identity as an adult. Rabbi James Mirel helped her to become involved in the community. After her adult Bat Mitzvah in Bellevue, she tutored B’nai Mitzvah students, taught religious school, joined various committees and realized that congregational life was where she wanted to be.
She found that she loved teaching, learning, worshipping and sharing sacred moments with other people, and so decided to become a rabbi. In her own words: “My connection to TBT, did it have an influence? Absolutely, it was my influence. TBT encouraged me to grow, to take risks and to challenge myself. TBT prides itself in being a welcoming community to all who enter her doors, and I believe that the way I was received played a big part in my path. I found that if I was willing to put in a little of my own time and effort into the temple, it gave back much more. I will always be indebted to TBT.”
Having spent her first year of study in Jerusalem, she now looks forward to her second year of study in Los Angeles. Her student pulpit will be in Bremerton, Wash., at Congregation Beth HaTikvah.
Sarah Mack, a fifth-year student in the rabbinic program of Hebrew Union College, intends to enter the congregational rabbinate after her ordination next year. She began on the Los Angeles campus and is completing her studies on the New York campus.
Sarah grew up in Seattle at TBT. “The leaders at B’nai Torah were very supportive (and still are) of individual skills and provided me with ample opportunities to learn and to teach as well. As a student at Temple B’nai Torah, I was very much encouraged to become a student teacher and later to teach my own classes when I reached high school.”
While studying for a degree in Near Eastern and Judaic studies at Brandeis University, she was captivated by the academic study of Judaism. Her involvement in leading the Brandeis Reform Chavurah while in school was a strong influence in her decision to enter the rabbinate. Since being in rabbinical school, Sarah has had student pulpits in Juneau, Alaska; Bainbridge Island; and Temple Sha’aray Tefila in New York City, as well as at TBT. Two years ago, a chance encounter with Cantor David Serkin-Poole in Jerusalem precipitated her return to work here as an intern.
Neal Schuster’s family joined Temple B’nai Torah when he was 12 years old. He and his family became deeply involved with the life and growth of the congregation. Neal and several other young members became the founders of TBT’s youth group, which proved to be a central part of his Jewish life in high school. That involvement “played a major role in the development of my sense of my Judaism, my sense of community and my sense my role within that community.”
At TBT, Neal’s religious-school experiences, particularly his 10th-grade confirmation class under Cantor David Serkin-Poole, became “the precursor to the intellectual exploration of Judaism which would eventually draw me into the rabbinate.” He then spent several years teaching in TBT’s religious school and was involved in youth programming as an adult leader.
“B’nai Torah played a significant part in my development toward becoming a rabbi, yet it was one part of a much larger whole. Perhaps, when all is said and done, it is not what B’nai Torah did, per se, that led me to the rabbinate. Rather, I think, it is what B’nai Torah gave me room to do for myself — it gave me an opportunity and a place to discover and explore and exercise and develop my personal approach to Judaism and my leadership role within the community.”
Neal is about to enter his fifth and final year of rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. Between his third and fourth years of rabbinical school he inserted a year of study at the Rhea Hirsch School of Education (at HUC-LA), earning a master’s degree in Jewish education. He is the director of the Berit Mila Program of Reform Judaism, which provides Jewish physicians with the religious training to become mohelim (mohels).
Marla Goldberg, TBT’s cantorial intern, has been connected to TBT since 1989, when she became the music teacher for the religious school. Her degree was in theater, and she’d taught music and choir at public schools in the Seattle area. Soon after becoming the TBT music teacher, she joined the temple choir, and then became a cantorial soloist, filling in when Cantor David Serkin-Poole was on vacation.
Cantor Serkin-Poole, Rabbi Mirel and Rabbi Michael Latz provided great support to Marla for many years as her love of Jewish music and desire to become a cantor grew. Marla is now in her second year of study to become a cantor at Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music. Like the others, she spent her first year in Jerusalem and will finish her studies at the New York campus. She’ll be invested as a cantor in 2006 and will then look for a full-time position. Along with her studies this year, she’ll be student cantor at Temple Beth Or in Washington Township, N.J. This summer she’s assisting Cantor Serkin-Poole in teaching Bar Mitzvah students, leading services and lending support to various projects.