By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Congregation Kol Shalom, a growing Reform congregation on Bainbridge Island, has welcomed a new, part-time rabbi into its community to lead them in worship, education and spiritual growth.
In her new and second career as a rabbi, Cindy G. Enger combines her six years of experience as a lawyer in Chicago with her ordination from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati to lead Congregation Kol Shalom. She will simultaneously head the Jewish program at the Center For the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence, which is based in Seattle.
Enger, who relocated to Seattle from Cincinnati in July, is the first director of this new national program that focuses on educating and training both lay leadership and clergy to detect and identify the patterns and signs of domestic violence. The hope is that they will be better able to recognize the signs of domestic abuse within the congregations they lead and the multiple other settings in which they serve.
As a lawyer, Enger worked as an assistant public guardian, advocating on behalf of the most vulnerable victims of abuse and neglect — the children. She sees her new position as an extension of this work.
“I thought the work I did (as a lawyer) was important,” said Enger, “because it was great to know that my client was always right. As a rabbi and as a lawyer, I am using the law to effect social change and using my skills to give voice to both people and issues that are frequently not heard or under heard.”
In her rabbinic role on the pulpit, Enger will bring her core values of justice and her group leadership skills to bear on this thriving congregation that emphasizes education and the passing on of tradition.
“Kol Shalom is a group of people wanting to build a Jewish community on the larger Kitsap Peninsula,” said Enger. “They are so committed to learning and teaching their children Judaism that will stick. And they also want their children to develop a network of Jewish friends. I will be teaching a Torah study, adult B’nai Mitzvah and religion school groups. They have a hunger for broad learning, Jewish practice and enhanced congregational worship.”
Enger, who chose rabbinical school so she would “be able to work with people to create something,” will have the chance to create the Jewish Program at the national Center for the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Abuse. For her, it will be a chance to help Jewish communities around the country open up and learn about domestic abuse and also expand the role of the rabbi.
“I think the Jewish community has made great progress around the silence (of domestic violence) in the last 10 years,” said Enger. “I think some of these taboo areas are being acknowledged. I think minority cultures don’t want to air their dirty laundry. But I think we have other barriers that come to us from our texts, like the perfect Jewish family. I think we would be wise to see ourselves as more heterogeneous and diverse. The idea is to be inclusive. Isolation is part of the domestic violence pattern.”
According to Enger, the statistics show that domestic violence occurs in Jewish communities at the same rate that it occurs in the general society. But although the numbers are comparable, the numbers also show that Jewish victims in abusive relationships tend to stay in them longer. A rabbi or a communal leader who is trained in domestic abuse issues can be a critical and important part of the help a victim may need.
“Rabbis should feel responsible,” said Enger. “The role of the rabbi is changing. The world of rabbis only rendering verdicts about halachah (Jewish legal code) is past. Today, a rabbi is a teacher, a leader of worship, a writer, a community leader and the rabbi should also be one of those people that a woman can turn to. If a woman speaks about domestic violence to her rabbi, it’s the responsible thing to make the proper referrals — to call it and not turn away. Rabbis need training and awareness and must continually ask what justice calls them to do.”
Enger will be creating the program to serve Jews both in Jewish settings and in secular settings where health care providers or social workers may find they have Jewish clients in need of a support system.
In her role as a congregational rabbi at Kol Shalom, she will also be building community.
“Creating a program working with the Jewish communities and the secular is exciting,” said Enger. ” As a rabbi, I will be taking a look at what it would mean to build a Jewish future and to have to create a better world using our Jewish tradition to heal our individual lives and our communities.”