By David Chesanow, JTNews Correspondent
The reminiscences were sometimes tearful, often humorous and always heartfelt as members of Temple Beth Hatfiloh honored Rabbi Marna Sapsowitz, who has stepped down from her pulpit after serving this South Sound congregation for 13 years.
The June 30 gathering included singing, the showing of temple members’ photos of Sapsowitz at lifecycle events over the course of her tenure, and a continuous procession of congregants who ascended the bimah to express their gratitude and affection to the rabbi. In her name, the temple dedicated two new silver rimonim, or crowns, for one of its Torahs. The crowns, designed and crafted by temple members Tim and Ann Hartman, are adorned with amber and petrified wood.
Sapsowitz was the first full-time rabbi to serve Temple Beth Hatfiloh, which was founded in 1937 and whose congregation last year officially affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement. She was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1989.
On the rewards and challenges of leading the congregation of Temple Beth Hatfiloh, the rabbi said, “I think this is a wonderful community. It has been exhilarating; it’s been a very fulfilling, gratifying 13 years — I think perhaps especially because there hadn’t been a full-time resident rabbi here before, that there was just so much fertile ground to build on, to start things, and enthusiasm, receptiveness to a lot of new ideas.
“Its challenges are that it is a small Jewish community — that it has at times felt isolating. I think that affiliating with a national movement brings us into the embrace of a larger Jewish community.”
Sapsowitz’s future plans include travel, a lot of reading and some writing (she has a children’s book in the works). “The first step is some serious self-care: After 13 years of one day off a week — and that was a good week! — I’m pretty burnt out, and I think the universe owes me some time off. I want to get Shabbat back into my life as something I practice and not only preach.”
The rabbi, who spent a summer sabbatical in the Czech Republic and Poland two years ago, added that “An overarching goal for the year is to systematically pursue the leads and the contacts and the networking I’ve begun in order to figure out if it’s feasible to spend some time doing Jewish community-building — liberal, progressive Jewish community-building — in Eastern or Central Europe.”
In the months following the rabbi’s November announcement that she had decided not to renew her contract, Temple Hatfiloh has worked with the Elkins Park, Penn.–based Jewish Reconstructionist Federation to find her successor, but so far with no result.
“There’s a shortage of rabbis in general in American Judaism — at least in liberal Judaism,” explained ritual committee chairman Sam Schrager, who is also a member of the rabbinical search committee. “We are hopeful, though, that we will find a rabbi next year.”
The Olympia congregation feels neither panicked nor pressured; rather, they view the coming year as a stage of growth, an opportunity to move forward, Schrager observed. Their plan is to have four student rabbis come to the temple: One will conduct High Holiday services, and three will each lead a Shabbaton sometime between October and January.
“I think we decided when we realized that we weren’t going to have a rabbi from the Reconstructionist movement in the hiring season — which is in the spring, before they graduate rabbinical college — we took another look and decided that a year to strengthen lay leadership and increase involvement and have a variety of experiences with different rabbis could be very valuable for the community,” Schrager said, pointing out that the plan was influenced by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s policy of utilizing student rabbis under such circumstances. “One of the approaches that they offer is to have a number of student rabbis come to the community over the course of a year.”
Meanwhile, Beit Sefer principal Amy Loewenthal will assume the role of ritual leader, leading Shabbat services twice a month (on Friday evenings and sometimes Saturday mornings); teaching adult classes for those interested in assisting at Shabbat services; working with B’nai Mitzvah students; coordinating Torah readings for the High Holidays. Rabbi Zari Weiss, a member of the faculty of Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue, will offer pastoral counseling at Temple Beth Hatfiloh two days a month and telephone consultations for urgent pastoral matters. She will also lead conversion studies and B’nai Mitzvah enrichment, as well as officiate at lifecycle events.
“We really moved into it piecing it together,” Schrager noted. “Had we not had Amy Loewenthal, who had the interest in assuming the role of ritual leader and the depth of knowledge of Judaism to lead us in prayer and other religious ways, I don’t think we could have done it: I think we would have felt we needed to have an interim rabbi.”
Schrager went on to say that in February or March, when rabbinical students know if they will graduate in the spring, the search for a rabbi can be resume and that ideally one or more of the student rabbis who have led the congregation will apply.
Breuer credited Rabbi Sapsowitz with encouraging the congregation to get involved in all temple matters, including ritual. “She has gotten us to see that the rabbi isn’t the only leader — that we all have a responsibility in leading prayer, in reading from the Torah, and this is going to be another opportunity for us to step up and take charge.”