By Joel Magalnick, JTNews Correspondent
Early this summer, the School of Jewish Communal Service at the Hebrew Union College asked Kim Isaacs to nominate her choice for Alumni of the Year. She didn’t have to think twice about who deserved the award: Seattle’s own Rabbi Dan Bridge.
“He’s just been a mentor to me from the beginning of time since I got into this field,” says Isaacs. He “is a unique individual in a unique position to influence lots of young Jewish people.”
Isaacs was delighted to find out that Rabbi Dan — as students and young adults alike from the University of Washington’s Hillel Foundation for Jewish Campus Life call him — had won.
In the letter Isaacs sent to the nominating committee, she referred to his ability to exude a warmth to each student that walks through Hillel’s door, in addition to his ability to raise nearly the entire amount of money needed to build a new Hillel center in a tough economy.
Isaacs, 32, is employed at the Dept. of Social Work at the UW, but worked in the Baltimore Jewish community before returning to Seattle two years ago. She received her own Master’s degree in Jewish Communal Service from HUC, and said Bridge is one of the few rabbis who holds the degree. It would be wonderful if more rabbis had one, she said.
Rabbi Bridge earned his degree in 1981, and was ordained in 1985.
“What I find remarkable about him is he’ll pose questions to you that you wouldn’t necessarily think about in your decision-making process,” Isaacs said. “He’s just pointing things out that you probably haven’t given much thought to.”
The point she emphasized in her letter, however, was her experience as an undergraduate student at Seattle University, when her desire to find the Jewish connection from growing up in Tacoma led her to Hillel. Her interactions with Rabbi Bridge caused her to change career in the direction that eventually took her to HUC.
Rabbi Bridge also helped when Isaacs returned to Seattle.
“Coming back to Seattle was a little bit of a culture shock,” she said. “His guidance in September, ‘01 was: this is Seattle. You have to create your own Jewish community.”
She took those words to heart. Though she and her family became members of Congregation Beth Shalom, she also formed a havurah to create those new Jewish connections.
Many others in Seattle’s young Jewish community say Rabbi Bridge is the reason they are involved in Jewish life today.
Former UW student Anna Poleshuk calls herself “a Rabbi Dan fan.”
“He’s really responsible for my entire Jewish identity,” she said.
Poleshuk, who was born in Russia but moved to the United States as a small child, did not have much in the way of a Jewish upbringing. Her curiosity about Judaism — her grandfather had been a rabbi in Russia — drew her to Hillel right from the start.
“When I went to UW, I stumbled upon Dan at one of the tables he was running” at the Husky Union Building, she said.
They connected right away.
“He really tailors his approach to every single person based on how they identify with their own Judaism, so that he doesn’t lose a single person in the process,” Poleshuk said. She added that Bridge got her involved enough in Hillel that in her final year she became the undergraduate president. Since her graduation, she says she has kept a close eye on the organization, even from New York before her own return to Seattle.
“I see how far it’s gotten from even the point when I left, and it just makes me really proud, and I think he’s 100 percent responsible for that,” she said.
When Isaacs requested that Poleshuk say a few words about Rabbi Bridge for the nominating letter, Poleshuk said she wrote a response within five minutes.
“It was a no-brainer for me,” she said. “I hope that he realizes how much his hard work pays off.”
The Alumni of the Year award is an important recognition for graduates of HUC’s School of Jewish Communal Service.
“You’re nominated by your peers, and selected by your peers,” said Isaacs.
According to Lisa Kaplan, Director of Admissions at HUC and a staff member in the alumni association, Rabbi Bridge was the overwhelming choice for the award among all the nominations sent in. Kaplan sits on the five-person nominating committee that includes the director and associate director of the school.
“Kley kodesh — sacred vessels,” said Steven Windmueller, the director of the School of Jewish Communal Service at HUC. “I think that might be a nice way to describe the framing of Dan Bridge.”
In addition to winning the award, however, Kaplan said HUC also asked Rabbi Bridge to come to Los Angeles to spend a week or so as a scholar-in-residence. This request has not normally been extended to other Alumni of the Year, she added.
Isaacs said the addition of the scholar-in-residence opportunity just shows how much Rabbi Bridge affects people in the Northwest, and how he can spread that warmth to others entering the communal service profession.
“He’s really a true leader and a genuine person, and has had such an impact on so many people’s lives that he should be recognized for his work,” Isaacs said.