Dear Fellow Congregants,

It has been a few weeks since the Annual Meeting, and I wanted to update you further on our Senior Rabbi transition process. In addition, we are seeking your assistance.

As I informed you at the time of Rabbi Rubinstein’s announcement, we have formed a Transition Committee, comprised of thirteen congregants, that is tasked with spearheading the selection of our next Senior Rabbi. We have also formed an Engagement & Communications Committee whose goal is to keep all of us informed and ensure that every congregant has the opportunity to have his or her voice heard. The members of these committees reflect the breadth and commitment of our congregation, bringing together congregants of different ages, professions, synagogue involvements, and community activities.

The work of the Transition Committee is well underway. To date, it has focused on developing a better understanding of what attributes we should be seeking in our next Senior Rabbi or, to frame the question differently, what sort of Senior Rabbi can best lead Central into the future. The Transition Committee, in conjunction with the Engagement & Communications Committee, is creating a survey so that every member of the congregation can express their views on this issue.

The survey will be an important vehicle for allowing our individual and collective thoughts to be heard during the process. You will receive the survey in the next week or two. I cannot stress enough how important it is for every congregant to respond to the survey during the month of June. Your prompt attention will enable us to undertake the necessary analysis so that the survey results can be incorporated into the process.

The actual search process itself has not yet commenced and likely will not begin before mid-summer. As a Reform congregation, Central will conduct its search under the auspices of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the rabbinic arm of our U.S. Reform movement. The CCAR has a prescribed process for running rabbinic searches and also provides expert resources to assist us in the search. That said, please know that this will be our process; while there will be certain procedural rules that need to be followed, the choice of our next Senior Rabbi will be entirely ours.

Once the Transition Committee begins the actual search, its work will obviously be confidential, and our ability to update the congregation will be more limited. The Transition Committee will keep the Board of Trustees apprised throughout the process and, at the conclusion of its work, the Transition Committee will deliver a recommendation to the Board of Trustees. In turn, the Board will present a candidate to the congregation at a special meeting for its approval.

As ever, if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to share them directly with me at [email protected].

We look forward to sharing the survey with you in the next couple of weeks and updating you again as the process progresses.

Many thanks,

David B. Edelson
President

Transition Committee

Seth Berger
David Edelson (ex officio)
Janet Felleman
Barbara Friedman
Michael Gould (chair)
Tory Kiam
Juliana May
David Moore
Abigail Pogrebin
Laura Rothschild
Phil Satow
Jaymere Stein
Jeff Tranen

Engagement & Communications Committee

Cori Berger
Jeremy Fielding (chair)
Nancy Gillman
Linda Gordon
Marni Gutkin
Jim Siegel
Joe Sofer