Dear Friends,

I have always been enchanted by the lovely words from Ecclesiastes:  “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens.” Yet the immense power of this imagery has never had quite the emotional impact as it does now in informing you that I have decided to step aside as your Senior Rabbi at the end of June 2014.

What will be a 23-year season of my rabbinate at Central Synagogue has been exquisite and poignant. Together we have fashioned a congregation that matters to us all as well as to the larger Jewish community. You have permitted me to imagine the previously unimaginable and allowed us to attain once unattainable goals.

I have loved every consequential part of our shared dance of Jewish life and consider all of you together a miraculous gift to the Jewish people.

But for me personally it is now an occasion for another chapter. Though I have no defined plan, I believe that there is more for me to do in service of the Jewish community and in supporting the inspiring possibilities of Jewish life.

Above all, I long for more uninterrupted time with Kerry and my children and grandchildren. They always understood and endorsed my passionate, consuming commitment to congregational responsibilities and the mission of Jewish survival. Now I yearn to share life more fully with them and be present as my grandchildren grow up as we all remain in good health.

I will happily become your Senior Rabbi Emeritus and remain part of our community. Kerry and I look forward to continuing relationships and sharing joyful moments with you in the years ahead.

We have built Central Synagogue to be a great institution and I am enthusiastically confident that our congregation will remain exceedingly strong, led by superb professional and deeply committed lay leadership.

So it is with both joy and nostalgic reflection that I inform you of this decision and convey it with abundant love for our synagogue and gratitude to all of you.

Warmly,

Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein

Read the president’s follow up message to congregation