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OTS Newsletter - Spring 2008Instructing and Inspiring Educators and Rabbis to Serve the Jewish World Dedicated graduates of the Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Seminary’s Straus-Amiel Practical Rabbinics Program and the Adolph and Ethel Beren Educators Institute’s Beren-Amiel Program are infusing new energy into congregations, adult education programs, college campuses and Jewish schools on every continent.
“When your synagogue or your classroom is warm and welcoming and when the rabbi or teacher is passionate about what he does yet non-judgmental about what others do, people of all backgrounds are encouraged to join, participate, explore and discover,” says Rabbi Eliyahu Birnbaum, director of the Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Seminary’s Straus-Amiel Practical Rabbinics Program and the Adolph and Ethel Beren Educators Institute’s Beren-Amiel Program. “That is the underlying message shared by these two programs, which prepare dynamic rabbis and teachers, respectively, for leadership positions in Jewish communities around the world. Both programs stress the importance of emissary work, the concept of responsibility toward Am Yisrael, the significance of embracing and inspiring each and every Jew, and a commitment to Jewish continuity,” he explains. Indeed, the dedicated graduates of both Straus-Amiel and Beren-Amiel are infusing new energy into congregations, adult education programs, college campuses and Jewish schools on every continent, employing innovative approaches toward making Torah Judaism relevant and accessible to Jews of all backgrounds. “One of the distinctive elements of our programs is the ongoing relationship we maintain with all our alumni,” reveals Birnbaum. “We don’t send graduates into the field to fend for themselves; our staff accompanies them in their work, providing the practical, professional and emotional support they need to meet their daily challenges.” This ongoing support includes onsite visits by program faculty, telephone communication and emails, an interactive website, and regular regional conferences, the most recent of which took place in late February 2008.
Over 30 graduates of the Straus-Amiel and Beren-Amiel programs who occupy a wide range of positions in North American communities gathered for three days of learning, strategizing, networking and sharing experiences at the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts. Like the Amiel classes they attended before embarking upon their emissary work, the conference covered highly practical topics such as effective programming and teaching methods. Yet, its main focus was the core issue of representing an unshakeable commitment to Torah Judaism while working in a pluralistic Jewish society. “One of the greatest challenges faced by our spiritual and educational leaders in the Diaspora is the seeming dissonance between their observant, Torah-based lifestyle, and an all-embracing acceptance of Jews of all backgrounds,” explains OTS Chancellor Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, who explored this topic with the OTS rabbis and teachers in one of the conference sessions. His advice was extremely useful for the Straus-Amiel and Beren-Amiel graduates who work with broad populations in the Jewish schools and synagogues of North America. “The conference gave me invaluable assistance," confirms Rabbi Avraham Flax, whose Palo Alto, California constituency is comprised of a high percentage of Russian immigrants with no Jewish background at all. “It’s important for me as an Orthodox rabbi to get ongoing guidance and ideas on successfully reaching out to people who are far from their Jewish heritage. When I first came to this pulpit, there were people who would never have even considered having contact with an observant Jew. Now they want me to give classes every week.”
Reaching Outside Their “Spiritual Home” “During the course of our studies, Rabbi Riskin and Rabbi Birnbaum always emphasized that as community leaders, we have achrayut (responsibility) for all of Am Yisrael,” says Rabbi David Jaffe, ninth grade dean and Talmud teacher at the Gann Academy-New Jewish High School in Waltham, Massachusetts. “I believe I have a responsibility to the whole Jewish people, not just to the one sub-group that I consider my spiritual home.” For Rabbi Benjy Myers, 29, who works with both adults and youth in Dallas, Texas, this responsibility translates into an involvement in community-wide initiatives. “There are 118 member families in the shul and 300 students in the school. But there are 50,000 Jews of all denominations in the greater Dallas Jewish community,” says the British-born Myers, who moved to Israel in 2000. He expects to come in contact with that broad population as a teacher in a series on Grief and Mourning initiated by the JCC and Jewish Family Services.
Practical Advice In addition to receiving in-service training from the Straus-Amiel and Beren-Amiel staff, participants at the Boston conference shared innovative ideas for reaching out to different segments of the Jewish community. Rabbi Yoel Tahover, the 30-year-old assistant rabbi of Congregation Adas Israel in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, described how his weekly class in Tehillim has gained great popularity by enabling participants to discuss their emotional reactions to the psalms they study. Rabbi Tzvi Fisher, who directs the Light House, an informal meeting place for hundreds of Jewish college students in Montreal, detailed his methodology for running a successful tisch, with singing and storytelling.
"The three intensive days in Boston will certainly have a major impact on the Jewish communities served by our graduates,” summarizes conference-organizer Rabbi Yehoshua Grunstein, a former Straus-Amiel emissary who today is responsible for overseeing all Straus-Amiel and Beren-Amiel placements in the Diaspora. “Every single contact these graduates have with their constituencies – whether through a minyan or a lecture, the classroom or even a casual meeting on campus – must be meaningful. We want to increase their chances of making a significant influence on the Jewish future, helping them strategize ways of making every minute count, so they can best reveal Judaism’s richness and accessibility and encourage Jews of all ages and backgrounds to discover the deep relevance of their heritage.”
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