Temple Etz Chaim CCAR Application for Rabbi

Interpersonal Skills: Our next rabbi must be approachable, but also reach out to congregants of all ages and backgrounds, including race, gender, ethnic background, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. It is important that the rabbi be open, considerate, accepting, and empathic. The rabbi should engage with others in relatable terms, and project their role, not just as the congregational leader, but also as a genuine part of the sacred community.

Pastoral Skills: Our next rabbi should be committed to building relationships as the center of our temple life, connecting members with each other in inclusive, creative, and meaningful ways. The rabbi should be able to deliver inspirational, thought-provoking sermons rooted in Torah and Jewish values with a strong Bimah presence. The rabbi should have a strength in addressing contemporary social and cultural issues and connecting these to our Jewish values.

Leadership Skills: Our next rabbi will engage in a proactive and collaborative process to explore changes to ensure the congregation’s future, deepening members’ commitments and encouraging new members to join us. The rabbi will provide ways for younger families to connect to the congregation beyond the religious education of their children. The rabbi will adapt to the changing ways congregants connect to Jewish life both individually and collectively through worship, learning, engagement, and Tikkun Olam.

Partnering in a Successful Transition: As a congregation we are committed to the successful transition from Rabbi Alpert to our next rabbi who will build on a history of strong collaborative rabbinic and lay leadership. We have already begun to make plans for honoring and thanking Rabbi Alpert for his distinguished 11-year service to our temple and its families. We plan to create a transition roadmap, in partnership with our next rabbi, to create opportunities for lay leaders, religious school staff, and congregants to meet our next rabbi in a variety of settings and roles, and, in turn, the rabbi can begin the process of understanding our culture and community. Our goal is to help the rabbi and members to feel comfortable and connected with each other.

Expanding and Building Relationships: Temple membership is a challenge for Temple Etz Chaim, as it is generally for most small congregations. Our congregation has a substantial number of members aged 55 and older, and they are a significant part of the temple’s lay leadership and among the most active members. Therefore, outreach to this group must be a priority for the next rabbi while the next generation of leadership must also be identified and nurtured. Attracting new members and retaining existing members whose children are finishing their religious education is a related priority. We hope the next rabbi will strengthen existing forms of engagement and create new ones to reinforce our members’ connections and encourage others to join our community. The focus groups also revealed that interaction among different demographic groups of the congregation can be improved through more intergenerational events.

Developing Collaborative Leadership: A collaborative approach to rabbinic leadership with lay leadership is essential to the health of the temple. The pulpit is the domain of the rabbi, but the lay leadership team (Board of Directors and committee chairs) works together to manage congregational, organizational, and financial matters. The rabbi must help us work together efficiently, communicate effectively, engage membership, inspire trust, and promote transparency. We expect our next rabbi will bring us new ideas and priorities and will work collaboratively with us to adopt and implement them.

Temple Etz Chaim is an inclusive community, welcoming to people of all backgrounds, including interfaith families, same-sex marriages, and mixed-race families. Our next rabbi will embrace this diversity and officiate at life cycle events involving all members of the temple community. There is also a strong interfaith community in Franklin, and the next rabbi is expected to become active in this community, working with interfaith friends on social justice issues and welcoming all those interested in connecting to Jewish life.

Connecting to Each Other and to Judaism: We wish to sustain and to improve upon the sense of community that is central to our congregation. Working with our next rabbi, we want to provide more opportunities for member engagement and the diverse ways our members practice, connect with, and celebrate their faith.

Sustaining and Expanding Membership: An important goal is not only to sustain, but also to grow our membership among all age demographics. COVID was challenging although members stayed connected through Zoom. A focus must be on both engaging new members as well as retaining existing members, particularly younger families, as their children complete their religious education. Our next rabbi and lay leaders must provide pastoral care, engaging worship services, educational and cultural programming, social action work, and religious school opportunities so that our congregation can be an essential part of our members’ lives.

Restoring/Building our Physical Home: In 1999, Temple Etz Chaim purchased the building at 900 Washington Street in Franklin, a beautiful property which had been a private residence, and which has been transformed into the congregation’s spiritual home. The congregation continues to use other community gathering spaces for large services and special events. Our home is showing its age and its physical limitations, and in 2020 the temple committed to a plan to fundraise and build a new facility. COVID and a dramatic increase in construction costs has at least temporarily put those plans on hold. In the next three years the congregation should commit to a new facility or renovating our existing facility. This should improve our worship, educational, and social programming as well as enhance our appeal to new members.

Declining Temple Membership and Finding New Ways for People to Engage: Like many congregations, we are experiencing a slow decline in the number of individuals and families who choose to affiliate formally with the temple and has been most notably observed in the number of younger families whose children are enrolled in the religious school. There are two related issues of attracting new members and also of retaining new and current members, most particularly when children have completed their religious education (B’Nei Mitzvah). At the same time there are unaffiliated Jews in the community who are potential members. While the temple successfully manages within its budget, the membership pressures have a financial impact. With the COVID pandemic the temple found new ways to help its members connect to worship services and to each other. Even as the stresses of the pandemic have waned, religious services and most meetings continue to be Zoomed and streamed as well as offered in person. Our experience with this has highlighted the importance of creating opportunities to engage members where they are comfortable. We need to create compelling touch points in which people can participate and interact in a variety of meaningful ways.

Cultivating New Leaders: We have been blessed with dedicated lay leaders. They are our institutional memory yet are open to new ideas. However, the next five years will challenge the temple to identify new individuals to step into leadership roles. Younger families often have dual-working households, and adults are often juggling work and family responsibilities, leaving little time for volunteer pursuits. With URJ’s Emerging Leaders Resource readily available, there is a need to develop new leaders who bring key perspectives, important talents, and new vision to our important work. A new rabbi may provide the impetus for members interested in leadership to step up.

Creating an Improved Physical Home: As noted above, several years ago the temple embarked on an effort to build a new facility. With funding planned through a combination of fundraising and proceeds from selling off some of the land on the temple’s property, the plan was halted with COVID and the dramatic escalation in construction costs. A significant amount of the fundraising among temple members was successfully accomplished, but the lots were never sold off (although the town of Franklin had approved the plan). Our next rabbi will work with us to chart a way forward, whether it is to continue on some version of the above plan or to undertake a major renovation of our existing facility. We recognize that a better facility is important in our coming together as a community.

Temple Etz Chaim is a Reform Jewish congregation which encourages a journey towards spiritual fulfillment through Jewish education of adults and children, diverse worship offerings, opportunities to repair the world, and creating engaging social activities. We are committed to all those who join us in community and to Tikkun Olam (the healing of the world), beginning at our home and reaching beyond to the global community. (Adapted from TEC Bylaws, Article II-Purpose of the Organization)

Our temple does not have a formal statement of core values, although our congregation lives by important Jewish values. We are open to creating one with the next rabbi. The values which we would want to emphasize include: Tradition (honoring our history, preserving our heritage and continuing to explore innovative approaches to connect our members to Jewish values), Education (providing meaningful Jewish lifelong learning experiences for our diverse membership), Worship (creating diverse, inspiring worship experiences to enrich our members’ lives), Tikkun Olam (offering opportunities for our moral obligation to repair the world), Community (offering meaningful ways for our members to connect with and support each other).

Inclusiveness and Welcoming: Our temple is home to people from a wide variety of backgrounds, including interfaith families, same-sex marriages, and mixed-race families and welcomes all that are interested in a connection to Jewish life. The congregation is also involved in the wider Franklin interfaith community and is involved in social action and progressive causes.

Hub of Congregants’ Lives: Our temple plays a central role in the lives of many of our members. In addition to being a place where members observe Shabbat and gather for holidays, the temple is a place to mark lifecycle events, for youth to learn about Judaism, and for many members to socialize. For example, the Sisterhood, Brotherhood, and Adult Education offer frequent and varied events that are well-supported. The temple’s calendar reflects active programming for the size of our congregation.

Collaborative Rabbinic and Lay Leadership: Our congregation has a strong history of collaborative, committed leadership with the rabbis who have served the temple. The rabbi, temple board, and other lay leaders have worked very well together in managing the congregational, organizational, and financial matters.

Attracting New Members in All Age Demographics: Our survey and focus groups identified this as the most significant challenge that the congregation faces. We also believe it is critical to retain members, particularly those whose children have completed their religious education. This would involve developing programs that provide stronger reasons for members and their children to remain affiliated with the temple and potentially reviewing our membership dues structure.

Moving Forward with Our Physical Facility: Our ability to program for our members and to offer a physical space for people to worship and gather is constrained by our current building. The congregation has developed a plan for a new facility which before COVID seemed within reach. The congregation needs to decide how to move forward with that plan, a variant of it, or to renovate our existing building.

Developing Leadership Succession: The temple has strong lay leadership that numbers over 20 people, but looking five to ten years out, there is a need to develop and educate the next generation of members who can step into leadership roles.