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The end of the search and the beginning of a shared future
May 2007
By Barbara Haworth, President, 2005-07
On April 12 nearly 350 members of the congregation came together to meet Rabbi Michael Berk. After some opening comments, Rabbi Berk responded to a wide range of questions and then 93 percent of congregants present voted to elect him senior rabbi. As we prepare to welcome Rabbi Berk, I want to take a moment to look back on the Search process, to thank the members of the Transition and Search Committees for their countless hours of work and selfless dedication and to thank the hundreds of congregants who participated in the efforts.
Even before the Search Committee set to work, a Transition Committee with several task forces set out to fulfill certain needs. The Communication Task Force enhanced our already award-winning Web site with an entire section on the Search so that congregants could remain informed throughout the process. They also communicated Search progress to congregants through mailings and Tidings. Interestingly, other congregations in the country who were searching for a rabbi used our communications as their model. One congregation even asked if they could just copy our Web site. Another task force, called "Other Clergy Models," examined clergy structures at numerous successful synagogues. Several key common denominators were found in these successful clergy models: teamwork, communication, connectivity, collaboration and Board-Clergy-Staff synergy.
Informed by the task force information as well as the feedback from all of you that we had obtained though our long range planning work, we formed a search committee, which began its work early in September. The 12 members who served ranged in age from 29 to 80 and were involved in every aspect of congregational life, from the preschool to the adult choir. Their professional endeavors ran from college student to physicians, business owners, professional recruiters, psychologists, human resource specialists and Jewish communal workers. By design, other than one of the co-chairs, no one on the search committee had ever served on a previous Senior Rabbi Search Committee at CBI.
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When this group began its work, most people did not know each other and the only thing they had in common was a love of Judaism and a love of this synagogue. This group of 12 met nearly every Sunday morning, and often at least one night a week, in addition to performing tasks on their own, for almost seven months. In total, we interacted with some 19 rabbis. To put this in perspective, there were only two other synagogues in America our size which were searching for a senior rabbi. We received double the number of resumes that they did. We were told that the rabbinic community did indeed take note of our process of introspection that began with our long-range plan and was furthered through our transition work.
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We included as many congregants as possible in the search process itself. The Search Advisory Committee evolved over time from the group of congregants who had expressed an interest in the Search process. Anyone who showed an interest in the process or who expressed opinions was encouraged to participate with our rabbinic candidates in worship services, sermons, D’vrei Torah, and Ask the Rabbi sessions. Some 100 congregants participated and their written evaluations formed much of the basis on which candidates were continued in, or eliminated from, the process.
So what were we looking for? Our long range planning efforts made it clear that our congregation needs a spiritual leader who can connect us to our Judaism, to our synagogue and to each other. When 419 of you – an astounding level of response for which we are grateful – filled out the Rabbinic Search survey, you made it clear that you were seeking someone with whom you could connect on a very personal level. Someone who would comfort you in bad times; celebrate with you in good ones; someone who would model respectful behavior toward others for you to emulate; someone who would help restore trust throughout the clergy, the staff and the membership; someone who would build a team of staff to support the efforts of the whole. So we set about to find a mensch in the truest sense of the word. First and foremost, we sought not only a great rabbi but a great match for our congregational needs.
We also decided that our staff would be an early and intimate part of the search and their input was sought before a candidate could proceed to the next level. We eliminated candidates all along the way whenever it appeared that there was some element that might impede their success in our temple, given the needs we prioritized. And we decided that we would not turn our search into "American Idol: Rabbi Version" by having accomplished rabbis take to our bima to be judged en-masse, without taking into consideration background information on skill set, temperament and past history.
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We were intrigued by Rabbi Michael Berk because of his menschlekeit as well as his skill set. It is no accident that he is not joining us directly from a pulpit. Although he was a most successful congregational rabbi who is still beloved by so many in his prior congregations, he also has what few others do from his experience as a regional director in the Union for Reform Judaism – a broad perspective on how successful clergy, staff, leadership and members collaborate and how great partnerships are shaped and built. When Candidate Rabbi Berk sent materials to be reviewed by the Search Committee, he included not only well-crafted sermons, but also volumes of material that he has devised on the successful work of synagogues even down to the evaluation form to be used to evaluate the senior rabbi. So we were looking at a rabbi who was described by nearly 30 references as a mensch with an amazing skill set to complement his proven pulpit skills.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the short version of the last nine and a half months of work and how Rabbi Michael Berk and hundreds of congregants came to meet in our sanctuary on April 12.
Although some congregants expressed a desire to be presented with several candidates from which to choose, the truth is there was not another candidate that the Search Comittee was prepared to recommend. We believe we have found the one individual that our congregation truly needs to heal and repair us from some turbulent years and to build a path to the future. It is the norm in any organization that a small group is charged with a task to fully explore and examine an issue and then to recommend their findings to the larger whole. Your Search Committee was truly burdened by the weight of this task. We went to extremes to consider the wishes of all congregants. We did our work with a level of openness and transparency that the rest of the country took notice of and tried to emulate.
And so, in accordance with our bylaws, the Search Committee recommended to the Board that Rabbi Michael Berk be presented to the congregation for consideration, the Board of Directors, in turn, recommended Rabbi Berk to the congregation and the congregation selected him as CBI’s senior rabbi. In the coming months we look forward to beginning our shared future with Senior Rabbi Michael Berk.
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