In the short space of two years, Rabbi Adam Stein got married, accepted a position here as assistant rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom, and will shortly be relocating to Australia.
When his position was eliminated at Beth Shalom, Rabbi Stein opened his portfolio and secured a new position at a synagogue in Melbourne. It’s home to about 40 percent of Australia’s Jews and has a Jewish population of more than 60,000. He’ll be the only rabbi and one of only two staff members at Kehilat Nitzan, a Masorti synagogue (the equivalent of Conservative here in the United States). The congregation was founded about 12 years ago and has approximately 250 families.
“I’ll be completing my contract at Beth Shalom this summer,” he told the Chronicle, “and Tamar and I will leave sometime after that.”
Tamar’s family is in Chicago; Rabbi Stein’s in Washington, D.C., and California. But with a flight of 16 hours at a cost of more than $3,000 and a cost of living that’s more like Los Angeles than Overland Park, Rabbi Stein doesn’t expect his job in Australia to be “a forever position.” He’s accepted a two-year contract and looks forward to “a great adventure.”
