Following the departure of Linda Cohen, the community-wide “Judaism for Conversion Candidates” program will have a new course coordinator. Aaron Nielsenshultz, 39, has been hired to take that position.
Nielsenshultz said he was a bit surprised when offered the job, but very happy as well.
“I went through the interview process and I know that there are so many educated people in the community who could very easily do the job,” he said. “This is just a knowledgeable community. I applied for the job because it is my passion but at the same time I thought undoubtedly someone will get it who is going to deserve the job and luckily enough it was me.”
Judaism and the conversion class are both passions of Nielsenshultz because he himself is a convert to Judaism. He took the class in 2007-08.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to about (the class) just loves it, adores it, and I’m very excited about continuing that energy that Linda was able to create and foster and that Annette Fish (administrator/program director of the Rabbinical Association) also creates and fosters. I’m a little daunted by the people I’m following in the footsteps of, but I’m really excited about the chance to do it. It’s a great program.”
According to Rabbi Mark Levin, rabbinic coordinator of the community conversion class, Nielsenshultz is the man for the job.
“He’s a quite extraordinary man,” Rabbi Levin said. “I’ve developed a great many conversions in my career and he’s really second to none. There are other people who have worked as hard academically, but I suspect he’s learned more about Judaism … than anybody certainly that I’ve ever seen. His Hebrew is good, he speaks a little bit, translates, reads Torah and has a very good background in Judaica now.”
As curriculum coordinator at Wright Career College, Nielsenshultz also has a strong curriculum background, which is a good asset to have as the conversion class coordinator.
“Linda Cohen did an extraordinary job organizing it; it takes quite a bit of detail work. I think he’s going to continue to move it ahead,” Rabbi Levin said.
Nielsenshultz’s love of Judaism is limitless. Three years ago, Rabbi Levin sent him to the URJ’s Had’rachah program (lay leadership training) in which he spent two years of study. He says he learned a great deal about helping out in the community.
“It was all under (Rabbi Levin’s) auspices and he’s been such a tremendous mentor along the way,” Nielsenshultz said. “It’s been a tremendous ability and opportunity to grow. When I think of the Jewish community in Kansas City, … it’s all about inclusiveness and there’s opportunity to be a part of it and to take part in it and I love it. The idea of serving this community in this way as community conversion coordinator, I’m just thrilled about it.”
Nielsenshultz has been leading services and reading Torah at Beth Torah, where he is a member, for about three-and-a-half years, and is now in his second year as the para-rabbinic at Temple Adath Joseph in St. Joseph, Mo., where he goes twice a month. He works with the congregation there leading services, teaching adult education and tutoring some of the adults in Hebrew. He also visits the sick and teaches in the religious school at Beth Torah.
“Judaism is my passion and my love; I can’t get enough, this desire for me to know more and more all the time,” Nielsenshultz said. “My background has been in higher education for the last almost 20 years so the next logical step in my mind is to go a little bit further and say OK, now I’ve collected all this information, I’m learning all this stuff, how do I share it with other people.”
Rabbi Levin says because Nielsenshultz has been through the conversion process himself, he’ll be able to help people understand, and will understand the students and help motivate them.
“He just has a lot of very positive qualities that seem to be appropriate to the position, as well as his personal history and experience,” Rabbi Levin said. “We’re looking forward to a very good year. It’s been a quite successful program and a program that brings together the perspectives of all the rabbis and all the congregations in the city. So from that perspective, it’s quite a unique program and a real benefit to the entire Jewish community.”
Nielsenshultz believes it says a great deal about the class that a Jew by choice will be coordinating it.
“It speaks to the depth of experiences in the Jewish community, that Kansas City is such a vibrantly dynamic community. There are people who have been in Kansas City longer than the buildings have been, so we have Jewish families who go way back who are still involved in the community,” he said. “And then we have newcomers in any number of ways: people who are new to the city, new to Judaism….”
Nielsenshultz said he ascribes to a belief of author Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman. Rabbi Hoffman says American Jewish life has always been influenced by immigrants and it is his perspective that as we come into the 21st century, the newest wave of immigrants shaping Jewish life are people who are immigrating to Judaism.
“There are all kinds of challenges that come with that, but there are also wonderful opportunities that come along with it too,” Nielsenshultz said. “I think this is a great opportunity. For people who are more ready in their lives to make this step, this class is the right place to go.”
Nielsenshultz and his wife Yara have two children: Liam, 13, who just became a Bar Mitzvah, and Aisling, 10.