In the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, the two largest Reform congregations in town —The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah and Congregation Beth Torah — will worship together for the first time at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, at B’nai Jehudah. The service will follow B’nai Jehudah’s ritual and, at the invitation of B’nai Jehudah’s Rabbi Arthur Nemitoff, Beth Torah’s Rabbi Mark Levin will give the sermon.
Rabbi Nemitoff always invites a guest speaker to share the pulpit on Shabbat Shuvah, the Shabbat that falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He said it is not an accident that the joint service is taking place on that Shabbat.
“This first-ever event speaks directly to the themes of our High Holidays: joining as one people with common hopes and dreams,” Rabbi Nemitoff said.
“It’s not about repentance, it’s just about a new beginning,” Rabbi Levin said.
As Rabbi Nemitoff explained, Beth Torah and B’nai Jehudah have a very interesting history. Rabbi Levin began his rabbinical career as assistant rabbi of B’nai Jehudah in 1976. In 1988 he left B’nai Jehudah and became the spiritual leader at Congregation Beth Torah, a congregation he helped start and where he has served ever since as its only pulpit rabbi.
Rabbi Nemitoff grew up at B’nai Jehudah and returned as its senior rabbi in 2003. He said it has been incredibly important to him since that time to find ways for the two congregations to collaborate and move beyond that history.
Rabbi Levin points out that the congregations, as well as the entire Jewish community, are very different than they were two decades ago.
“That’s 23 years ago. That’s a very, very long time ago,” Rabbi Levin said. “It is history, but the facts are very much the facts of the past. I don’t think there is any emotional context to those facts at all anymore.”
The two Reform rabbis have thought about doing things together for a while. They felt the perfect opportunity arose when Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman was tapped to speak at the communitywide Shavuot service this spring. Rabbi Hoffman, a big supporter of the power of collaboration, was asked to share his thoughts on that issue, and North American Jewry in general, to a joint session of both congregations’ boards of directors. It was the first time either board had gathered together.
Based on the comments the rabbis heard after that meeting, the joint board session was a success. The result has been the creation of smaller groups who have been meeting to find more ways to collaborate. Already the congregations have gotten their youth groups together for planning sessions and programs.
“We’re talking about what we can do for other things as well,” Rabbi Levin said.
Rabbi Nemitoff noted that the point of these collaborative talks is not to merge the congregations.
“My sister congregation is one-half mile away. We do the same things, we pray from the same prayer book, we belong to the same movement, and we have many of the same values, so why aren’t we doing things together?” Rabbi Nemitoff said.
Rabbi Nemitoff firmly believes this is the perfect time for the two congregations to begin their collaborative relationship in earnest.
“I asked Rabbi Levin if he would honor us by speaking and giving this important message. Then I asked the more difficult question — would you be willing to have your congregation come and pray with us. He was incredibly gracious and said absolutely on both counts. We are very, very excited about it.”