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A review by lpm100
The New Rabbi by Stephen Fried
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.0
The New Rabbi
Stephen Fried
4/5 stars
"Not quite timeless, not quite dated."
*******
I had thought that reading this book would give me an idea about the dynamics of selecting a rabbi. (It didn't. More on this later.)
The rabbi search at our synagogue went on for probably a year and some change.
The search for the congregation profiled in this book went on for every bit of 3 years.
And, if you know that shuls are very political places with the outward appearance of religious organizations, then none of this should be a surprise.
The amount of ego around these transitions is just breathtaking - - especially when you consider that observant Jews have been saying the same prayers and the exact same order for about 20 centuries now. (How many questions around the edges could there be for a service that can run on autopilot? And I have been to many synagogues where the rabbi is only in town sporadically and the service runs just fine without him.)
A sample of how out of control these situations can get (p.311): "....so a lot of prominent people were upset when the news spread that the Rabbi of Temple Emanuel, Leonid Feldman, had punched the President of the Synagogue in the face. [He knocked the president to the floor in his own $9 million mansion.]
Also (p.314): "Armed guards are called to one board meeting to separate angry synagogue members."
In many respects, the details in this book are just so much verbal spinach.
Spillover thoughts and things learned:
1. This book talks about search by committee, and while it is true of the non-Orthodox world (which is probably > 85% of American Judaism), it is not true for most of Orthodoxy (in the Haredi world, most of these pulpits are EITHER hereditary OR self-built to later become hereditary, and Haredim are about 3/4 of Orthodoxy).
Rabbi-by-committee is true of Young Israel and congregations to its left.
But even the search process is not restrictive in the same way it was by Masorti Jews: Conservative synagogues are (or at least were at the time of this writing) required to select from an approved list of candidates vetted by the Rabbinical Assembly. There was no such stipulation for the Young Israel brand --with the exception of not being able to choose clergy from Yeshivat Chovivei Torah.
Is very interesting that Conservative has lost almost all of its people and Centrist and Open Orthodoxy have only modest growth, if any at all.
2. In some synagogues, if you get 9 people, the Aron Kodesh is open and the Torah itself can stand in as the 10th.
3. (p.80) The author is of the opinion that: when the American rabbinate was professionalized, they copied from the Xtians. (It's probably best to avoid using the words "pulpit" and "sermon" for that exact reason.)
4. (p.93). "In Judaism, belief in God is optional, something you may wrestle with for your entire life. But respect for and fascination with the Torah...... is not optional."
5. Strange Conservative extremes. The author counts 3,000 people there for Yom Kippur, but then a little bit later there are only 22 people in services for Sukkot.
6. How quickly things can change. This book was researched in 1999--nearly a quarter of a century ago. That is between the time that the Conservative movement was the largest branch of Judaism in the 1950s (and seemingly invincible), and the time today where they have lost over 2/3 of their membership.
At the time of this writing, Har Zion had 1,450 families, but just 20 years later they are down to 700. (We have one Conservative minyan here in town in a huge building that barely has a dozen people in it, and they are all extremely old. It's hard to foresee it lasting more than a couple of years; really, it's amazing that they have made it this far.)
7. Some of the strange psychology of people that work a job for decades and then retire is present here.
You know the case.....Where someone retires and is then is bored out of his skull and tries to find ways to insinuate himself into the position that he used to have? (p.311: "So I am truly shocked just like everyone else who knows him [Wolpe], when he announces that he is coming out of retirement. He has agreed to spend one year as interim Rabbi at Temple Emanuel.")
This case is just incidentally about a rabbi.
8. In Orthodoxy, it seems like synagogues are money losing affairs. But the Reform synagogues seem to be a very different thing. I'm reading here that even back in 1999, the salary for David Wolpe was $300,000. And that they were 10 other Reform rabbis that were around the $300,000 mark. (And I don't think we've even gotten into fringe benefits.)
9. Who knew? The first is that there is a Persian New Year. NoRuz. And the second is that Persian Jews celebrate it.
*******
Interesting factoids:
1. 230,000 churches in the United States; 4000 synagogues (of the time of this writing, 2002).
2. There is, apparently, such a thing as rabbinic royalty even in Conservative/Reform Judaism: David Wolpe is the son of the man whose replacement this book is about.
3. Conservative seminaries are graduating on the order of 15 people this year--2023. 12 rabbis and three cantors, and that demand outstrips supply. (Not sure what this could mean.) One article 2014 mentioned that the numbers were:
Yeshiva University: 75
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform): 35
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies (Conservative): 17
Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative): 14
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: 6
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Orthodox): 2
4. Ziegler School has slashed tuition by 80% in order to attract people.
Quotable quotes:
1. It's amazing that they [the committee] all agreed to put their chairs in a circle, with so many other geometric shapes available for debate.
2. Fryman gives the impression that if a discussion can't be resolved in one quarter of a billable hour, then it is not worth having.
3. "We basically get two chances to get you back. It's either the death of a parent, or kids' reaching preschool or Hebrew age. That's it."
4. "And that, in a nutshell, is the joy and sorrow of being a great sermonizer. Yours is the voice that many people associated with the most important moments in their lives, yet they don't always really remember what you said."
5. "They want the rabbi that has been preaching for the last 30 years but is only 28 years old."
6. "It is my dream to one day take the greatest gospel songs and edit the bejesus out of them, so that they're only about God and can be enjoyed by people of all faiths."
New Vocabulary:
gragger
Verdict: worth the read at the price of $0. It works well as a palate cleanser from heavier books.
Stephen Fried
4/5 stars
"Not quite timeless, not quite dated."
*******
I had thought that reading this book would give me an idea about the dynamics of selecting a rabbi. (It didn't. More on this later.)
The rabbi search at our synagogue went on for probably a year and some change.
The search for the congregation profiled in this book went on for every bit of 3 years.
And, if you know that shuls are very political places with the outward appearance of religious organizations, then none of this should be a surprise.
The amount of ego around these transitions is just breathtaking - - especially when you consider that observant Jews have been saying the same prayers and the exact same order for about 20 centuries now. (How many questions around the edges could there be for a service that can run on autopilot? And I have been to many synagogues where the rabbi is only in town sporadically and the service runs just fine without him.)
A sample of how out of control these situations can get (p.311): "....so a lot of prominent people were upset when the news spread that the Rabbi of Temple Emanuel, Leonid Feldman, had punched the President of the Synagogue in the face. [He knocked the president to the floor in his own $9 million mansion.]
Also (p.314): "Armed guards are called to one board meeting to separate angry synagogue members."
In many respects, the details in this book are just so much verbal spinach.
Spillover thoughts and things learned:
1. This book talks about search by committee, and while it is true of the non-Orthodox world (which is probably > 85% of American Judaism), it is not true for most of Orthodoxy (in the Haredi world, most of these pulpits are EITHER hereditary OR self-built to later become hereditary, and Haredim are about 3/4 of Orthodoxy).
Rabbi-by-committee is true of Young Israel and congregations to its left.
But even the search process is not restrictive in the same way it was by Masorti Jews: Conservative synagogues are (or at least were at the time of this writing) required to select from an approved list of candidates vetted by the Rabbinical Assembly. There was no such stipulation for the Young Israel brand --with the exception of not being able to choose clergy from Yeshivat Chovivei Torah.
Is very interesting that Conservative has lost almost all of its people and Centrist and Open Orthodoxy have only modest growth, if any at all.
2. In some synagogues, if you get 9 people, the Aron Kodesh is open and the Torah itself can stand in as the 10th.
3. (p.80) The author is of the opinion that: when the American rabbinate was professionalized, they copied from the Xtians. (It's probably best to avoid using the words "pulpit" and "sermon" for that exact reason.)
4. (p.93). "In Judaism, belief in God is optional, something you may wrestle with for your entire life. But respect for and fascination with the Torah...... is not optional."
5. Strange Conservative extremes. The author counts 3,000 people there for Yom Kippur, but then a little bit later there are only 22 people in services for Sukkot.
6. How quickly things can change. This book was researched in 1999--nearly a quarter of a century ago. That is between the time that the Conservative movement was the largest branch of Judaism in the 1950s (and seemingly invincible), and the time today where they have lost over 2/3 of their membership.
At the time of this writing, Har Zion had 1,450 families, but just 20 years later they are down to 700. (We have one Conservative minyan here in town in a huge building that barely has a dozen people in it, and they are all extremely old. It's hard to foresee it lasting more than a couple of years; really, it's amazing that they have made it this far.)
7. Some of the strange psychology of people that work a job for decades and then retire is present here.
You know the case.....Where someone retires and is then is bored out of his skull and tries to find ways to insinuate himself into the position that he used to have? (p.311: "So I am truly shocked just like everyone else who knows him [Wolpe], when he announces that he is coming out of retirement. He has agreed to spend one year as interim Rabbi at Temple Emanuel.")
This case is just incidentally about a rabbi.
8. In Orthodoxy, it seems like synagogues are money losing affairs. But the Reform synagogues seem to be a very different thing. I'm reading here that even back in 1999, the salary for David Wolpe was $300,000. And that they were 10 other Reform rabbis that were around the $300,000 mark. (And I don't think we've even gotten into fringe benefits.)
9. Who knew? The first is that there is a Persian New Year. NoRuz. And the second is that Persian Jews celebrate it.
*******
Interesting factoids:
1. 230,000 churches in the United States; 4000 synagogues (of the time of this writing, 2002).
2. There is, apparently, such a thing as rabbinic royalty even in Conservative/Reform Judaism: David Wolpe is the son of the man whose replacement this book is about.
3. Conservative seminaries are graduating on the order of 15 people this year--2023. 12 rabbis and three cantors, and that demand outstrips supply. (Not sure what this could mean.) One article 2014 mentioned that the numbers were:
Yeshiva University: 75
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Reform): 35
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies (Conservative): 17
Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative): 14
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College: 6
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (Orthodox): 2
4. Ziegler School has slashed tuition by 80% in order to attract people.
Quotable quotes:
1. It's amazing that they [the committee] all agreed to put their chairs in a circle, with so many other geometric shapes available for debate.
2. Fryman gives the impression that if a discussion can't be resolved in one quarter of a billable hour, then it is not worth having.
3. "We basically get two chances to get you back. It's either the death of a parent, or kids' reaching preschool or Hebrew age. That's it."
4. "And that, in a nutshell, is the joy and sorrow of being a great sermonizer. Yours is the voice that many people associated with the most important moments in their lives, yet they don't always really remember what you said."
5. "They want the rabbi that has been preaching for the last 30 years but is only 28 years old."
6. "It is my dream to one day take the greatest gospel songs and edit the bejesus out of them, so that they're only about God and can be enjoyed by people of all faiths."
New Vocabulary:
gragger
Verdict: worth the read at the price of $0. It works well as a palate cleanser from heavier books.