Come Super Sunday, the rabbi will be in.
Yes, that means that rabbis will join the masses in dialing for dollars during the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation’s annual daylong phonathon on Sunday, Feb. 4.
But some rabbis will also be there in a new program called “Ask the Rabbi,” a concept borrowed from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.
The idea is for local rabbis to make themselves available to the volunteers at Super Sunday to answer whatever questions inquisitive Jewish minds may pose to them.
And so, in the lobby of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and the Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, rabbis will sit in booths in one-hour shifts.
“Volunteers can approach the rabbi and ask any question in the world,” said Ellen Kahn, one of the co-chairs of Super Sunday. Kahn is responsible for bringing “Ask the Rabbi” to the Bay Area.
The kinds of questions can be anything from how to deal with a non-Jewish in-law, to a personal problem, to the Torah portion of the week, said Kahn, “whatever you seek advice on. Often people don’t have time, or lack anonymity,” she said.
And Shira Lewin, director of the community campaign at the S.F.-based JCF, said that often rabbis’ congregational duties keep them extremely busy, and they don’t have the time to simply speak with congregants on a casual basis when these types of issues would likely come up.
While the participating rabbis are not yet confirmed, an attempt is being made to get a wide range of viewpoints.
“We are asking all denominations, male and female and maybe a Chabad rabbi,” she said. “We should have the full gamut of rabbinical culture in our community.”
According to Kahn, one Los Angeles rabbi who participated in “Ask the Rabbi” last year thought he’d be incredibly bored, and the opposite turned out to be true. He enjoyed fielding questions from the community.
“I think it’ll be fun and the rabbis will enjoy being there doing their thing,” Kahn said. “I hope the community will take advantage to ask questions.”
Rabbi Evan Goodman, spiritual leader of San Francisco’s Congregation Beth Israel-Judea, said he’ll be doing double-duty at Super Sunday, both on the phones and in the booth.
Noting that there are so many unaffiliated Jews in the Bay Area, Goodman said this offered an opportunity to reach out to them.
“I think it’s important for the rabbis to be out there, especially at a big, public event like this, to connect with people who might not be so familiar with synagogues and might feel rabbis are unapproachable,” he said.
Rabbi H. David Teitelbaum, executive director of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, called “Ask the Rabbi” a “splendid idea.”
“I happen to think Super Sunday is one of the most important days of the Jewish year,” Kahn concluded. “So having the rabbis participating in the spiritual renewal of the community is a wonderful thing.”