Once Rabbi Sarah Weissman gets to know Temple Beth Torah in Fremont a bit better, she plans to dive into her twin passions: adult education programming and pastoral care.
“I’m just learning how the community does things, their customs, what’s important to them,” she said. “I’m excited for the challenge. I get to stretch myself and spread my wings.”
Weissman took up her position as senior rabbi at the Reform congregation on July 1, replacing Rabbi Zoe McCoon, who left the congregation this summer after three years. Weissman led her first Shabbat service just days later.
“The congregation was really welcoming. It was lovely,” Weissman said.
Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Weissman graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 2003 with a degree in religion. In 2008, she was ordained a Reform rabbi by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and was snapped up by Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills. She served as assistant and then associate rabbi there for 16 years, where she oversaw the adult education program in addition to her pastoral and pulpit duties.
Beth Am is a congregation of nearly 1,500 members, with a large staff and multiple clergy members. At Beth Torah, a congregation of 130 members, Weissman will be the only clergy on staff, something she is very much looking forward to.
“This is more intimate,” she said. “There are wonderful things about having a big staff, but there’s something freeing about being solo. I’m looking forward to coming in with new perspectives, new eyes.”
Another plus: She didn’t have to move because she already lives nearby, in Redwood City, with her husband, Eric, a financial planner, and their 8-year-old son, Maverick. Fremont is just a short drive across the Dumbarton Bridge from their home.
“We were able to stay put, which made it very easy,” said Weissman, 43. “And we do love the Bay Area.”
Sharon Sacks, co-chair of Beth Torah’s rabbinic search committee, said Weissman is a great fit for the congregation.
“She has many years of experience, and she loves chanting Torah,” said Sacks, who noted that Beth Torah is a “very musical congregation.”
“She has extensive knowledge of Torah and Talmud, and a really clear sense of her Jewish self that she wants to share with the congregation,” added committee co-chair Phyllis Wood.
Sacks noted that Beth Torah is an “older congregation” and said that Weissman demonstrates the compassion needed for a synagogue with many aging members. That was important to the search committee, she said.
Founded in 1962, Beth Torah serves a wide range of Jews in the region, including a contingent of deaf families. The California School for the Deaf, a free public school for preschool through 12th grade that teaches in American Sign Language as well as English, is located in Fremont, and some of the Jewish families associated with the school come to Beth Torah for worship services.
An ASL interpreter is present at High Holiday services, which is when the largest number of deaf congregants attend, said Wood. And any deaf person, member or not, may request an interpreter at an ordinary Shabbat service or other event.
“We are extremely inclusive and want to provide for their needs,” she said.
Weissman knows some of the ASL alphabet and is intrigued by the opportunity to learn more, she said. One young congregant who is deaf will celebrate his bar mitzvah next year. “I look forward to working with him,” she said.