San Francisco’s historic Emanu-El refreshes its team of rabbis for a new era

San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El is nearly 175 years old, but it’s still making history.

In the past 18 months, three new rabbis have joined the clergy team, and longtime Emanu-El Rabbi Ryan Bauer has taken the position of senior rabbi.  

Bauer, who grew up in Portola Valley and attended nearby Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills, might have foretold his future some 20 years ago. Back then he was a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College with his sights set on working at Emanu-El.

He knew he wanted to have a “large impact” and felt he could do that at the “biggest synagogue with the most families.”

His work at the Reform synagogue began with a summer internship in 2005, followed by a full-time internship. Bauer was then ordained in 2007 and officially joined Emanu-El’s staff. He has dedicated his entire rabbinic career to Emanu-El and, since July, has led the congregation as senior rabbi following the retirement of Senior Rabbis Beth and Jonathan Singer. The synagogue, which now has 1,850 member households and is in the midst of a massive renovation, celebrated Bauer with a formal installation on Nov. 15.

Part of his work over the past year has been recruiting new clergy members; there are now five rabbis and two cantors, as well as a stable of scholars and emeritus clergy. One of the three recent hires joined Emanu-El in 2023, while two have been on board since July.

“It’s an amazing team,” Bauer, 47, told J. “Super menschy, amazing, really smart and all very focused on the ‘we,’ not the ‘I,’ in a profound way.”

Assistant Rabbi Noah Westreich, 32, has been at Emanu-El since July 2023 but still feels “brand new,” he said.

Before starting his rabbinical studies at HUC, Westreich was immersed in Talmud, specifically at Svara, a Chicago-based yeshiva focused on engaging with Jewish texts “through the lens of queer experiences.” 

Soon after joining Emanu-El, Westreich led a six-part series of Talmud classes in the “Svara style” as part of the congregation’s adult-education programming.  

“I see my mandate as offering more Talmud to more people,” he said. “Every class that I come to as a teacher … I’m always guided by the power of engagement, of intimacy with the tradition. … I want to do that again, and do that more.”

Rabbi Madeline Budman never expected to find her dream job in California. When the Virginia-born rabbi was ordained in June at HUC Cincinnati, that was as far west as she’d ever been. Budman, 28, applied to synagogues across the country but found the Emanu-El position of rabbi-educator to be a perfect fit. 

As an intern at Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati, Budman said her work with b’nai mitzvah students — or “people in formation,” as she described them — was profoundly meaningful.

“They are people at turning points in their lives, and they have all these questions, and they’re entering a new stage,” she said. “I love being with people as they’re asking those questions and figuring things out.”

Budman arrived at Emanu-El in July, at the same time the congregation welcomed Associate Rabbi Rena Singer.

Singer, 33, is the eldest daughter of Emanu-El’s former senior rabbis, but she said it was important for her to be considered for the position in her own right.

She did not tell her parents she was applying for the job and instead reached out directly to Bauer. At the initial stages of recruitment, the search committee reviewed applications without knowing the identity of the candidates. Singer’s name was shared only after the members agreed unanimously that she was the best candidate for the job.

After graduating from HUC in New York City and becoming ordained in 2020, Singer worked at Temple Sholom, one of Chicago’s oldest Reform synagogues. During her four years there, she was involved in the Shalem Initiative, the congregation’s racial and ethnic diversity working group.

At Emanu-El, Singer is building on her prior community work by leading the Tzedek Collective, a social justice action initiative known for its refugee resettlement assistance program.

“We want Emanu-El to continue to be perceived as a place where … people can plug into what it means to pursue repair of the city and of the world as Jewish people specifically” and “as a Jewish community saying we want to make the world a better place,” she said.