“Each informs the other,” says Kohn, 35, who has also traveled extensively in India. “The whole premise of aikido is nonconfrontation, and seeking to harmonize and blend with whomever you happen to be in contact. That really feeds into the very strong tradition of…pursuing peace in the Jewish tradition. I’ve found that the practice of aikido has increased my spiritual awareness in Judaism, and I think that my own Jewish practice enables me to practice aikido more spiritually.”
Kohn will join Rabbi Lavey Derby at the synagogue, which has more than doubled in size — from just over 200 member-units to more than 525 –since Derby took the pulpit in 1992.
“We felt that we could provide more Jewish growth opportunities to our members, with another rabbi on staff,” says Derby, noting that although he is the senior rabbi, duties will be split, with both rabbis involved in all aspects of congregational life.
Kohn’s particular field of expertise is Jewish education. After graduating from New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary in 1991, he taught at a Jewish high school in Philadelphia, then spent two years in the pulpit in southern New Jersey. For the past four years, Kohn has served as one of four full-time founding faculty members at the cutting-edge Solomon Schechter High School of Long Island, where he was instrumental in creating the school’s infrastructure and Jewish studies curriculum.
While working to build the new school, Kohn began to publish articles about Jewish education and has since written a book, “Practical Pedagogy for the Jewish Classroom,” to be published in early 1999. The book is a manual for teachers, administrators and parents, at all levels of Jewish education.
Kohn has also been writing for Jewish Community Online’s “Ask the Rabbi” service, where America Online subscribers with questions about Judaism and Jewish life can get their questions answered by a team of particularly wired rabbis.
Kohn’s educational background was a big draw for Kol Shofar.
“We see the mission of our congregation to challenge and stimulate people to grow Jewishly,” Derby says. “We felt that Rabbi Kohn was the kind of person who would be able to play a role in providing programs and structures and contexts where people could be stimulated to grow, and that he would have the knowledge to help them.”
The selection process involved a final tryout, with candidates teaching adults and children at Kol Shofar’s religious school. In fact, the children helped to make the final decision to hire Kohn.
“They all thought that [Kohn] was wonderful,” Derby says. “They said, `If we had a choice, this is the man we would want.’ They were very taken by him.”
Kohn calls Marc Klein, publisher of the Jewish Bulletin and Jewish Community Online, “the real shadchan.” He said Klein put Derby and Kohn on the phone together and they conversed for over an hour.
“It was one of those beshert [meant to be] kinds of meetings, where everything about it felt good.”
Kohn grew up in St. Louis, but he comes to the Bay Area from Forest Hills, N.Y., Derby’s hometown.
“I maintain that all the best rabbis come from Forest Hills,” says Derby, whose father was spiritual leader of the nearby Rego Park Jewish Center.
Kohn, who was smitten with Kol Shofar “sight unseen,” says he and his wife, Deborah Stachell, and their dog, would have moved to the community to join the congregation regardless of the professional opportunity. He looks forward to “learning how to be a mensch from Rabbi Lavey Derby” and to living near both the synagogue and Mill Valley’s aikido dojo.