Asked during a job interview whether he was available to make hospital and home visits to congregants of a Vallejo synagogue, Daniel Kohn’s answer was “no.”
And the reason wasn’t simply the 40-minute commute from Kohn’s Mill Valley home to Congregation B’nai Israel.
Kohn, who became the part-time rabbi of the 105-family independent synagogue in August, believes in taking an egalitarian approach toward his rabbinical duties.
“I want to teach and encourage as many people as possible to function in the synagogue and home as educated, competent and confident Jews,” says the 39-year-old Kohn, who is the former associate rabbi at Tiburon’s Congregation Kol Shofar.
“When a community addresses their own needs, it seems to strengthen and create a more cohesive community.”
To that end, Kohn has offered to teach a volunteer team of congregants to serve as “para rabbis,” trained and ready to make those on-call visits.
The approach, says Kohn, is part of his overall philosophy of encouraging “rabbinic obsolescence.”
Kohn will lead three services and educational events monthly at his new synagogue. He also will be available for counseling and family simchas. He plans to involve congregants whenever possible in services.
That way, Kohn says, “it’s not the leaders, the gurus, leading the community. It’s the community leading the community.”
At B’nai Israel, Kohn is joining Cantor Bella Bogart-Gelven, who likewise believes “there’s nothing worse than looking at a congregation and having them act like an audience.”
Bogart-Gelven said she welcomes Kohn’s arrival, noting that until now, she served the collective roles of the synagogue’s unordained rabbi, its education director, cantor and, “I cleaned the kitchen yesterday because it was a mess.
“I was really strongly pushing for it,” she said of the addition of the part-time rabbi and colleague.
The bimah won’t be the only connection shared by the two. Kohn will serve as an academic mentor to Bogart-Gelven, who recently began an ordination program to become a rabbi, which she expects will involve about 25 hours of study weekly.
“It was great because when we met, we had hit it off almost immediately,” said Bogart-Gelven, who first met Kohn a couple of years ago at a Jewish weekend retreat.
This is a period of new beginnings for the rabbi. In addition to joining the Vallejo congregation, he also began working at Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Rafael as a sixth- and seventh-grade Judaic studies teacher. Many of his students are youngsters he knows from his previous job at Kol Shofar. Kohn left that position in June after four years.
He’s also a writer, awaiting the publication this month of a book called “Moral Perspectives in the Jewish Tradition: Sex, Drugs, and Violence.” It is based on a class he taught while on the faculty of Solomon Schechter High School of Long Island that explored Jewish perspectives on contemporary issues.
He also just completed another manuscript called “Kinesthetic Kabbalah,” which explores how the philosophy behind the Japanese martial art of aikido provides a model for increasing harmony and holiness in society. Kohn holds a second-degree black belt in that art of self-defense. He began studying aikido 13 years ago and these days, tries to train three times weekly.
“The movements themselves, in a way, incorporate the philosophy of nonviolence and peace,” he said.
Kohn said he employs those principles in his rabbinical style by attempting to see other points of view and looking for peaceful resolutions whenever disagreements arise.
“Many of the ideas of aikido are part of the Jewish tradition and Jewish mysticism,” he says. “It’s not just about peace, but holiness.”
Kohn also teaches adult education classes through Lehrhaus Judaica and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
On top of all that, Kohn has yet another focus that’s occupying substantial chunks of his day: He’s an at-home father to his 8-month-old daughter, Nava.
Acknowledging that he’s new to the art of juggling parenthood with professional responsibilities, Kohn feels he’s struck a good balance. “I feel like I’ve distilled the parts I like [best] about being a rabbi.”
Lionel Jacobs, the congregational president at B’nai Israel, said he was drawn immediately by Kohn’s energy. “It fits like a glove,” Jacobs said of the match. “We are what he needs and he is what we need.”