When community members need to talk to someone they sometimes go to their rabbi. But when rabbis need to talk to someone, who can they turn to? Two local groups which provide support networks for rabbis — that’s who.
One such group is the East Bay Council of Rabbis. The council holds monthly lunch meetings where rabbis pray together, swap stories and advise one another.
“We enjoy great camaraderie,” says council President Rabbi Yair Silverman of the group’s 47 rabbis. Silverman is the rabbi at Berkeley’s Congregation Beth Israel. “We are primarily and exclusively a collegial networking group.”
The other group — the Board of Rabbis of Northern California — has a broader function: “to provide practical, spiritual, technical and emotional support,” says Rabbi Allen Bennett, the board’s interim executive director.
The board’s 120 members hail from San Luis Obispo to the Oregon border. Since after the Gold Rush, members have held study and networking meetings, separate from denominational meetings.
The board helps rabbis “through educational programming, individual counseling, employment assistance and networking,” says Bennett, who has served for 12 years at Reform Temple Israel in Alameda.
Close to half the board’s members work in nondenominational, noncongregational settings, such as Jewish Family and Children’s Services and the Bay Area Healing Center, run by Rabbi Eric Weiss.
As a nondenominational agency, the board serves rabbis across the spectrum of observance. Rabbis must be ordained from an accredited seminary, but they don’t have to be affiliated with a synagogue.
The board sponsors many events, including May’s Jerusalem Day celebration. An annual sermon seminar for rabbis will be hosted by Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame on Aug. 22, and led by University of Judaism ethicist Rabbi Elliot Dorff.
The board also endorses or certifies chaplains to serve in state or municipal prisons. This helps rabbis maintain accountability on where they go, who is visited and what services are provided.
If rabbis find themselves in unexpected difficulties in synagogue or their personal lives, they often call the board. The rabbis receive a sympathetic ear, direction and sometimes even a practical assistance loan.
Rabbis or community members who are new to the area often call the board to find services such as kosher catering on the Peninsula or information on wedding services.
Though the board doesn’t generally help rabbis find jobs, it does help them understand the process. But on occasion, the board can help.
Says Bennett, “Sometimes we can help when a synagogue calls saying ‘If you’re looking for an independent unaffiliated congregation just south of the boondocks, we’re the perfect place.'”
The board also assists Shalom Bayit, a domestic abuse shelter for women.
Bennett makes an important distinction between the board and the Jewish Community Relations Council, which serves a political purpose. At its quarterly meetings, the board sometimes holds panel discussions on topical issues, such as stem-cell research and the death penalty. But unlike the JCRC, it does not support legislation.
Rabbi Harry Manhoff, president of the board and rabbi at Temple Beth Shalom in San Leandro, aims to have rabbis study together more to grow personally and spiritually. He is planning a fall workshop for how rabbis can maintain a spiritual identity when working so hard on holidays. Manhoff aims to get the Marin and Peninsula regions to meet regularly like the East Bay Council of Rabbis does.
The board and the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, which share a building, recently announced a new combined staff position, which will serve both the federation community rabbi and the Board of Rabbis’ executive director.
“Whatever needs rabbis have that we might be able to help, we want to help them,” Bennett says.