In 1980, when he was only a few years away from retirement age, Sholom Groesberg left behind his career as the dean of engineering at a college outside Philadelphia.
He was determined to become a rabbi.
At age 60.
No one could predict at the time that Groesberg would spend the next 27 years as the transformative leader of several startup synagogues in Texas, the lead guitarist of a Bay Area klezmer band, and the founder and rabbi emeritus of Contra Costa County’s first and only Jewish Renewal congregation.
Now at age 87, the man who was born in Brighton Beach, N.Y., to immigrant parents still teems with energy. And though he claims to be retired, he has spent the last year writing and self-publishing his own account of the Jewish Renewal movement, “Jewish Renewal: A Journey.”
He hopes the book will help earn the Renewal movement a permanent spot in Jewish history.
“Who knows?” he says. “Renewal is a fledgling movement at this point in time and could become no more than a footnote in the annals of the Jewish experience. Let there be at least a minute record of its brave efforts.”
Jewish Renewal, which has its origins in the late 1960s and early 1970s, meshes traditional and kabbalistic practices into a progressive, intellectual and egalitarian framework, with a lot of spirituality and music thrown in. It is those creative aspects that initially attracted Groesberg to the movement.
“It clicked for me. These are people who are imaginative, welcoming, and have a perspective on revitalizing Judaism that really appealed to me,” he says.
He also notes that people attracted to the Renewal movement are “people [who] are fiercely independent … they’re tenacious, opinionated.”
He adds with a chuckle: “Maybe I’m the same way.”
One only needs to step into his eccentric and vibrant townhouse, in the Walnut Creek senior living community of Rossmoor, to confirm these suspicions. Painted swatches of cherry-popsicle red and pine green liven the walls, and Groesberg’s own art pieces — made from items such as wicker laundry baskets and old photo frames — hang at all angles from his living room.
It is also clear the home belongs to a musician: His guitar, ready to be strummed, is perched against his favorite chair in the living room (just in case his congregants or fellow Shabbatones bandmates pop in).
Groesberg has always kept an open door to his congregants ever since
he established Congregation Shir Neshemah in 1997 to serve Walnut Creek and the surrounding areas. Once a single entity, the congregation grew and has broken off into five, separate chavurahs, but they all remain close-knit and come together for High Holy Day services.
None of the chavurahs has its own building, which Groesberg likes: Gathering in the intimate setting of families’ living rooms make services warm and personalized, he says.
It is this community that served as Groesberg’s primary inspiration for writing “Jewish Ren-ewal: A Journey.”
Writing the book, he says, was “an outgrowth of my experience in leading the chavurot. Having to repeat teachings [five times] caused me to sharpen my thinking.”
As it happens, this is Groesberg’s second book; in 1968, during his career as an engineer — which culminated as dean of engineering at Widener University in Chester, Pa. — he wrote “Advanced Mechanics.”
He hopes his new book will “serve as a guidebook” for readers who are “curious about a new, radical and exciting Jewish religious movement.”
Despite his concerns over the future of the movement, Groesberg also has a lot of optimism for Renewal’s continuity.
“I think there is a future for Jewish Renewal, not as a mainstream denomination, because it is a little too radical … but there’s a special niche for [us],” he says.
“We’re the ‘R&D depart- ment’ … of Judaism,” he says. “We are the guys that don’t have to wear the ties — we can do anything we want, so long as we keep generating new ideas. That is what Jewish Renewal can be.
“Despite having miniscule numbers, we have had a great influence.”
“Jewish Renewal: A Journey” by Rabbi Sholom Groesberg (234 pages, iUniverse, $18.95). Also available from Rabbi Groesberg, (925) 946-1812 or [email protected].