Overview
Duties may include but are not limited to the following:
Ritual/Events (held in-person): Be part of a rotation for Shabbat / Holiday services. A brief d’var torah / shiur is expected.
Pastoral Care:
1. Counsel and communicate with congregants
2. Conduct life cycle events
Adult Education: Teach 1-2 one-hour classes over the course of one day per week, including teaching basic Hebrew and exploring the siddur. Create and lead inspiring, thought-provoking, and educational classes.
The Jericho Jewish Center is an adult-centered, traditional conservative Jewish Congregation. Established in 1957, we have a strong sense of community and a commitment to davening together. We embrace adult learning, singing, and celebrating together. We breakfast together every morning after minyan, have a kiddush brunch on shabbat mornings, and periodic Friday night dinners after kabbalat shabbat/maariv services.
Our congregation of approximately 60+ households is made up of vibrant, educated adults of all ages. As a result of our demographic, a Rabbi has the opportunity to partner with us to explore a wide range of educational topics. Our congregation survives thanks to the depth of Jewish ritual knowledge of our lay leaders.
The Jericho Jewish Center has remained faithful to conservative tradition, while the mainstream conservative movement has moved ideologically towards the left. When questions of halacha are brought up, we generally follow orthodoxy. However, we are an outlier from both the current conservative movement which has gone egalitarian - we have not, and from modern orthodoxy - we include women in our minyan and have mixed seating.
• Those men who recognize a minyan as being 10 men allow themselves to be counted as part of the minyan when the women who attend make up part of the quorum. They continue to daven on their own as though there was no minyan.
• Women may get an aliyah, although many choose to forego the honor, while the gabbaim (who are always men) who object to women being called up, are informed in advance so they can recuse themselves.
• Women chant haftarot and megillot (except Megillat Esther), and read from the torah, but rarely do so.
• Women do not act as the shaliah tzibur.
The service itself closely follows an orthodox service. The weekday siddur that most use is either the Koren, or the Artscroll, whereas on shabbat most, but not all, use a conservative siddur. For the high holidays, we use the Silverman mahzor. We do a full repetition of the Amidah at shacharit and musaf (except on a Rosh Hodesh that falls on a weekday, when we do a heicha kedusha).
Our community has an engaged lay leadership that provides support to our clergy.
The ideal candidate would be welcoming and engaging, with a good voice and a desire to fully participate in our minyanim. We offer housing for shabbat observance.
To apply for this position please send a resume and introductory cover letter to the Rabbinic Search Committee at shgluck@verizon.net
About Jericho Jewish Center
We encourage you to learn more about our congregation by reading the following article from the Times of Israel:
https://blogstimesofisrael.com/for-the-sake-of-the-righteous/