Overview

Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue Rabbi Position

About Us:

Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue is a small, intimate congregation in the richly diverse, vibrant and socially conscious neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. We have been in existence for 15 years.  We are an inclusive, intergenerational community, welcoming to all. We are guided by a uniquely creative tension between traditional Jewish practice and progressive social and political values. Our core community consists of 110 member households but many more walk through our doors on a regular basis.

Nehar Shalom is a community of people who care about the world, feel deeply, and care about justice through the lens of Jewish learning and Community. Our community includes many interfaith families, folk at different parts of their Jewish Journey, Jews of Color and a large LGBTQ population. Our community is diverse, and we need a rabbi who can meet each person where they are. We are looking for a rabbi to help hold, guide and teach people of all ages and walks of life. We are looking for a rabbi who can provide pastoral care and support to our diversity of ages, life experiences, and Jewish paths.

We are traditional and progressive. We are looking for a rabbi who can express our progressive values (racial, economic, and environmental justice; commitment to queer/LGBT community; immigration rights; etc.) with deep knowledge of tradition. We ground our values in our Jewish history as seekers of justice, and are looking for a rabbi who will use Jewish tradition and experience to inspire us to action.

As a community that has long relied on our founding rabbi for ritual and spiritual leadership and teaching, we are looking for a rabbi who can help us inspire, empower, and train lay leaders as we move forward as a community through this time of transition. We have a knowledgeable and invested lay community. We are looking for  a leader who can help us build our volunteering infrastructure, who can inspire us to share our skills and pitch in together.

Job Responsibilities:

This is a half-time position, which we expect will involve an average of 80 hours per month. Responsibilities will include 2-3 shabbatot per month and relevant holidays. The rabbi will be available for pastoral counseling throughout the week, as well as life cycle events throughout the year. The rabbi will help spark and organize lay leadership and teaching in a variety of areas, including ritual and jewish learning as well as social justice work. The rabbi will provide support and help with the oversight of adult education and our family learning programs. The rabbi will also facilitate representation of our shul to the Greater Boston Jewish Community and the Jamaica Plain Interfaith Community. We are committed to a schedule that is truly part time. During this period of transition the Board of Directors is also focused on growing the funding for our shul, meaning the position could grow in scope and salary in coming years.

Our services follow a traditional liturgy. We read a triennial Torah reading cycle. While we expect to build our lay leadership, we are seeking  a rabbi who also has strong liturgical and torah skills. Our community includes a broad range of knowledge and skills, including non-Jewish members of Jewish families, people just starting their Jewish journeys, people who study Talmud on a regular basis, and several rabbis and rabbinical students. We are looking for a rabbi to hold and nurture all of the facets of our dynamic community.

Salary: $45,000-$50,000

1 year contract with 1 year option to renew

Please send resume and cover letter to: rabbinicsearch@neharshalom.org. Priority will be given to applications received by January 31st at 4:40pm EST (give or take 18 minutes).

Tagged as: egalitarian, rabbi, social justice, traditional and progressive

Work Remotely: no
Qualifications:

See Description Above.

Position Start Date: July 1, 2020
Send resumes and cover letter to:

rabbinicsearch@neharshalom.org

About Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue

 

Nehar Shalom is a place where mistakes are holy, and perfection eschewed in favor of participation and empowerment. It is safe at Nehar Shalom to take risks toward personal and spiritual fulfillment. All are encouraged to feel the nachas, the soul-pleasure, of reading Torah, of leading prayer, of sharing insights on Torah and life.

Our davening, our manner of prayer, is traditional in form, primarily in Hebrew, filled with spirit and song.

Seeking to reflect God’s Oneness and to see God’s image in each person, our defining values include a commitment to social justice, to inclusion, to equality of men and women, and to striving to transcend differences and recognize each other’s gifts. We welcome interfaith families and offer a safe place of worship and belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Jews.

Nehar Shalom draws on the warmth of the traditional shtibl, but strives to be more, more inclusive and more responsive to the world. Committed to social justice, Nehar Shalom is a place from which Jews can respond as Jews to the needs of the wider community and of the world in which we live. Building bridges with people of other faiths and communities, Nehar Shalom values learning about and from each other, while pursuing together tikkun olam, repair of the world.