Thank you, Michael, for your kind introduction and for serving as my mentor and guide throughout this last year, helping, along with Rabbi Maderer, to prepare me for this role. I believe I now have a more complete understanding of my role, and, from what I’ve seen, if I can be as devoted and diligent in my service to this sacred congregation as you have been, Michael, I will feel my leadership is successful.

I first came to Rodeph Shalom High Holy Day services in 1971 as a Penn freshman forty-nine years ago. Sophie Gordon, Rabbi Wice’s sister, was a member of my home congregation in Louisville, Kentucky, where five generations of my family, including my great-great grandfather Henry, had sat in the family pew. Sophie Gordon suggested that I go to Rodeph Shalom, as she said it was very similar to our temple—she was so right—the service, the music, and the old sanctuary at RS immediately felt like home.

My family was always active in the Temple in Louisville. Prayer, education, volunteerism and tzedakah were modeled for me by grandparents and parents, from whom I learned that being Jewish was not just something you were, it was something you strived to live each day of your life.

About twenty years ago, after the death of a close friend, one of those transitional nodal moments, I took my annual accounting of myself during the High Holy Days, saw that there was something that had been missing from my life, and decided to return to my true self, as the rabbis say. I began to come to services regularly and then after a while, started to attend Torah Study. Prayer and study, each in connection with others, entered my life again.

I was asked to be on the board during Fred Strober’s tenure as president, then asked to be assistant treasurer, then treasurer, VP, then president-elect. I have been a member of the finance, audit, and investment committees, and have had the privilege to serve on the senior rabbi search and lead the executive director search, visioning group, and recent cantor search. And now, Hineini, here I am ready to serve RS as president.

I can say that my natural trepidation about taking on the leadership now sometimes reaches biblical proportions because of the challenges we all face—the double-whammy of a pandemic that threatens our very lives, and a recession that threatens our livelihoods and the financial health of important businesses and institutions, including this synagogue.

I am comforted by the fact that this sacred congregation has faced and overcome incredible obstacles in its 225-year history—including disease, wars and recessions—and RS has survived and thrived.

I am comforted that we have visionary clergy and staff who work seemingly around-the-clock to ensure that our Congregational activities continue, especially in these times of emotional and financial upheaval. They lead the way and show us that our congregation’s vision and mission—spiritual strengthening, education, caring community, social action, and connection—are even more important than ever during this difficult time.

I am comforted that this congregation has a strong board of directors and board of advisors who are actively engaged and continually lend their skills and expertise to the congregation that they cherish.

And I am comforted by our members who are engaged in all aspects of our congregational life and whose support is critical.

Without the stressors of the current time, my presidency would be one that emphasizes financial sustainability. It is now even more important than ever that we continue to take action in the areas that the board has identified—growth and retention in membership, growth in our endowment, growth in facility usage, and growth in our special purpose funds. Each of these is being worked on currently by staff and lay people.

It’s important to me that everyone know that I do not want to be perceived as being tone deaf here.

Of course, what is of utmost importance to leadership at this time is the health and spiritual well-being of our congregants. As Rabbi Maderer has said, we need to lead, we must serve as an example and vigilantly model appropriate action, and we must act in such a manner that keeps our congregants and our greater community safe.

But even in these times, we cannot lose sight of financial realities that face our congregation.

The most important financial consideration most immediately facing the congregation is this coming year’s membership commitments. Membership commitments are vital this year—these revenues fuel our operating budget and are needed more than ever as we endeavor to pivot and rethink all our activities. We understand and appreciate that there will be congregants who will need to pull back this year—but if you are able, please consider increasing your membership commitment.

I think it may be important for you to know the sacrifice reflected in this coming year’s budget that each of our senior staff has voluntarily made: Rabbi Maderer has volunteered a 12% decrease in salary; Executive Director Jeff Katz has volunteered a 7% decrease in salary; and other senior staff have voluntarily forgone planned annual contractual increases. In addition, other staff members will not be receiving a merit or cost of living raise in this fiscal year, as part of the budget tightening measures that the board of directors has approved.

At the same time, there have been no budgeted increases in membership commitments for congregants at this challenging time.

I ask everyone to please serve as the congregation’s advocate and ask other congregants to support RS as their top priority, or at least as one of their top priorities—we need, now more than ever, to ensure the future operations of RS; the important values, vision, and mission of this community; and the voice of Reform Judaism in this city.

Our clergy, our Executive Director Jeff Katz, and our professional team responded very quickly to the necessity of continued connection without physically gathering—and from the very beginning of our Zoom offerings, we’ve seen growth in the number of folks attending services, Torah Study, and other RS activities—there is a yearning for connection and spirituality that RS has been meeting in this period of isolation, and we must continue meeting that need in the normalized future for those who cannot make it to our facilities. We need to make livestreaming one of the tools in our toolbox that we use to gain and maintain membership. Of course these are new costs to our budget—if you are interested in helping to fund this important project, please see me!

In closing, I want to thank you for the privilege of serving this sacred community. During periods of uncertainty in my life, I have challenged myself by remembering the words of my bar mitzvah portion, Beshalach—the Israelites are faced in front with a wall of water and behind them the approaching Egyptian chariots, and they are afraid, they complain, they want their old lives back and are immobilized. God says to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me; speak to the children of Israel that they go forward!”

May we as a sacred congregation continue to move forward!

Thank you.

To go back to the eBulletin, click here

Don’t Act on Fear: Catherine Fischer’s Torah in Honor of Her Retirement delivered by Rabbi Maderer

When, almost 2 decades ago I came to know Catherine Fischer, she was working at the Union for Reform Judaism’s then regional office as the part-time coordinator of Outreach.  I remember our 1st phone call.  It was early on in my time at Rodeph Shalom and she was preparing me to teach the Introduction to Judaism class.  What could have been simply a perfunctory conversation quickly became a trusted bond as I listened to her speak about synagogue affiliation, engagement, commitment, and a sense of belonging. At that point, Catherine had only just begun to enter her life of Jewish professional leadership.

When it comes to the next steps, I like to take credit.  Because some time after her work at the URJ, I was sitting in a Kehillah oversight meeting — the Kehillah is the network of synagogues and Jewish organizations based in each region of Greater Philadelphia.  About to hire a new coordinator for the Center City Kehillah, the oversight group established 2 descriptions of the ideal candidate.  They said: we are looking for someone young, and someone who lives in Center City. (Descriptions that probably are not kosher, actually)…  But anyway, after they said, “someone young and in Center City,” I replied:  I have the candidate.  She is not young and she lives in NJ.  But trust me.  We’re calling Catherine Fischer.

Catherine brought the Kehillah to new heights, and to this day, clergy of all denominations, throughout Center City, admire Catherine.  When it came time for Catherine to complete her time at the Kehillah, Rabbi Kuhn, and all of us, knew enough, to recruit her to Rodeph Shalom.

Catherine has brought superior vision, strategy, practice, integrity and joy to our congregation.  And I believe she wins the award for the most times anyone in history, has spoken the words “profound connections.”  Catherine’s accomplishments abound and, in many ways, you are her accomplishment– every one of you who feels her impact so deeply in your own sense of belonging.

Ask her, what is her secret sauce, what is at the foundation of every Catherine Fischer email, event, meeting, phone call, and her answer is clear every time: Catherine roots her work in vision– in Torah.  In these moments, I would like to lift up Catherine’s Torah.  There is the Torah of listening.  There is the Torah of relationship.  And there is the Torah I’d share tonight– Catherine’s Torah of faith over fear.  It’s found right in this week’s Torah portion.  

The story in this week’s portion, Beshalach is the very story we tell at the seder table.  After generations of the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt, God hears their cries, sends Moses, Miriam and Aaron to lead them, sends plagues to the Egyptians, and finally guides their escape through the parted waters of the Sea of Reeds.

Now, picture the moment just before the Israelites enter the Sea.  Frightened, the people long to turn around to go backwards.  Moses’ response?  He instructs: Al tira-u / don’t be afraid.  Rabbi Alan Lew teaches: “Don’t be afraid” does not mean, “don’t feel fear;” it means: Don’t act on fear. 

And he expands: An inconsistency in the Hebrew makes the point more provocatively.  At first in the story, both noun and verb are plural: Egyptians pursue.  But a couple sentences later, a change to the singular: Egypt pursues.  Bothered by the switch, medieval commentator Rashi explains: the Torah must be trying to emphasize the Israelites’ perspective.  In that later sentence, when the Israelites gaze upon the enemy, they see not the Egyptians themselves, in the plural, but the spirit of Egypt, in the singular.  They see not what is really there, but a phantom– their idea of Egypt.  They see the Egypt where they cowered as slaves, and were abused for generations.  They saw– or perhaps, they conjured — their fear. 

Egyptian chariots pursuing, or not, every one of us can be threatened by a paralyzing fantasy we convince ourselves to fear.  And a community, too, can stop in its tracks, long to turn around, surrender to fear.

But Moses says to the people, and Moses says to us: Al tira-u / don’t panic.  Don’t run away from worry.  Don’t submit to phantoms.  Don’t let fear decide your future.  Push through it and transform it.

In every moment, when our Rodeph Shalom professional team and leadership, ask important questions about our next initiatives in community building, Catherine brings Moses’ message: Al tira-u / don’t act on fear.  When we face the waters, Al tira-u / don’t act on fear.  When we worry that people won’t commit to Jewish life, Al tira-u.  When we conjure the phantoms of scarcity, Al tira-u.  When we are reluctant to challenge the community, or to take a stand, Al tira-u.  When the old status quo feels less risky than the new innovations we need to experiment with, Al tira-u / don’t act on fear.

Years ago, when our Caring Community wanted to create a meal delivery initiative for members recovering from illness, but we feared that a mitzvah meal would invade people’s privacy, Catherine helped us see: Al tira-u.

When, in our commitment to include everyone in membership, regardless of financial capacity, we have wondered whether everyone will really contribute, Catherine has helped us see: Al tira-u.

When we sought to commit to having greeters at every service and program, but we worried that our members might not come regularly enough to guarantee that we would have greeters every time, Catherine helped us see: Al tira-u.

When we envisioned deeper connections among members, but we felt uncertain whether congregants would bring their vulnerability into their relationships with each other in the BoomRS in Transition discussion group, Catherine helped us see: Al tira-u / don’t act on fear.

For when Catherine sees us, she feels inspired by faith.  She opens every possible door for members, because she has faith.  She sees the good in us, because she has faith.  She believes we will rise to the occasion of Jewish life and commitment, because she has faith.  Faith in God, faith in the Jewish people, faith in humanity, faith in every one of us who walks through our sacred doors, and faith in every person who has yet to walk through our doors.  

Catherine’s actions are bold, and she seeks out study for creative thinking. Leading thinkers in the broader Jewish community have taken note of Catherine’s work and thought leadership.  Scholars from the Reform Movement and beyond, have engaged her in think tanks, and sought out her mentorship.  Catherine Fischer’s contribution has not only been transformative for Rodeph Shalom, it’s been transformative for the American Jewish community.  We decided Catherine needs to go down in history!  And so we have created a piece for the Jewish Women’s Archives.  Their website now includes a tribute that reads: Honoring the retirement of Catherine Fischer… Thank you for your bold thinking and action,that has us helped to live with faith over fear, and to build a joyful place of belonging and becoming for Jewish community.

To Richard, and the whole Fischer family, thank you for sharing your beloved Catherine with all of us for so long.

So how will we get along without Catherine?  In Catherine’s well-earned retirement, she leaves us strong, because she taught us her Torah.  (also, I still have her phone number).

And we get to be her legacy.  

Catherine, know that you have taught us well. 

And that we know, the best way to honor you, is to bring our love and commitment

to our community. 

May you, and we all, go strength to strength.  Amen.

Catherine and I first met over coffee at the Starbucks at 16^th & Arch in January 2008.  She was the newly hired Membership Director, and I was Membership Chair.  We discussed the broader points of synagogue membership and our visions for membership at Rodeph Shalom.  It was the start of a beautiful partnership.  

For the next eight or so years, I learned about relational Judaism and about Catherine Fischer, for they were one in the same. I learned of her deep love for Judaism and Jewish values, and how she applied them to all of her work; of her expectation of excellence in herself and inspiring it in others; of her insistence on intentionality, visionary thinking and meaning in her work and ensuring that all who participated found meaning as well. She sweated the details of every initiative and regretted every imperfection that no one else noticed.  Her unwavering integrity always leaned us toward being transparent and candid in all that we do. Working with Catherine made us better people.  And one day, I plan get something started before she’s already finished.

There is a generation of members who will tell you that they are here today because their first contact with Rodeph Shalom was through Catherine Fischer.  Her warmth, her humor and her ability to connect with people is a rare gift that RS has had full benefit of.  There have been times when I’ve been in her office while she was on a call with a prospective member and listening to her end of the conversation was like auditing a seminar in 21^st century Jewish thought about transformational community building.  In fact, Catherine has become one of the Reform Movement’s star leaders of relational Judaism and has helped put Rodeph Shalom on the map of synagogues who are making a difference.

I won’t be going over a list of Catherine’s accomplishments over the past 12 years because you know them all, and we just don’t have enough time.  We live and breathe the results of them every day, and it is obvious to me that we wouldn’t be who we are without her contributions and her consistent and extraordinary vision.

So, as you begin a new life chapter as Oliver’s grandma, may all your nodal moments be joyful, may all your connections be profound, and may you always know that your community that you worked so successfully in making as vibrant, warm and welcoming as you are yourself, will always be here for you.

Yosher Koach, Catherine, Yosher Koach.

Michael Hauptman

On behalf of the Congregation, thank you Catherine and Richard for your amazing gift—establishing and funding the Community Engagement Innovation Fund.

We’re here to celebrate and honor Catherine for all she’s done for our Community and for each of us here, and it is so Catherine to give us a gift.  It is just so Catherine.

Richard—I’m really happy for you that Catherine will soon be devoting full time to you and your family.  Many of you here tonight may not know that I’ve had an ongoing three-year philanthropy affair with Catherine—meeting with her on Mondays for three years, having lunch together and talking about philanthropy and everything else under the sun —

Over the years we’ve been working together, Catherine has given me at least three things that I will always be thankful for and treasure—her leadership, her mentorship and her friendship.

Thank you for all that you’ve done for this sacred community—we love you.

Hello.  Hello. 

As you are settling in, finding your people, your table and getting your food, I want to not only officially welcome you all to this stunning Celebrating of Catherine, and also to thank each and every one of you here for making this a true Community endeavor, one totally fitting for this celebration.  As Catherine has brought us and stood for the importance of community engagement here at RS, tonight her community with this extraordinary spread is demonstrating just how much she has meant to us.

As everyone here has contributed in one way or another, I want to express my gratitude to you all for your commitment and devotion to fulfilling our vision of what this could be.  Tonight’s celebration would not be possible without the Vision of Rabbi Maderer, the support of Mike and Hank, and the endless work of Alyssa, Alicia and Julia.  Without them, and without you, our vision for a most fitting celebration of Catherine could/would never have happened.

Rabbi Freedman delivered this sermon at Shabbat evening service on January 31.

We are still in Egypt. In this week’s Torah portion, we learn about the final three plagues, and Pharaoh ultimately agreeing to release the Israelites from bondage. But, for now, we are still in Egypt for one more week.

After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites will eventually make it to the biblical Land of Israel. However, we never get there in our Torah readings. We end each yearly lectionary cycle on the far side of the Jordan river— never quite making it to the Promised Land.

In 1948, the Jewish people saw the actualization of an almost 2000 year old dream— the creation of the modern State of Israel. We returned to the historic land of Israel. And although we now have a physical Jewish homeland, in many ways, we have not yet reached the Promised Land – in many ways, we are still in Egypt.

Israel is the homeland for the entire Jewish people. But when the Israeli government pays the salaries of hundreds of Orthodox rabbis and only nine Reform rabbis, we are still in Egypt. 20% of Israelis are Orthodox; so when 100% of Jewish marriages are controlled by the Orthodox rabbinate, we are still in Egypt.

When the Western Wall, the holiest site in the world for all Jews, is set up as a gender segregated prayer space, we are still in Egypt.

And when funds from the JNF (the Jewish National Fund) are illegally used to support settlement expansion, we are still in Egypt.

Many of the complex issues that face Israeli society feel beyond our control. As American Jews, we cannot vote in the upcoming, unprecedented third Israeli parliamentary elections in less than a year. There was also a Middle East peace plan unveiled this week by the White House that sadly, further illustrates our diminishing role in shaping a two state solution.

Underscoring the problematic, unilateral nature of this most recently plan, head of our movement, Rabbi Rick Jacobs wrote, “We laud all efforts to bring peace and firmly believe that a secure Israel side by side with a viable Palestinian state is in the best interest of American foreign policy and, of course, for the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. We also believe that peace must be negotiated directly by the parties, with American support.”

At the end of the day, America cannot solve the Middle East conflict; we have lost credibility as an unbiased mediator and much of the work is now up to Israelis and Palestinians.

With so much of Israel’s future feeling beyond our control, what then, are we, as committed Reform Zionists, to do? Well, I am here tonight to tell you that for only $7.50 you can have a direct impact on the future of the State of Israel.

You have the power, like Moses and Aaron and Miriam, to bring us out of Egypt and into the Promised Land that Israel should and can be.

Between January 21 and March 11, American Jews can vote in the World Zionist Congress elections. By voting you will be able to choose one of the many slates representing diverse political beliefs, religious denominations, and cultural traditions. This coming October, the 152 delegates elected from the United States will join hundreds from Israel and around the world at the 38th World Zionist Congress, the international “parliament of the Jewish people,” to make decisions and set policies regarding key institutions that allocate nearly $1 Billion annually to support Israel.

ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, the Zionist arm and voice of the Reform Movement, is one of the slates running in this election, and I believe it is the slate best suited to help bring us out of Egypt and make Israel a Promised Land for all.

This is not just theoretical. The WZC has real power and these decisions affect people’s lives in powerful ways.

I just received an email the other day from Kol HaNeshama – an amazing Reform synagogue in Jerusalem. They were once again asking for financial support from American Reform Jews, as the government has consistently withheld funding from them. ARZA delegates to the WZC will work to ensure that Reform synagogues in Israel get the same funding as Orthodox ones.

Two years ago, at Temple Emanu-El of New York City, prominent progressive rabbis officiated at the weddings of three Israeli couples who were deprived of the right to marry at home because they are not considered to be Jews according to Israel’s chief rabbinate, because they are gay, or because they reject the rabbinate’s rigid control over Jewish marriages and divorces. ARZA delegates will work to end the Orthodox monopoly of marriage in Israel.

When our congregation brought a group of high school students to Israel a few years ago, I saw first hand the bigotry that exists at the Kotel, the Western Wall. What should have been the highlight of the trip for many, was a difficult and painful experience as young women in our group were admonished for wearing kippot or not being modest enough. ARZA delegates will work to ensure that the Western Wall is a place for all Jews.

The president of ARZA, Rabbi Josh Weinberg,  notes in a recent Times of Israel blog post, “Due to our strength in numbers, stemming from the [last] WZC elections, we were able to blow the whistle on secretive land purchases, exposing behind-the-scenes funding of settlements. We took action as soon as we were alerted to the circumvention of funds. But, let me be clear – we are not cutting ties with KKL [The Jewish National Fund]. On the contrary. If we don’t have a presence there, this behavior would have continued. It was the very fact of our leadership position, and our presence, that allowed us to demand transparency, full accountability, and change.”

ARZA delegates will be our voice for a progressive Israel.

So, if you live in America, are over the age of 18, identify as Jewish, and are not planning on voting in the March 2nd Israeli elections, then go online to arza.org, pay the $7.50 administrative fee, and cast your vote for a pluralistic, democratic, and egalitarian Israel.

In this week’s potion, Moses says to Pharaoh that “we will not know where we are going to worship God until we arrive there.” (Exodus 10:26) On the surface, he meant that remark to keep Pharaoh in the dark. Ironically, however, Moses himself wasn’t sure where they were to worship God. Uncertain of their destination, not knowing what they were to do when they got there, the Jews had to be willing to take a leap of faith into the unknown.

We do not know what the future holds for Israel. But we can have a role in shaping it. Your vote is the only democratic opportunity you have to influence Israeli society as we continue our efforts towards equality, pluralism and tolerance.

In the coming weeks, as our Torah tells the story of our ancient ancestors leaving Egypt for the Promised Land, let us have hatikvah, the hope, that we too can journey together out of Egypt and make Israel a Promised Land for all.

Ken Yehi Ratzon, May This be God’s Will.

Delivered by Rabbi Jill Maderer at Shabbat service on 1/3/2020.   

The lights of Hanukkah now dim, I can see as clearly as ever, how desperately the world needs our light. I have been outraged to witness American Jews attacked in antisemitic acts on every night of Hanukkah and beyond.  And I have taken solace, and found inspiration from your presence in our Community and knowing we stand together.

One of our responses to antisemitism needs to be the practical security review.  The recent security updates that have been reported to the congregation over this passed year, already address the rise in antisemitic acts and so, for that we can feel a sense of reassurance, even in a world without complete certainty.

Another of our responses to antisemitism is the expression of solidarity with other the Jews, the welcoming of solidarity from non-Jews, and the readiness to reach out in solidarity when other groups are in need.

Tonight the response to antisemitism I’d like to focus on, is perhaps the most critical of all.  We respond to the rise in antisemitism in the very same way, that we respond to every single day: by living full, vibrant Jewish lives. Just as we publicized the miracle of Hanukkah with our Hanukkiot in the windows, we boldly and publicly live lives inspired by Torah, mitzvot and the generation of Jewish who came before us.

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By Doug Rosenblum, Chair of the Rodeph Shalom Gun Violence Prevention Task Force

By Doug Rosenblum, Chair of the Rodeph Shalom Gun Violence Prevention Task Force