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Friday August 20, 2004

Keddem Congregation hires first rabbi, a Stanford Ph.D. student

by dan pine
staff writer

Throughout its 11-year existence, Keddem Congregation has been strictly DIY, as in “do-it-yourself.”

The Los Altos-based Reconstructionist congregation has never had a rabbi, cantor or director of education. Everything from Shabbat minyans to Sunday school to High Holy Day services has always been lay-led.

But now, for the first time, Keddem has taken the plunge and hired a rabbi part time. So far, all parties say it’s a match made in heaven.

Rabbi David Levinsky is Keddem’s new rabbi/consultant. A doctoral student in Judaic studies at Stanford, Levinsky is a familiar face at Keddem, having taught classes there in Talmud and Kabbalah. So when congregational leaders began considering bringing in a rabbi, Levinsky was at the top of the list.

“People really liked him,” says Tom Berson, one of Keddem’s lay leaders. “It occurred to us that he would be a great person to fulfill the needs we identified.”

Those needs centered around three primary tasks: pastoral counseling, teaching and officiating lifecycle events, from baby namings to weddings and funerals.

“There was consensus about the desire to have a trained person in those areas,” adds Berson. “There was also consensus that we weren’t looking for someone to lead services. We don’t need a rabbi to legitimize ourselves.”

Keddem, which does not have a synagogue of its own, holds services and meetings in several venues (“We’re a shlep-a-shul,” says founding member Elaine Moise). It is one of only two Reconstructionist congregations in the Bay Area, and about 100 congregations and chavurot in North America. With an egalitarian, democratic approach, Reconstructionism focuses on Judaism not only as a religion but as the cultural legacy of the Jewish people, with tradition having “a vote, but not a veto.”

Levinsky, who was ordained in the Reform movement, understands Keddem’s credo of self-reliance, but he is thrilled to be part of the congregation, which he also joined as a member. “It’s a really exciting group,” he says. “We’re in Silicon Valley, and the congregation reflects that: scientists, psychiatrists, entrepreneurs — the range you’d expect. It’s an intellectually challenging environment.”

The warm feelings are mutual. Says Keddem President Aaron Schuman, “He’s got a very lively personality, and he’s fun to be around. David connects really well with the children, which shows his personal versatility. There he is, a top-flight academic at Stanford, and he can also connect with children.”

Adds Moise: “We’re asking him to do things we can’t do ourselves like rabbinic counseling. There are plenty of licensed therapists in the congregation, but that’s a completely different thing, and that was the gap most often expressed to us. If we want to talk about a problem in a Jewish way, how do you do that?”

As for Levinsky, he is not 100 percent certain how this unique arrangement will play out. ‘We’re doing a lot of planning,” he says. “We don’t have a map for what this relationship will look like. What does it look like when a rabbi doesn’t really have an official leadership capacity in a synagogue?”

Levinsky isn’t sure, but he’s comfortable with that kind of ambiguity. When he began rabbinic studies relatively late (he’s now in his mid-30s), the Chicago native and former rock guitarist wavered between becoming a pulpit rabbi or an academic. “I thought I wanted to be a professor,” he says, “but I also wanted to be connected to community life. Being in a living community makes me a better scholar and vice versa.”

Currently, Levinksy is completing his doctorate at Stanford on the topic of late antique religion, i.e., Judaism, Christianity and Greco-Roman polytheism in the first six centuries of the common era.

“He is a full-time grad student,” says Schuman of the new rabbi, “so he’s got limits. We wanted to start at a small amount of time to see how it works. Because we have lay-led services, we weren’t at a loss on how to pray together, but we really did need someone who had not only the knowledge and ability, but also the stature to do things like weddings.”

And will Levinsky play that other, less advertised role of behind-the-scenes fund-raiser for Keddem? No time soon, says Schuman: “I don’t see that as a reason we brought him on. We have a lot of members who are good in management and organization, fund development.”

Whatever shape the relationship takes, both Keddem congregants and Levinsky are ready for it. Members voted overwhelmingly to bring him on board, so the congregation is clearly open to change, says Berson.

“Keddem is a place for people who want to ‘think and do’ with their liberal Judaism, as opposed to having it done for or to them. I view our new relationship as a continuation of that theme. We don’t know how it’s going to work out, but we’re going in with open hearts and open minds.”

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