by dan pine
staff writer
Josh Berkenwald hangs out at Starbucks a lot these days, but fear not: He is most assuredly on the job.
As new rabbi at San Jose’s Congregation Sinai, one of his main tasks is to meet congregants, whether in their living rooms or at the local coffee house.
Berkenwald doesn’t need any extra caffeine to stay excited about his new post. The Seattle area native is thrilled to be in California serving the 180 family-strong Conservative shul, especially given the synagogue’s recent renovation.
Completed in 2005, the new multi-million-dollar facility was built from the ground up, and includes a new sanctuary patterned after the hilly Jerusalem skyline. The synagogue also boasts a new nursery school, social hall, kosher kitchen and youth lounge.
Berkenwald walked into all this as the new rabbi after the departure of Rabbi Eitan Julius, who made aliyah. “From the beginning,” says Berkenwald, “when I read the questionnaire, through my interview and the weekend I came out here, the contacts, the shul and the community stood out in so many ways, and seemed to match my ideas of what a community should be.”
As an example of inclusiveness, Berkenwald notes Congregation Sinai offers both an egalitarian Shabbat service and a traditional Conservative minyan, held in the chapel.
Most significant, he says, is the active involvement among Sinai congregants. “People are committed,” notes Berkenwald. “And there’s a genuine warmth families share with each other. Kids are encouraged to be in the sanctuary. If we want to pass on the importance of Judaism to the next generation, we have to give them positive experiences doing Jewish things. You can’t do that shushing kids.”
Berkenwald and his wife, Dana, have two children of their own, 3-year-old daughter Noa and 1-year-old son Solly. The family moved here in July from New York, where the rabbi served a congregation in the Bronx. His Congregation Sinai job is his first full-time pulpit position since his ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
But it’s not his first connection with California. As a youth, he was a counselor at Camp Ramah in Ojai. Raised in an observant Conservative home on Mercer Island, Wash., and always drawn to Judaism, it might seem a no-brainer that Berkenwald would have chosen the rabbinate as a career, but as he notes, of his family members he was “the last person to figure it out.”
He went on to spend a year at Jerusalem’s Schecter Institute as part of his rabbinic training. Not that he needed any more incentive to stress the importance of Israel in Jewish life. It’s one of his pillars.
“Israel is crucial for Jews in the world today,” he asserts, “and we ought to have some concept of our relationship to Israel is and what it means, and we ought to do that as a shul.”
Other pillars include prayer, social action, outreach and kehillah, or community. But Berkenwald acknowledges there are multiple ways for individuals to express their Judaism.
“Prayer is important,” he notes, “but it’s not the be-all-end-all of Jewish life. Home rituals are important. Kashrut is important, Jewish learning is important. For some people, one [aspect] may grab them in a way the others don’t, and we need to support that.”
Berkenwald won’t have any trouble feeling inspired working in the remodeled synagogue, especially in the new sanctuary, the walls and arches of which are lined with Jerusalem stone.
“It’s a beautiful davening space,” he adds. “Rather than a showy service, this lends itself to much more informal communal involvement. The bimah is accessible, and everything is reconfigurable.”
Having a pleasant space to work in is a plus, but as far as Berkenwald is concerned, he’s in the people business.
“I want to be involved with the entire community,” he says, “with people at all ages and stages of life. And that’s something only a pulpit rabbi can do.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California