Montpelier synagogue getting a rabbi

By Sky Barsch

TIMES ARGUS STAFF

MONTPELIER - Central Vermont's Jewish community is getting what it hasn't had for more than 60 years: a rabbi.

Rabbi Shana Margolin, currently of central New Jersey, will become the rabbi at Beth Jacob Synagogue on Aug. 1., after a three-year search-and-hiring process, according to Eve Jacobs-Carnahan, a member of the search committee.

The synagogue, which was founded in 1906, has relied on visiting rabbis and community members to lead services for many years. While that has worked for some time, there are members who are seeking spiritual guidance through difficult times and really need a rabbi, according to past congregation president Sue Barasch.

"I'm thrilled, absolutely thrilled," said Barasch, who has acted as a community liaison for the congregation. "Nobody can speak with the same authority for the synagogue as a rabbi can." Though Margolin will become the synagogue's spiritual leader, she says she'll be sharing many of her duties with the congregation.

"The congregation has been running itself for at least the last generation," Margolin said in a telephone interview this week. "A lot of what I want to do is to work from that, and keep the tradition of people doing a lot of leading the services and going to the community meetings and that sort of thing. I want to keep that momentum going and to bring more people in, and hopefully have the people who know how to do it teach other people how to do it."

Margolin said a goal of hers is to have the Beth Jacob members to be consistently involved in community activities.

Beth Jacob, located on Harrison Avenue, is a multi-movement synagogue, a congregation of members from different traditions. Such congregations are common in rural areas, which don't have the population to support several synagogues. About 135 households are members.

Since the membership is so varied, it was difficult to decide on what type of rabbi to hire, said Beth Jacob congregant and past president Bob Barasch. Many members wanted a reformist or reconstructionist who would perform interfaith marriages and civil unions, he said.

Margolin, 50, was born in Maryland and has lived in a number of states, including North Carolina where she earned an undergraduate degree in French at the University of North Carolina. During that time, she spent a year in France (she notes she's excited to move to Montpelier where she can tune in French language radio from Quebec).

After graduating from UNC, she worked as a community organizer and a paralegal in Virginia. She continued as a community organizer in Philadelphia. There she worked in Hillel House, the Jewish college organization.

She decided that what she truly wanted to do was become a rabbi, so she looked into attending rabbinical school. She discovered she had to have a master's degree to become a rabbi, so she enrolled at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and earned a degree in history, then went to the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Pennsylvania. During rabbinical school, she taught at a Hebrew school for a few years and became the student rabbi at a congregation in Bordentown, N.J. She has been the rabbi at the Jewish Community Center in Belle Meade, N.J. for 15 years, and said the time is right to change congregations.

"I wanted to change where I lived, and my congregation in Belle Meade changed their self-image.... It wants to become a bigger place, and it made sense that now would be a time we go our separate ways."

She said she thought Montpelier "sounded like a really neat place. I felt really good, I did a phone interview and we really fit with each other."

Margolin came to Montpelier to see the community and lead a service, affirming her sense that the synagogue and the location were a good match for her.

Vermont seems like a "generally laid back and unassuming" place, and was one of two places in the world that were as beautiful as she expected they'd be, she said.

Search committee member Jacobs-Carnahan agreed that the congregation and Margolin are a good fit.

"We wanted someone who would be very accepting of the broad range of Jewish practices that there are in our community," Jacobs-Carnahan said.

"We just have one synagogue in the large area of central Vermont, and people don't have a choice of going to reform, conservative or orthodox," she said. "We had to have somebody who was willing to be accepting and adaptable to all the types of Jews who are willing to live here. Also, we were looking for someone who was able to be a teacher for adults, because since we have led services ourselves, we have a lot of very knowledgeable people, and we needed someone who would bring greater knowledge from greater studies and raise their level of knowledge even higher."

Also, the congregation wanted someone who wouldn't replace the lay leadership but instead keep it a vital supplement, and continue to allow community members to lead services.

"We also wanted someone people would feel comfortable with when grieving. She really does meet all these pieces," Jacobs-Carnahan said.

Former congregation president Doug Cohn said he realizes hiring a rabbi is a change, and change can be difficult, but Margolin is not coming with the intention to take over. She will only lead about half the services, with community members continuing to lead the other half.

"We tried to pick someone we felt would meet most of the needs of the vast majority of the congregation," he said. "Not everyone in every church or synagogue will approve, but I think Shana has the strength and personality to cut through the reservations."

Margolin will move to Montpelier Sunday with her partner, Sheri Berger, who is also a rabbi; their son, Cory Berger; and their dog.

(c) 2004 Times Argus