With challenge comes opportunity. As you know, this past December Rabbi Greg Weitzman accepted a position as Senior Rabbi at Congregation Beth Emeth in Albany, New York. In response, we immediately submitted an application to interview student rabbis who will be graduating from Hebrew Union College this Spring. I am delighted to say that our search – the third clergy search that we have performed in the last 12 months – was a huge success. On behalf of the Congregation Rodeph Sholom Board of Trustees, it is my great pride and pleasure to announce that Mira Weller will be joining Rodeph Sholom as an Assistant Rabbi.
Last year, when Rabbi Deborah Goldberg and Cantor Stefano Iacono joined our clergy team, I alluded to Rodeph Sholom’s legacy of attracting the best and most promising leaders of Reform Judaism. Certainly, our hiring of Mira Weller is a continuation of that legacy. We look forward to welcoming her to our CRS family on July 1, 2022.
By way of introduction, Mira is a Los Angeles-based 5th year rabbinical student with a Master’s in Jewish Education from HUC-JIR’s Rhea Hirsch School of Education. She studied Culture and Politics at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she investigated the intersection of gender, violence, and religion in international development. Currently, she serves as Acting Director of Education and Organizing Intern at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, California. She is a self-described musical “polyglot” (violin, viola, piano, guitar, drums and voice) and has collaborated musically with Jewish artists across the country. Mira’s skills and experience, together with her passion, creativity and humanity, will complement our extraordinary clergy team. Mira is extremely excited about moving to New York City to join us and looks forward to connecting with the CRS and RSS communities.
Once again, we were extremely fortunate to have Stacy Kanter lead a rabbinic search committee that included members of our Board, an Honorary officer and an RSS parent, as well as ex-officio participants including Rabbi Spratt, Executive Director Barbara Zakin and Clergy Chief of Staff Jessica Adducchio. I want to express my deep gratitude to Stacy and Jessica for their expert leadership and thorough planning, to Rabbi Spratt for his insightful guidance, and to the entire committee for their willingness to devote substantial time and attention to this project. We again received significant input from the entire clergy team, from staff and educators, from current and former Trustees, from members of our Chapel community and from parents. The willingness of so many people to offer their valuable time with little advance notice is a tribute to their love of our Synagogue and a reflection of the importance to all of us of adding a new Rabbi to our clergy team.
We surely are a blessed congregation. Please join me in welcoming Mira to the Rodeph Sholom community.
Shabbat Shalom,
Peter Ehrenberg
President, Congregation Rodeph Sholom
