Kolot’s Rabbinic Transition

Rabbi Search Updates

Update as of March 2025/Adar 5785

The Kolot Board of Directors and Rabbinic Search Committee are jointly pleased to announce three outstanding candidates for our bimah.

Through this process, the Rabbinic Search Committee (RSC) received 21 complete, on-time applications, then interviewed 15 candidates on Zoom and then 6 of those in person for a second interview. We screened all applicants for qualifications across all the aspects of the job, as outlined in the position announcement. Now, it’s time for the whole congregation — including you! — to meet the 3 finalists and let the RSC know what you think! There are 3 Saturdays we are hosting candidates for a Shabbaton (Shabbaton means Shabbat services-plus; in this case, also a meal and discussion). At each, Kolot members will be invited to meet the candidates, see and hear them on the bimah, and, in moderated conversation, weigh in with your reflections. Below find more about each candidate, in the order that they will be joining us:

OUR CANDIDATES
Saturday, March 8th: Sam Kates-Goldman

Sam chose the rabbinate after nearly two decades of community organizing and managing small businesses in Washington state. For two years he served as the sole spiritual leader of Congregation Congregation Eitz Or, and has served as the half-time rabbinic intern of Congregation Or Hadash for two years. Additionally, he founded an annual meeting of Jewish artists to explore and interpret Jewish texts, and was a visiting faculty member in Jewish Studies at The Evergreen State College. Sam will receive Smicha from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in May. 

One reference said that Sam is a “gifted teacher, and drawn to the kind of teaching that builds and transforms communities…Sam has been a catalyst for connection across differences.” Our committee was particularly impressed with the way Sam cross-referenced deep Jewish teachings with community organizing wisdom, as well as his management experience. We felt he was really able to reach our committee’s own wide range of Jewish learning and other expertise.

Saturday, March 22nd: Rabbi Mike Rothbaum

Mike received Smicha from the Academy For Jewish Religion NY in 2006, and has since served as a lead or the sole rabbi at several congregations around the country and is currently serving at Ahavath Achim Synagogue, which is a bit larger than Kolot. In addition he has led a Hillel, the educational programming at a synagogue, and worked for Bend the Arc. He is an award-winning teacher and boasts a national profile for his advocacy on issues that overlap with Kolot values, particularly his longstanding commitment to workers’ rights. 

One reference said, “Mike made a profound difference in the way I interact with the world and how I viewed my own Judaism in that world. I know he had that effect on other congregants.” Our committee was particularly impressed with Mike’s experience and his open reflections about what he has learned and is continuing to learn.

Saturday, April 5th: Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson

You may have met Margo already, as she often attends Kolot Shabbat morning services with her toddler. Margo received Smicha from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2021; during rabbinical school she served for two years in a half-time rabbinic fellowship at B’nai Jeshurun. She worked as a staff member of Avodah and T’ruah, and is now executive director of Partners for Progressive Israel. In addition to her organizational work, Margo leads with Altshul, guides mikvahs, and conducts life-cycle events for unaffiliated community members in the New York area.

One reference said that while Margo worked in their congregation, “Margo definitely made an impact with all she met — beautiful pastoral work, people liked her davening, teaching, everything.” Our committee was particularly impressed that Margo combines a passion for Talmud and Torah with non-profit management experience.

WHAT'S NEXT: SHABBATONIM
The RSC is hard at work developing the many ways we will collect your impressions, opinions, feelings, and questions about each candidate as we meet them together at the Shabbatonim, and, at the end of this process, your thoughts of all 3 candidates in relation to one another. We encourage you to watch the recordings of the recent guest rabbi panel conversations we hosted to help us prepare to welcome a new rabbi. To access these recordings, please email Hara Connell at HaraConnell@kolotchayeinu.org. 

As we head into the Shabbatonim with our candidates, we invite you to consider: 

• Which candidate seems like the best fit for 

  • what *I* personally want in a rabbi?

  • what Kolot as a community needs in a rabbi? 

• What ideas for Kolot's future does this candidate inspire? 

• What work will we need to do as a congregation to be a good match for this candidate?

YOUR QUESTIONS
As part of the Shabbatonim, we will hold a moderated discussion with each candidate where they will answer questions submitted by congregants. Please share your questions here by Thursday, March 6th.

We encourage you to ask questions and to also send us your children’s questions (if any). In doing so, please remember that due to timing constraints, we likely will not have time to get to every suggested question, and that we are limited by employment law and our ethical commitments with regard to some question areas, including those that address age, family structure, disability, or political affiliation. The Search Committee will attempt to gather the questions into high-interest topics to represent the concerns of the community.

We know that there are Kolotniks who would prefer an open Q&A format for this part of the Shabbaton. For equity purposes, in addition to assuring that we have time to touch on the many topics of interest to the congregation, we have decided to collect questions in advance. We strongly encourage every member to share their questions so that the event can address as much of what matters to you as possible.

BE COUNTED: MEMBERSHIP MATTERS
During the Candidate Shabbatonim, as always, Kolot services are open to all. However, the post-services afternoon lunch and candidate discussion are for Kolot members only. Both will be hybrid, on Zoom and in-person, and recordings will be available only for members. Only members may contribute opinions, questions, and reflections on the candidate, and only members will — later this Spring — vote on the new rabbi. 

At this exciting juncture as we look to the congregation’s future, and also are so aware of how essential community is in perilous times, be sure to renew or join Kolot now. If you have questions about your membership status, or need help renewing or joining, please contact our Executive Director Brett Reid Parker at BrettParker@kolotchayeinu.org.

Thank you again to everyone for your questions throughout this process. We hope that as you meet the candidates, you see the many exciting futures for Kolot that we do!

Update as of February 2025/Shevat 5785

As a reminder, the deadline for candidate applications was January 1st, and the Rabbinic Search Committee fully considered the 21 applications that were on-time and complete. Information about that pool, based entirely on their materials, can be found here.

Of those 21 applications, we recently conducted first-round interviews with 16 candidates via Zoom. Information about the pool can be found below this update. Of those, we have now chosen 6 to move forward in the process, and we are in the midst of second-round interviews with them. To protect their anonymity, we will not offer demographic information about this second-round pool. 

What’s next in rabbi hiring
Throughout February, the Rabbinic Search Committee will continue to assess candidates, in order to present the congregation with up to three finalists. At the same time, we’ve been offering programs for the congregation to prepare for and participate in decision-making about our new rabbi — as well as preparing to welcome them!

Tuesday, February 18, at 7:30 p.m. Panel conversation exploring how a congregation supports a rabbi. Moderated by George Sarah Olken and featuring three rabbis who are not applicants for our bimah: 

• Rabbi Andrue Kahn (Executive Director of the American Council for Judaism)

• Rabbi May Ye (Former Rabbi of Mending Minyan in New Haven, CT)

• Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg (Lead Rabbi of Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis, MN)

RSVP and submit questions here.

Please email HaraConnell@kolotchayeinu.org to request recordings from any of the offerings you might have missed. 

Thank you to the dozens of you who have sent questions for our committee, for our panelists, and for candidates. One question our committee has been asked is, How will you negotiate among people with very disparate views? 

How candidates navigate, bridge, and meet congregants’ differing, sometimes conflicting, needs and opinions — about pastoral care, liturgy, halachic observance, Israel/Palestine and the “open tent,” anti-racism, queer and trans freedom, and more — have been at the heart of our discernment process, which we hope will be evident to you when you meet the finalists at the Shabbatonim, which are Saturdays, March 8, March 22 and April 3.

On our committee, we have, together, undergone anti-racist, anti-bias training to build a common language about equity, fairness, and justice; we have worked in many configurations of partnerships and small teams to get to know one another better, as well as to get stuff done; we do our best to bridge differing schedules and communicate over various channels to stay coordinated and connected. We meet regularly with the Board and with the staff, we solicit Kolotniks’ questions, opinions, and thoughts in as many channels and as often as we can, and we share the input we receive such that, in our conversations, our committee members are holding our individual preferences, those of the communities within Kolot we know the best, and the priorities of the congregation as a whole.

As we have said previously about the search and selection, not all of us will get our first-choice candidate, but we strive to make a decision as transparently as possible, such that we share confidence in the process and in the compromises making a choice inevitably requires. 

In March and early April, Kolot will host up to three Candidate Shabbatonim. Each finalist candidate will join us at Kolot to lead services, meet congregants and answer questions — all events will be hybrid. Each will also meet in-person with the board, senior staff, and the Rabbi Search Committee, including a final, in-person interview. The Rabbinic Search Committee will collect Kolotniks’ responses, opinions, and questions during and after each Shabbaton to inform our decision-making. This is the last point to contribute your opinion on the candidates! Be sure to save these dates!

• Shabbaton 1: Saturday, March 8 

• Shabbaton 2: Saturday, March 22

• Shabbaton 3: Saturday, April 3 

In late April, the Rabbinic Search Committee will choose a top candidate to recommend to the Board. The Board will then vote on whether to approve our recommendation. If the Board votes yes, the Board will announce the proposed candidate to the congregation. Thereafter — at a date soon to be determined and announced — the congregation will vote on whether to accept the Board’s recommendation to hire the candidate. This vote is not an election — we, the congregation, will not be choosing between candidates. The vote is a yes-or-no on hiring the recommended candidate. If the congregation votes yes, the Board will commence negotiations. If the congregation votes no, the search fails and the congregation will begin the entire process again. That is, the Board will constitute new search committees and put in place a new plan for interim clergy leadership.

About the pool of candidates we interviewed in the first round
Reminder: It is our congregation’s responsibility to ensure the privacy and anonymity of the candidates until we announce finalists, and our committee takes this very seriously. We ask you please not to ask us about individuals who may or may not have applied. Thank you. 

Identity

• The first-round pool includes rabbis training at Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Renewal institutions.

• The first-round pool applicants hail from 8 states, including New York.

• The pool is a third women and two-thirds men, based on their preferred pronouns. Not every candidate disclosed whether they are trans; the pool includes both cis and trans candidates and may include non-binary candidates. (We neither asked nor made assumptions, and thus cannot offer a proportion.)

• The pool includes both straight and queer candidates; not all candidates self-identified. We neither asked nor made assumptions, and thus cannot offer a proportion.**

• The pool remains overwhelmingly, but not exclusively, white and Ashkenazi. 

Experience

• Time on the bimah ranges from 0 to 33 years 

• Almost half the pool self-identify as an artist; disciplines include the visual arts, music (including cantorial experience), and literary arts.

• 75% of candidates also bring professional training and/or experience beyond the bimah.

**Across our 21 applications, it is most accurate to say that 2 candidates self-identified as trans and a quarter of the pool self-identified as queer in their application materials.

Update as of January 2025/Tevet 5785

What’s happening now:
We are assessing candidates and you are preparing for Shabbatonim.

• Tuesday, February 4th at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom: Panel discussion on Different Approaches to the Bimah. Moderated by T Wise and featuring three rabbis who are not applicants for our bimah. RSVP here.

• Tuesday, February 18th at 7:30 p.m. on Zoom: Panel discussion on How a Congregation Supports a Rabbi. Moderated by George Sarah Olken with three rabbis who are not applicants for our bimah. Zoom only. RSVP here.

All Zoom events will be recorded and available to Kolot members. (Now is the time to pay your dues, so you can participate fully! If you need help, visit our member resources page or contact Executive Director Brett Parker.) 

Now is the time for *you* to offer *your or your kid(s)’ ideas* for questions we should ask candidates, which you can do via the RSVP forms above or on Zoom on Monday, February 10th at 7:00 p.m. at an “office hour” with Rabbi Search co-chairs BC Craig and Dania Rajendra to discuss the search. Zoom only. RSVP here. We invite you to: 

• Write a question you want us to ask

• Put in a topic you want us to cover

• Ask the committee a question

We can’t promise to ask your question, but we do promise to read, consider, and include it in our deliberations. We check the forms weekly. We’ll try to answer your questions here. 

Kolotniks’ questions from last week:
How will you collect our opinions on the candidate after the Shabbatonim? 
We’ll ask you to put your thoughts into an online form by 5:00 p.m. Sunday of each Shabbaton. Soon after the last Shabbaton, we’ll ask for your reflections on all the candidates and we’ll ask you to rank them. 

Will you know what I said? 
We will ask for your name to confirm your membership; we’ll immediately anonymize the feedback. We are asking for some self-identification — in particular, your Kolot participation — so we can understand the demographics of response as a whole.

Shabbatonim reminder: This is when you meet candidates and see them in action. We’ll offer more details about them soon. 

• March 7th-9th

• March 21st-23rd

• April 4th-6th

See you soon!

Update as of January 2025/Tevet 5785

We are extremely pleased to report great news about our rabbinic search. Twenty-seven – 27!!! – rabbis applied to be our next rabbi and we are pleased to share a bit about the pool and about our next steps. 

TL;DR: 

• Of the 27 rabbis who applied, 21 sent complete applications.* Our pool includes rabbis who are women, men, trans, cis, queer, straight, of color and white, from every Jewish denomination. These are all reasons to celebrate and to appreciate. We wouldn’t have it without the love and work of people inside and outside Kolot.

• For months, we have gotten to hear from people how beloved and important Kolot is far beyond our membership. We hope you feel the vicarious love and support, especially because this has been a hard few years for our congregation. That so many people want to be a part of Kolot is a real affirmation of what Kolot has been, is now, and what we might make it.

• Below this is an explanation of next steps and some information about the pool and our recruitment. Lots of detail for those who want it, and in service of transparency, openness, and for you to get involved. If you read only these bullets, dayenu and thank you.

• On January 11 the Congregational Engagement Team and the Rabbinic Search Team held a joint event to share the results of the congregational survey as a support and resource for Kolotniks in the search process. Members can find the recording link from this event in your inboxes under the subject line “A Rabbi Search Update” (contact HaraConnell@kolotchayeinu.org to be re-sent this email). Members who would like to access the full survey (analyzed and raw data), and express interest in further analyses can do so here.

• Thanks, see you at all the rabbi-search events in the next few months. Please opine sooner rather than later, and definitely by mid-April. 

What’s next in rabbi hiring
In January and February, the Candidate Search Committee will assess candidates in three rounds, to present the congregation with up to three finalists while offering events for Kolotniks to prepare and participate in decision-making.

In March and early April, Kolot will host up to 3 Shabbatonim. Each finalist will join us to lead services, meet congregants and answer questions—all events will be hybrid. Each will also meet in-person with the board, senior staff, and the rabbi search committee, including a final, in-person interview. The Candidate Search Committee will collect Kolotniks’ responses, opinions, and questions during and after each Shabbaton to inform our decision-making. This is the last point to contribute your opinion on the candidates! 

• Shabbaton 1: March 7-9

• Shabbaton 2: March 21-23

• Shabbaton 3: April 4-6

In late April, the Candidate Search Committee will choose a top candidate to recommend to the Board. The Board will then vote on whether to approve our recommendation.  If the Board votes yes, the Board will announce the proposed candidate to the congregation. Then in June, the congregation will vote on whether to accept the Board’s recommendation to hire the candidate. This vote is not an election—we are not choosing between candidates. The vote is a yes-or-no on hiring the recommended candidate.** If we vote yes, the Board will commence negotiations. If we vote no, the rabbi search fails and the congregation will begin the entire process again. That is, the Board will constitute new search committees and put in place a new plan for interim clergy leadership.
 
But right now there are important opportunities to weigh in as a whole community, therefore we ask you to join us at the upcoming events to prepare for the Shabbatonim: 

• Saturday, Jan 18 before and after services, chat with Candidate Search co-chairs BC Craig and Dania Rajendra. BC will be in-person and Dania will be on Zoom. 

• Tuesday, Feb 4, at 7:00 p.m. Panel discussion on differing approaches to the bimah. Moderated by T Wise and featuring three rabbis who are not applicants for our bimah. Zoom only. RSVP here.

• Monday, Feb 10, at 7:00 p.m., an “office hour” with rabbi search co-chairs BC Craig and Dania Rajendra to discuss the search. Zoom only. RSVP here.

• Tuesday, Feb 18, at 7:30 p.m. on how a congregation supports a rabbi. Moderated by George Sarah Olken with three rabbis who are not applicants for our bimah. Zoom only. RSVP here.

All Zoom events will be recorded and available to Kolot members. (Now is the time to pay your dues, so you can participate fully!) 

About our rabbinic candidate pool
First, a thank you: to every Kolotnik who helped recruit candidates by posting, emailing or telling people! Also a special thank yous to our interim clergy team, without whose indefatigable efforts we would not have such good news to share! 

Second, a caveat: it is our congregation’s responsibility to ensure the privacy and anonymity of the candidates until we announce finalists, and our committee takes this very seriously. At this time, not even the search committee knows the individual identities of the candidates, in keeping with the best practices for anti-racism and anti-bias in hiring. After our initial review, we’ll learn the identities only of those candidates we interview in the first round. We ask you please not to ask us about individuals who may or may not have applied. Thank you. 

About our pool: We received 27 applications, and 21 were complete.* The following reflects the 21 complete applications as a whole and are based on applicants’ materials: 

Identity

• The pool includes rabbis with Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox training.

• The pool applicants hail from 9 states - just under half of the pool applied from New York State.

• The pool is one-third women and two-thirds men. 

• A quarter of the applicants are queer. 

• Two are trans. 

• The pool is overwhelmingly, but not exclusively, white. 

Experience

• Time on the Bimah ranges from 0 to 33 years, with the median at 7.4. 

• Almost half the pool self-identify as artists, disciplines include the visual arts, music (several with cantorial experience), and literary arts.

• About 60 percent of the candidates also bring professional training and/or experience beyond the bimah, including in social work, the law, secular education, fundraising and finance, and executive leadership (top leadership of a non-profit or business). 

Notes
*Every candidate who submitted an incomplete application was immediately notified about what was missing and informed that we would not consider incomplete applications. 

**This process is mandated by Kolot's bylaws and designed to reflect our values. There are good reasons we are not electing a rabbi, here are two. 1. Inviting rabbis to electioneer amongst our membership would introduce and/or exacerbate division and acrimony that would be difficult for the congregation and the new rabbi to mend. Similarly, inviting the congregation to campaign for rabbis would also cause this harm. It is a set up to fail. 2. Humiliating one candidate with a public rejection is awful unto itself, as well as a deterrent to recruitment. We would cause harm to the candidate and impair our opportunities with future candidates. 

Update as of November 2024/Cheshvan 5785

The Rabbinic Search and Community Engagement Teams have been hard at work gathering and analyzing responses to the recent congregation-wide Survey and developing a process for vetting rabbi candidates. We were pleased to have had 256 individuals respond to the Survey, including more than 100 people who gave us narrative responses to open-ended questions. We are planning to present the Survey results to the entire congregation on January 11, 2025 and we will solicit questions and suggestions from attendees to help shape an evaluation tool that we can all use to assess the best fit once we meet the finalist candidates at Shabbatons (weekend Shabbat events) in the Spring. Please hold the tentative dates - March 22 and April 5!

In addition, the Membership Engagement Committee and the Israel/Palestine Task Force have asked that we discuss the survey results with them before the end of the year and we expect to schedule those discussions. If you're part of a group of members that would like to schedule such a discussion between now and the end of 2024, please contact RabbiSearch@KolotChayeinu.org.

The deadline for submission of rabbi candidate applications is January 1, 2025. We have worked with anti-racism, anti-bias consultants to ensure we’re living our Kolot values as we develop our candidate screening process, including tools to screen applicants to be sure they satisfy the basic requirements of the job description. As we meet with members of the congregation in December, January, and beyond to discuss community input, we will conduct interviews with qualifying candidates after January 1st with an eye to choosing a few of them to lead Shabbat services (Shabbatons) in the spring. Watch the Weekly for further information. And in the meantime, please use the job description and the congregational profile to help spread the word to potential rabbi candidates!

Update as of September 2024/Elul 5784

1. Thanks to the contributions of 200+ Kolotniks, we have a position announcement and a congregational profile! 

2. All hands are needed for recruitment! Please find sample recruitment language and our visuals for Kolotniks to invite applications by email and social media here. Let us know how it’s going or if you have questions, complaints, or concerns here (we’ll check this weekly) — and stay tuned for some Kolot-wide conversations after the High Holy Days.

Update as of August 2024/Av 5784

1. We are blessed by the continuing leadership of Cantor Lisa B. Segal, a founding member of Kolot and our lead clergy member; we are also so blessed that our full clergy team for 5784 includes: Rabbi Abby Stein, Student Rabbi Hadar Ahuvia, and Student Rabbi Madeleine Fortney. Working alongside and in support of them all is Kolot’s Rabbi Emerita Ellen Lippmann.  

2. From mid-May through mid-July / Nissan/Iyar through Sivan/Tamuz, the Community Engagement Team developed, received training for, and supported a community engagement plan that included listening sessions, which reached over 100 participants, and a survey that engaged more than 250 individuals. This “all hands” endeavor succeeded thanks to the generous efforts of the hosts, facilitators, participants, members of the Rabbi Candidate Search Team, clergy, and Board. At the Annual Meeting, members of the Community Engagement Team presented a very preliminary summary of the listening session feedback. You can review that presentation here. If you are interested in reviewing a complete summary of the survey data let us know in this form. Please use the same form to request access to the survey data and to let us know if you are interested in being part of the ongoing “deep dive” analysis of both the listening session and the survey data to inform our understanding of who we are as a congregation and how to plan for our needs and for the new rabbi in the year(s) ahead. 

3. Using the data and the preliminary findings from both the survey and the listening sessions, as well as comprehensive reading and interview research about the rabbinic hiring landscape, the Rabbi Candidate Search Team is developing the recruitment and discernment process and documents, including the congregational profile (with thanks for the starting draft created by Ellen Lubell and Trisha Arlin) and the position announcement.

Please look for those documents as well as sample recruitment language to join in the announcement in mid-August.

All hands — and also funds — are needed! To support the work of finding a new rabbi, please click here. 

All ideas are needed, too! Send us yours at RabbiSearch@KolotChayeinu.org.

Update as of June 2024/Sivan 5784

At Kolot’s Annual Meeting on June 9, 2024/3 Sivan 5784, members of both rabbinic search teams presented the process as of that date. The slide presentation about the Listening Sessions and search process plans can be found here.