Settled Rabbi Search Committee Update
March/April 2018 Update
We’re far from done with our rabbi search, but we’d like to take a moment this month and thank everyone who attended services, Torah study, or committee chair discussions with one of our first two candidates. Your active participation is a huge benefit to the search process, providing the committee with valuable input and giving candidates an opportunity to really understand our congregation. Both Josh and Rebecca reported that they felt most welcome and enjoyed their visits with us very much. We would also like to thank the members of the search committee, the board of directors, the temple staff, and Rabbi Bogosian for all the time they’ve devoted to the search process so far. A special thank you goes out to Cantor Vera for working extensively with both of our candidates as they prepared for Shabbat morning services. This is truly a community effort.
We’ve entered a complex part of our process involving more substantive discussions with candidates. Due to the nature of these conversations, and to respect the privacy of the candidates, it’s difficult to provide a detailed update to the community, but we can say that we’ll continue to consider applicants and schedule visits with them until we have a formal agreement with a new rabbi. Please feel free to contact either of us with questions, comments, or concerns. While there may be some questions we can’t answer immediately, we want to provide you with concrete information whenever possible, so don’t hesitate to ask.
L’Shalom,
David & Jenn
Co-Chairs, Rabbi Search Committee
We’re far from done with our rabbi search, but we’d like to take a moment this month and thank everyone who attended services, Torah study, or committee chair discussions with one of our first two candidates. Your active participation is a huge benefit to the search process, providing the committee with valuable input and giving candidates an opportunity to really understand our congregation. Both Josh and Rebecca reported that they felt most welcome and enjoyed their visits with us very much. We would also like to thank the members of the search committee, the board of directors, the temple staff, and Rabbi Bogosian for all the time they’ve devoted to the search process so far. A special thank you goes out to Cantor Vera for working extensively with both of our candidates as they prepared for Shabbat morning services. This is truly a community effort.
We’ve entered a complex part of our process involving more substantive discussions with candidates. Due to the nature of these conversations, and to respect the privacy of the candidates, it’s difficult to provide a detailed update to the community, but we can say that we’ll continue to consider applicants and schedule visits with them until we have a formal agreement with a new rabbi. Please feel free to contact either of us with questions, comments, or concerns. While there may be some questions we can’t answer immediately, we want to provide you with concrete information whenever possible, so don’t hesitate to ask.
L’Shalom,
David & Jenn
Co-Chairs, Rabbi Search Committee
January 24, 2018
Dear Chevrei,
On behalf of the Rabbi Search Committee, we would like to invite you to the Saturday morning service on February 3rd at 9:30, followed by the weekly Kiddush and Torah study. The service and Torah study that day will be led by one of our rabbinical candidates. The service that morning will be using Sim Shalom, instead of Mishkan Tefillah even though it is the first Saturday of the month.
This is the second candidate who will be visiting our congregation to lead services and Torah study. These extended visits are an integral part of the hiring process, intended to give each candidate an opportunity to engage with members of the congregation during foundational temple activities. We encourage you to attend.
In order to ensure we have sufficient seating in the chapel and Starensier, please reply to Nancy by Thursday February 1st if you plan to join us. We hope you’ll also consider bringing a dairy or parve dish to share at the Kiddush. Please let Nancy know that as well, if so.
We are very excited for the community to meet our candidates and help them discover all that Temple Emanu-El Haverhill has to offer.
Shabbat Shalom,
David and Jenn
Rabbi Search Committee Co-chairs
To contact David and Jenn with questions, e-mail David Belsky at [email protected] or Jenn Lampron at [email protected].
Dear Chevrei,
On behalf of the Rabbi Search Committee, we would like to invite you to the Saturday morning service on February 3rd at 9:30, followed by the weekly Kiddush and Torah study. The service and Torah study that day will be led by one of our rabbinical candidates. The service that morning will be using Sim Shalom, instead of Mishkan Tefillah even though it is the first Saturday of the month.
This is the second candidate who will be visiting our congregation to lead services and Torah study. These extended visits are an integral part of the hiring process, intended to give each candidate an opportunity to engage with members of the congregation during foundational temple activities. We encourage you to attend.
In order to ensure we have sufficient seating in the chapel and Starensier, please reply to Nancy by Thursday February 1st if you plan to join us. We hope you’ll also consider bringing a dairy or parve dish to share at the Kiddush. Please let Nancy know that as well, if so.
We are very excited for the community to meet our candidates and help them discover all that Temple Emanu-El Haverhill has to offer.
Shabbat Shalom,
David and Jenn
Rabbi Search Committee Co-chairs
To contact David and Jenn with questions, e-mail David Belsky at [email protected] or Jenn Lampron at [email protected].
December 29, 2017
Dear Chevrei,
On behalf of the Rabbi Search Committee, we would like to invite you to the Saturday morning service on January 13th at 9:30, followed by the weekly Kiddush and Torah Study. The service and Torah study that day will be led by one of our rabbinical candidates.
This is the first of at least two candidates who will be visiting our congregation to lead services and Torah study. These extended visits are an integral part of the hiring process, intended to give each candidate an opportunity to engage with members of the congregation during foundational temple activities. We encourage you to attend.
In order to ensure we have sufficient seating in the chapel and Starensier, please reply to Nancy ([email protected]) by Thursday January 11th if you plan to join us. We hope you’ll also consider bringing a dairy or parve dish to share at the Kiddush. If so, please let Nancy know that as well.
We are very excited for the community to meet our candidates and help them discover all that Temple Emanu-El Haverhill has to offer.
Shabbat Shalom,
David and Jenn
Rabbi Search Committee Co-chairs
To contact David and Jenn with questions, e-mail David Belsky at [email protected] or Jenn Lampron at [email protected].
Dear Chevrei,
On behalf of the Rabbi Search Committee, we would like to invite you to the Saturday morning service on January 13th at 9:30, followed by the weekly Kiddush and Torah Study. The service and Torah study that day will be led by one of our rabbinical candidates.
This is the first of at least two candidates who will be visiting our congregation to lead services and Torah study. These extended visits are an integral part of the hiring process, intended to give each candidate an opportunity to engage with members of the congregation during foundational temple activities. We encourage you to attend.
In order to ensure we have sufficient seating in the chapel and Starensier, please reply to Nancy ([email protected]) by Thursday January 11th if you plan to join us. We hope you’ll also consider bringing a dairy or parve dish to share at the Kiddush. If so, please let Nancy know that as well.
We are very excited for the community to meet our candidates and help them discover all that Temple Emanu-El Haverhill has to offer.
Shabbat Shalom,
David and Jenn
Rabbi Search Committee Co-chairs
To contact David and Jenn with questions, e-mail David Belsky at [email protected] or Jenn Lampron at [email protected].
January/February Update
The search for our new rabbi is well underway. Your input via the member survey, and so many thoughtful comments during the focus groups, has been invaluable in creating our job posting and interview questions. In response to our posting and outreach, we’ve received a number of promising resumes and have begun contacting candidates for preliminary interviews.
So, what’s next? In December and January, we’ll hold a round of preliminary, two-hour interviews between selected applicants and the committee. From these meetings, we’ll identify the top candidates and invite them back for extended visits. During these follow-up meetings, we’ll offer candidates the opportunity to view temple activities, meet with clergy and staff, speak with committee chairs, and participate in a service. We’ll ask them to contribute to the service through readings, d’var torah, and other liturgical elements, and we’ll invite them to join the congregation afterward for a kiddush where you’ll have the opportunity to meet them in a casual, social setting. The dates of these extended visits will depend on availability of the applicants, but we’ll communicate them to you via the Shavuon and email as far in advance as possible.
Once we’ve completed the interview process, the committee will meet to review what we’ve learned, including any feedback we receive from members and staff . We’ll then make recommendations to the board of directors who, ultimately, will approve a short list of finalists. The search committee chairs will work with the executive committee to develop a contract offer, and the committee chairs will negotiate this with our top candidate. If an agreement is reached, we’ll refer the final contract back to the board for approval and formally extend an offer.
David Belsky
Jenn Lampron
Co-Chairs, Rabbi Search Committee
The search for our new rabbi is well underway. Your input via the member survey, and so many thoughtful comments during the focus groups, has been invaluable in creating our job posting and interview questions. In response to our posting and outreach, we’ve received a number of promising resumes and have begun contacting candidates for preliminary interviews.
So, what’s next? In December and January, we’ll hold a round of preliminary, two-hour interviews between selected applicants and the committee. From these meetings, we’ll identify the top candidates and invite them back for extended visits. During these follow-up meetings, we’ll offer candidates the opportunity to view temple activities, meet with clergy and staff, speak with committee chairs, and participate in a service. We’ll ask them to contribute to the service through readings, d’var torah, and other liturgical elements, and we’ll invite them to join the congregation afterward for a kiddush where you’ll have the opportunity to meet them in a casual, social setting. The dates of these extended visits will depend on availability of the applicants, but we’ll communicate them to you via the Shavuon and email as far in advance as possible.
Once we’ve completed the interview process, the committee will meet to review what we’ve learned, including any feedback we receive from members and staff . We’ll then make recommendations to the board of directors who, ultimately, will approve a short list of finalists. The search committee chairs will work with the executive committee to develop a contract offer, and the committee chairs will negotiate this with our top candidate. If an agreement is reached, we’ll refer the final contract back to the board for approval and formally extend an offer.
David Belsky
Jenn Lampron
Co-Chairs, Rabbi Search Committee
November/December Update
On behalf of the Rabbi search committee, we would like to thank the members of the congregation who participated in the survey or focus groups. Your input on what YOU are looking for in our new rabbi, and our temple going forward is invaluable. We appreciate your frank opinions and ideas. Your feedback is driving our search and we are so pleased that so many participated. We estimate that about 45% of the overall membership participated in the survey and about 35% in the focus groups.
The Rabbi search committee has been busy in the last couple months. We have:
We are working feverishly to begin advertising for the position by Nov 1st, so that we can begin receiving resumes and screening candidates. Our hope is to complete the interview process and make an offer in the early springtime.
We still want to hear from you even though the formal survey process has been completed. If you have any questions about the process have more feedback to provide, please do not hesitate to contact either of us at our addresses below.
On behalf of the Rabbi search committee, we would like to thank the members of the congregation who participated in the survey or focus groups. Your input on what YOU are looking for in our new rabbi, and our temple going forward is invaluable. We appreciate your frank opinions and ideas. Your feedback is driving our search and we are so pleased that so many participated. We estimate that about 45% of the overall membership participated in the survey and about 35% in the focus groups.
The Rabbi search committee has been busy in the last couple months. We have:
- Finished the Focus Groups
- Anaylzed data and accrued all the feedback from the Surveys and Focus Groups
- Developed a list of job requirements for the new Rabbi
We are working feverishly to begin advertising for the position by Nov 1st, so that we can begin receiving resumes and screening candidates. Our hope is to complete the interview process and make an offer in the early springtime.
We still want to hear from you even though the formal survey process has been completed. If you have any questions about the process have more feedback to provide, please do not hesitate to contact either of us at our addresses below.
September/October Update
We hope you have enjoyed your summer and are looking forward to an exciting Fall. For the Search Committee, our busy time is just ahead of us. After High Holidays, we'll begin analyzing the input we've received from so many of you and, shortly thereafter, we'll post our first advertisements for a Rabbi for our congregation, to begin July 1st.
To recap what we've done so far:
We will have 2 more focus groups, Sunday September 10th at 10:30 (after the Open House) and Wednesday September 13th. Please RSVP to Nancy ([email protected]) to let us know how many will be able to attend. We have tried to offer varied times to attract a vast majority of our membership, but should we have missed you, please contact one of us (our addresses are below).
Our next step will be to analyze all of the data we have received to use it to understand our needs and priorities. After we have done this, we will update our list of requirements for hiring and start contacting placement officers at Rabbinical schools to find qualified candidates.
Should you have any questions about this process, please do not hesitate to contact us: David Belsky ([email protected]) or Jenn Lampron ([email protected]).
L'Shalom,
David and Jenn
We hope you have enjoyed your summer and are looking forward to an exciting Fall. For the Search Committee, our busy time is just ahead of us. After High Holidays, we'll begin analyzing the input we've received from so many of you and, shortly thereafter, we'll post our first advertisements for a Rabbi for our congregation, to begin July 1st.
To recap what we've done so far:
- In April, we formed of committee of about a dozen members, representing a cross-section of the temple's demographic.
- In early July, we sent out a survey inciting feedback from the congregation on priorities moving forward for the new Rabbi.
- In late July, we started focus groups looking to get more feedback and opinions of the direction we should head to meet the needs of our diverse community.
- As of the end of August, we will have completed 4 Focus Groups, with 2 more planned. The response has been positive and we are happy to see so many attendees.
We will have 2 more focus groups, Sunday September 10th at 10:30 (after the Open House) and Wednesday September 13th. Please RSVP to Nancy ([email protected]) to let us know how many will be able to attend. We have tried to offer varied times to attract a vast majority of our membership, but should we have missed you, please contact one of us (our addresses are below).
Our next step will be to analyze all of the data we have received to use it to understand our needs and priorities. After we have done this, we will update our list of requirements for hiring and start contacting placement officers at Rabbinical schools to find qualified candidates.
Should you have any questions about this process, please do not hesitate to contact us: David Belsky ([email protected]) or Jenn Lampron ([email protected]).
L'Shalom,
David and Jenn
Focus Groups
On behalf of the Settled Rabbi Committee, we want to thank you for your responses to the community-wide survey. These and the follow-up focus groups will be used by the committee to craft our settled rabbi job description, and will be passed on to the board for use in strategic planning. All of your feedback is critical to us. This information will help us find a new settled Rabbi who meets the needs of the diverse community we represent.
This week the committee will be working with our Interim Rabbi, Ilene Bogosian, to prepare for a series of focus groups. The first of these groups will be this Saturday (July 29th), immediately following Shabbat services. This time was selected to encourage attendance by regular Shabbat morning Minyan participants, some of whom have difficulty getting to the temple on other days. All are welcome to sign up for this session. Of course, if you’d like to join the service that day as well, you’re most welcome!
In addition to the July 29th meeting, we will have four additional focus groups. The dates and times for all five session are:
To assist in scheduling, please sign up with Nancy ([email protected] or 978-373-3861) prior to the date of the focus group. We hope to keep the sessions to a manageable size to ensure every person can be heard. We will add more groups or split sessions to accommodate more participants, if needed, and we would be thrilled to have such overwhelming interest.
We look forward to seeing all of you at one of the focus groups and hearing your feedback. And, as always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments with regard to the search process. David’s e-mail is [email protected]. Jenn’s e-mail is [email protected].
L'shalom,
Jenn & David - Co-Chairs
On behalf of the Settled Rabbi Committee, we want to thank you for your responses to the community-wide survey. These and the follow-up focus groups will be used by the committee to craft our settled rabbi job description, and will be passed on to the board for use in strategic planning. All of your feedback is critical to us. This information will help us find a new settled Rabbi who meets the needs of the diverse community we represent.
This week the committee will be working with our Interim Rabbi, Ilene Bogosian, to prepare for a series of focus groups. The first of these groups will be this Saturday (July 29th), immediately following Shabbat services. This time was selected to encourage attendance by regular Shabbat morning Minyan participants, some of whom have difficulty getting to the temple on other days. All are welcome to sign up for this session. Of course, if you’d like to join the service that day as well, you’re most welcome!
In addition to the July 29th meeting, we will have four additional focus groups. The dates and times for all five session are:
- Saturday, July 29, 12pm
- Wednesday, August 9, 7pm
- Tuesday, August 15, 7pm
- Wednesday, August 30, 7pm
- Wednesday, September 13, 4:30pm
To assist in scheduling, please sign up with Nancy ([email protected] or 978-373-3861) prior to the date of the focus group. We hope to keep the sessions to a manageable size to ensure every person can be heard. We will add more groups or split sessions to accommodate more participants, if needed, and we would be thrilled to have such overwhelming interest.
We look forward to seeing all of you at one of the focus groups and hearing your feedback. And, as always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or comments with regard to the search process. David’s e-mail is [email protected]. Jenn’s e-mail is [email protected].
L'shalom,
Jenn & David - Co-Chairs
July/ August Udate
This month we’d like to describe the rabbi search process to you in more detail and, most importantly, to invite you to participate in a crucial aspect of the search. A vital first step in the rabbinic search is understanding who we are and how we define our community, and our priorities. We began this process over a year ago through our Mission Statement workshops, strategic planning in board meetings, and our Interim Rabbi search during which we created a preliminary temple profile for use in recruiting. We’ve developed a framework for understanding who we are today, but we need your help to truly define our identity. Over the next two to three months, we’d like to engage every temple member through a community wide survey and a series of focus groups during which we’ll ask for your opinions. The first step, the Rabbi Search Committee Survey, will be underway by the time your read this. This survey, based on a successful one used at one of Rabbi Bogosian’s previous congregations, and revised by the search committee, seeks to understand what’s important to you and what characteristics we want to look for in a new rabbi. We hope that every one of you from bar/bat mitzvah age and up will take 10-15 minutes to complete the survey and share your thoughts with us. The second step, focus groups, will give the committee a chance to talk with many of you in more detail to explore opinions and topics of concern raised in the survey (this is why the survey is so important). Based on this feedback, the committee will revise our profile for use in recruiting.
We hope you’ll share your candid thoughts with us through the survey and focus groups to help make the rabbi search as successful as 36 years ago!
L’Shalom,
Jenn & David - Co-Chairs
May/June Update
As you know, we will be searching for a new “settled” rabbi between now and early 2018. Rabbi Ilene Bogosian will be joining us on July 1st to serve as our day-to-day rabbi and to advise and assist us with the search process. Rabbi Bogosian’s term is expected to be one year which is standard for interim rabbis. With her help, our plan is to complete the search for a settled rabbi and have him or her start on July 1, 2018.
The Rabbi Search Committee has been assembled from a cross-section of our membership and has the goals of articulating our community’s vision and finding a candidate who can best help us achieve that. A list of the committee members is included below. Once we’ve narrowed our search to a set of final candidates, we’ll engage the community-at-large in the decision-making process. As committee chairs, we will provide updates to you on this page, in the Temple Bulletin, and through other means as we approach particularly important milestones in the process. Our first step will be to conduct a temple-wide survey to better understand your priorities and identify the characteristics you would like to see in our new rabbi. We plan to have the survey out to you in the next few weeks.
So, how can you be involved?
• Read the Bulletin updates to keep abreast of our progress
• Ask questions!
• Participate in the survey
In the meantime, if you have questions or would like to give us feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact one of us. You can reach Jenn at [email protected] or David at [email protected].
L’Shalom,
David Belsky and Jenn Lampron
Co-Chairs
As you know, we will be searching for a new “settled” rabbi between now and early 2018. Rabbi Ilene Bogosian will be joining us on July 1st to serve as our day-to-day rabbi and to advise and assist us with the search process. Rabbi Bogosian’s term is expected to be one year which is standard for interim rabbis. With her help, our plan is to complete the search for a settled rabbi and have him or her start on July 1, 2018.
The Rabbi Search Committee has been assembled from a cross-section of our membership and has the goals of articulating our community’s vision and finding a candidate who can best help us achieve that. A list of the committee members is included below. Once we’ve narrowed our search to a set of final candidates, we’ll engage the community-at-large in the decision-making process. As committee chairs, we will provide updates to you on this page, in the Temple Bulletin, and through other means as we approach particularly important milestones in the process. Our first step will be to conduct a temple-wide survey to better understand your priorities and identify the characteristics you would like to see in our new rabbi. We plan to have the survey out to you in the next few weeks.
So, how can you be involved?
• Read the Bulletin updates to keep abreast of our progress
• Ask questions!
• Participate in the survey
In the meantime, if you have questions or would like to give us feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact one of us. You can reach Jenn at [email protected] or David at [email protected].
L’Shalom,
David Belsky and Jenn Lampron
Co-Chairs
Search Committee
|
Paula Breger
Sherry Cann Larry Cowan Rhoda Feldman David Fisher Loren Goldstein |
Jesse Kamien
Kevin Miller Sharyn Russell Susan Shwom Trudy Zakin |
Search Committee Advisors
Larry Cann
Stuart Mandell
Karen Newborn
Larry Cann
Stuart Mandell
Karen Newborn