Rabbi Beth Kalisch celebrates 10 years at Beth David Reform Congregation

After her ordination by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 2009, Rabbi Beth Kalisch briefly served two congregations in New York City. She then joined Beth David Reform Congregation in 2013 on a one-year interim contract.

It wasn’t long before the Gladwyne congregation asked the Central Conference of American Rabbis for permission to interview her for the long-term role. Ten years later she celebrates her anniversary at Beth David with a festive evening on May 10.

It begins with social action projects, continues with a dinner, a Shabbat service and an Oneg, and includes a speech by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism and the rabbi who encouraged Kalisch to join the rabbi ministry. close when she was still a student. dorm during spring break in Scarsdale, New York. Jacobs led Kalisch’s children’s synagogue, Westchester Reform Temple.

“It feels so satisfying and sweet,” Kalisch, 43, said.

“Rabbi Kalisch has provided exemplary leadership during her decade at Beth David,” new synagogue President Jane Horwitz said in a news release. “Her ability to connect with church members as an individual is a true gift. She inspires each of us to be the best versions of ourselves.”

Kalisch had never served five years in a synagogue before Beth David, let alone ten. The experience was profound, she said.

Her bar and bat mitzvah students from her early years have now completed college. Her current bar and bat mitzvah students were toddlers when she started.

Kalisch herself married under a chuppah on the bimah at Beth David. Her two daughters were mentioned in the same place.

“I feel at home,” she said.

It was a journey that began while the rabbi was still a student at Yale University. When she returned home during spring break, she had a conversation with her Rabbi Jacobs. Today the older man is a national leader. According to URJ.org, the URJ represents more than 2 million Jews in more than 800 congregations.

But at the time, Jacobs was a rabbi in the congregation celebrating his own 10-year anniversary with Westchester Reform. He had believed Kalisch could become a rabbi since her bat mitzvah day, according to Kalisch’s 10th anniversary press release. When she was home on break, he finally told her.

He said he hoped the young woman would also one day reach this 10-year milestone.

“On the day of her bat mitzvah, I knew Beth Kalisch would be a phenomenal rabbi, and what a joy to celebrate this milestone with my brilliant student,” he said in the press release.

The conversation helped Kalisch on her path. She graduated from Yale with a degree in religious studies and attended Hebrew Union College to study with David Ellenson, a Reform scholar.

Kalisch wrote her rabbinical thesis on rabbinic writings on conversion and interfaith marriages (both of which she supports) and spent time as a student rabbi in Wyoming, Mississippi and Uniontown, Pennsylvania (in Fayette County, near Pittsburgh). She also served as an intern chaplain at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

It’s an impressive resume. But it wasn’t her resume that kept Kalisch in the Beth David building. It was the same quality that stood out to Jacobs all those years ago: she just had it.

“She is warm, caring, intelligent and passionate about social justice, which is a cornerstone of Beth David’s culture,” current synagogue President Rodd Bender said in the news release. “Rabbi Kalisch has also been a great source of comfort to my family and others during difficult times.”

According to Kalisch, COVID was one of those challenging times.

Like many synagogues, Beth David embraced new technology in 2020, 2021 and 2022. But more than that, the period asked Kalisch to think deeply about what community really meant.

“It gave me a new perspective on how valuable it is to be in community with people and sing together,” she said.

October 7 and the war between Israel and Hamas were another of those challenging times, according to the rabbi.

“There is so much pain in the community,” she said. “We are trying to help support each other, learn more about what is going on, how we stand up for ourselves as a Jewish community, how we speak out for understanding, tolerance and peace, and continue to build relationships that are important to us within the Jewish community and the boundaries of differences.”

Despite all this, Beth David continues. Work is underway to get approval from Lower Merion Township for a new preschool.

“I hope we can continue to inspire people to make Judaism a source of wisdom and joy in their lives,” Kalisch said.

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