March 28, 2025
Shabbat Shalom! This week I was blessed to attend the annual convention for the Central Conference of American Rabbis. On Monday morning, I was installed as President Elect of the Conference. The mission of the CCAR is to “support and strengthen Reform rabbis so that our members, their communities, and Reform Jewish values thrive.” I have been an active volunteer in the CCAR for more than a decade. I began as a volunteer on the advisory committee of the Mishkan T’fillah Journal edition– which we give our religious school students–and continued co-chairing a trip to Israel and serving on our annual convention committee for five years (including as chair of the 2019 convention). I have served as chair of Continuing Rabbinic Education, and then for the last four years as a board member–including two years as Vice President of Program and Member Support. Over the years, I feel that my rabbinate has been strengthened because of the wisdom and insight shared by presenters and colleagues.
Serving as a rabbi isn’t always easy but, through my work, I encounter lots of joy and blessing. Early in the convention, we were asked to share the aspects of our work that bring us meaning and my response was being able to sit with people in their most vulnerable moments, whether in the hospital, at the end of life, or in the earliest stages of grief. Sometimes, just being present for someone, not needing to share words, or wisdom, but just the presence of their rabbi brings blessing and meaning.
The role of the rabbi can be challenging because people have expectations that we may not be able to live up to, letting people down along the way. As rabbis we must recognize when we need to stand up, speak out, and step back to let others lead. Through it all, there is an obligation to ground all we do in Torah and live by the highest ethical standards embodied in our ethics code.
As I think about the many lessons that I am taking away from this year’s convention, there are several that stand out. First and foremost, we had the opportunity to acknowledge and reflect on the 35th anniversary of the “Report on Homosexuality in the Rabbinate”. At the 1990 convention, the report was accepted amid great tension. Colleagues shared harrowing and painful stories about their experiences of being rejected for jobs because of their sexuality. A few colleagues also shared that despite all of the hardships, they were able to find many blessings. This program brought me tears of sadness and pain, along with those of joy and blessing. Additionally, Rabbi Michael Marmur, who visited Beth Tikvah as our Resler Scholar-in-Residence in May of 2023, taught us about anxiety and hope as the engines of Jewish life. His beautiful teaching inspired us to see hope (Tikvah) as a thread (kav) attached to something that pulls us toward a better tomorrow, and also as a mikveh, a pool that gives us sustenance.
These last few days have certainly been a pool of sustenance for me. As I return home, I am excited to attach that thread to something that will carry us forward into the future.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rick Kellner