Rabbi’s Update 11/14/2025

Dear Friends:

Some notes on a few different subjects:

This Shabbat we will say farewell to Stu and Janet Rutchik. Stu has served in many different roles including two terms as synagogue president and has been a frequent Haftarah chanter. Janet has also served in many different positions on the board and in Sisterhood. The Rutchiks have been members of Kehilat Shalom for about 35 years and they will be sorely missed but we understand their desire to live closer to their grandchildren. My own relationship with the Rutchiks began before I became the rabbi of Kehilat Shalom. Stu grew up at Beth Jacob Synagogue in Norwich, CT, the synagogue where I was the rabbi before I came here. I first met Stu and Janet when I officiated at the funeral of his mother Dorothy in 2006.

I want to thank the following people who donated to my Discretionary Fund so that I could make a donation to the Masorti Movement in Israel in memory of Reva Garmise, wife of our High Holiday Cantor Michael Garmise:

Sue Lebowitz, Toby Friedberg, Wendy Schneider-Levinson, Charlotte and Terry Strauss, Lori and Robert Wasserman, Leslie Cohen, Marilyn Fliegler, Tom and Linda Loggie, Gail and Bill Hanson, Dee Jolles, Keleigh and Rabbi Charles Arian. 

Because of your generosity we were able to make a significant donation to the Masorti Movement, our sister movement in Israel. Cantor Garmise writes: “I am moved by the response of the congregation, and send my thanks and great appreciation for your concern. I felt very welcome in the congregation, and all the members were extremely friendly.”

Finally, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women as rabbis in Conservative Judaism. Rabbi Amy Eilberg was ordained at JTS in 1985 and I now have the honor of serving with her on the Social Justice Commission of Conservative/Masorti Judaism.

The faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary decided to accept women as candidates for the rabbinate and cantorate in 1983, but at the time there were a number of women doing coursework at JTS in anticipation that ordination would eventually be a possibility, and thus it was that Amy Eilberg was able to be ordained in 1985. I will be discussing the debate over ordaining women and the halachic reasoning that opened the rabbinate and the cantorate to women in Conservative Judaism as part of my drasha tomorrow morning.

Interestingly, the first major demographic study of the American rabbinate was released this week by ATRA, the Center for Rabbinic Innovation. Like the old joke says, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that 97 percent of rabbis find their work meaningful. The bad news is that the rabbinic pipeline is not keeping up with future needs; of currently-employed rabbis, fully a quarter are over age 65 while only 6 percent are under 35.

ATRA looked at enrollment in rabbinical schools as well as active rabbis and found that the rabbinate of the future is going to be increasingly diverse. Fifty-eight percent of current rabbinical students are women and 51 percent identify as LGBTQ.

While the Federal government is starting to reopen, if you or someone you know is in need because of the shutdown, has been laid off, or has lost benefits because of the funding impasse and needs immediate help, please let me know. I can access limited funds through the Jewish Federation almost immediately. For longer-term help, the Jewish Free Loan Society will loan up to $18,000 interest-free and the Jewish Federation has set up a hotline to access assistance at 703-JCARING.

As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building. 

As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by. 

Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Charles L. Arian