Congregation Mishkan Shalom welcomes new senior rabbi

By JUDY GOLDSCHMIDT

Jeff Sultar, a 1996 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in Wyncote, is the new senior rabbi for the progressive Jewish congregation Mishkan Shalom in Roxborough. He has traveled a unique path to this place, considering that he describes his childhood as “culturally Jewish” but with no connection to his religion after his Bar Mitzvah at 13. As a teen and young adult, he had assumed a position that all religion was hypocritical. That changed when he was 22.

Following his graduation in 1984 from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., the Connecticut native embarked on a solo, 27-month, 16,000-mile bicycle journey throughout the United States. During the trip, he bartered work in exchange for food and lodging in over 400 communities. His only goal on the road, he states, was “to have no goal.” Yet this transformative experience led him back to the Judaism he had abandoned, and put him on the path to becoming a rabbi.

Early on his exploration, Rabbi Sultar spent time on an Amish farm in Lancaster. “I had learned about organizing community, but for me this was my first experience of living in a ‘true’ community,” he says. “I realized for the first time that it was possible for religion to be practiced with great integrity, and that religion could empower and inspire people to take positive action in the world. When I left the Amish, I asked myself which community do I belong to? The answer was — the Jewish community.”

Returning to Williamstown after the cross-country odyssey, he taught at Williams College, and served as a Gaudino Fellow for the Center for Common Security (CSS). He led workshops throughout the country on themes of global security, participatory education and leadership, and helped create courses on nonviolence and social change. He founded the CSS’s Natural Security Program, which explored the environmental dimensions of international security.
“Professionally, I was doing educating, organizing and community building,” he said. “Personally, I intensively explored Judaism, and it had clearly become the center of all I did. The rabbinate was the perfect way to weave together the professional and personal strands of my life.”

While studying at the RRC, he spent a year of study in Israel; helped develop and teach the innovative “Jewish, Alive, and American” program in Philadelphia, an intensive, year-long course for people rediscovering their Judaism as adults; and spoke throughout the eastern U.S. on the connection between Jewish values and environmental concerns. He has also taught courses on Judaism and the environment at the National Havurah Summer Institute.

Rabbi Sultar has big shoes to fill as the spiritual leader at Mishkan Shalom. Rabbi Brian Walt founded the congregation of progressive, politically active Jews from throughout the Delaware Valley in 1986 and was highly regarded as a peace-seeker, an outspoken voice of consciousness for human rights, including the Palestinians. In July 2003, Rabbi Walt moved to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., with his wife, Rabbi Caryn Broitman, who became the spiritual leader of a synagogue there. (Today, he continues his role as executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America.)

The Reconstructionist movement of Judaism did not have anyone with such training, so the congregation hired Linda Holtzman for one year. Rabbi Holtzman, herself a member and former education director of the synagogue, took a leave of absence from her position as director and associate professor of the Department of Practical Rabbinics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. (Rabbi Yael Levy, of Mt. Airy, who has been the synagogue’s associate rabbi for 10 years, retained her position throughout the search process and continues to serve in that role.)

Core Values
Rabbi Sultar says that the core values of his new congregation — a passion for Judaism combined with a commitment to tikkun olam (“repair of the world”) and community empowerment — mirror the same values that attracted him to the rabbinate. “Mishkan Shalom is a perfect match for me,” he notes, “between the kind of rabbi I want to be and the kind of Judaism this community is nurturing. I also have experience guiding a congregation through this kind of transitional growth period, and feel comfortable with helping this congregation explore where it’s been and where it wants to go.”

Many will meet Rabbi Jeff for the first time at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, which Mishkan Shalom holds at the Lulu Temple in Plymouth Meeting. “I look forward to leading the Days of Awe (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) services with Rabbi Yael this fall,“ notes Rabbi Sultar. “I particularly value the fact that Mishkan Shalom is committed to welcoming unaffiliated Jews to worship with us, by not charging or requiring tickets.”

Rabbi Sultar says he is also eager to meet the children of Mishkan Shalom’s religious school. “I am excited to be part of a religious school program known for its dynamic, diverse and engaging education, one that children actually enjoy coming to!”

Rabbi Sultar most recently served as spiritual leader of a Reconstructionist synagogue with 365 households in Naperville, Ill. Prior to that, he was campus rabbi at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He also served as rabbi of Choate Rosemary Hall, a college preparatory school in Wallingford, Conn., and at Reconstructionist Congregation Am Haskalah in Allentown. He resides in West Mt. Airy with his partner, Julia Bell, and seven-year-old daughter, Maya. He is also stepfather to Miller and Liz Harris.

Congregation Mishkan Shalom is located at 4101 Freeland Avenue (at Shurs Lane). For more information on the synagogue, the religious school, and High Holiday services, call 215-508-0226.

Members and prospective members of Mishkan Shalom are invited to meet Rabbi Jeff Sultar on Friday, September 11 at 6 p.m. for a Shabbat service followed by a potluck supper.