Jewish Emergent Network Announces
First Cohort of Rabbinic Fellows
Seven innovative Jewish communities across
the country launch fellowship with early career rabbis
Contact: Jessica Emerson McCormick
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Los Angeles, CA,
April 5, 2016 – The Jewish Emergent Network—a
collaboration between seven path-breaking Jewish communities from across the
United States—is thrilled to announce the hire of a dynamic and talented pilot
cohort of rabbinic fellows for its inaugural collective project, the Rabbinic Fellowship.
This Fellowship will place
select early career rabbis into each of the seven participating Network communities
for a two-year period, in order to train the next generation of enterprising
rabbis to take on the challenges and realities of 21st century Jewish
life in America in a variety of settings. The seven communities in the Network are
all devoted to revitalizing the field of Jewish engagement. While each
community is different in form and organizational structure, all have taken an
entrepreneurial approach to this shared vision, operating outside of
traditional institutional models, and rethinking basic assumptions about US
Jewish communities with regard to prayer, membership models, staff structures,
the religious/cultural divide, and physical space.
The
first cohort of Network fellows includes: Rabbi Nate DeGroot at IKAR in Los Angeles, Rabbi Sydney
Henning at Kavana in Seattle, Rabbi
Jonathan Bubis at The Kitchen in San
Francisco, Rabbi Lauren Henderson at Mishkan
in Chicago, Rabbi Suzy Stone at Sixth
& I in Washington, DC, Rabbi Kerry Chaplin at Lab/Shul in New York City, and Rabbi Joshua Buchin at Romemu, also in New York City.
The
rabbis will be embedded in their new communities beginning in July. Each fellow
will take on a variety of independent rabbinic tasks, and will receive weekly
supervision and support from leaders within the host organization. Throughout
the two-year program, fellows will meet seven times as a fully assembled
cohort, traveling to each of the seven Network communities for intensive
conferences at which they will learn from Network and non-Network rabbis,
teachers and other experts from around the country. The first conference will
take place at Romemu in Manhattan this August. The final site visit, planned
for June 2018 at IKAR in Los Angeles, will also include a public-facing
conference that welcomes clergy, staff, and lay leaders from across the country
to engage with the fellows and share best practices of innovation and
creativity with regard to Jewish community building. Towards the end of the
first cohort, a second cohort of rabbinic fellows will be selected and placed.
The
goal of the Fellowship is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial,
risk-taking change-makers, whose skills will equally prepare them to initiate
independent communities, and be valuable and valued inside of existing Jewish
institutions and synagogues. Each fellow will be steeped in the spirit and best
practices of the Network organizations and poised to educate, engage, and serve
an array of target populations, especially young adults and families with young
children.
The seven rabbinic fellows bring
diverse backgrounds, interests and experience to the Network. The cohort will
be comprised of four women and three men; two graduates of Hebrew Union
College, one graduate of The Jewish Theological Seminary, one graduate of the
Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, and three graduates of the Ziegler School
of Rabbinic Studies at American Jewish University. The Network also hired
non-profit strategist Jessica Emerson McCormick as its Program Manager.
Seed funding for the first four
years of this program has been generously provided through a grant from the Jim
Joseph Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Crown Family and the
Charles H. Revson Foundation. Network members are continuing to secure
additional program funding over the next four years.
About the Jewish Emergent Network
The Jewish Emergent
Network is comprised of the leaders of seven path‐breaking Jewish communities
from across the United States that have come together in the spirit of
collaboration. These include: IKAR in
Los Angeles, Kavana in
Seattle, The Kitchen in
San Francisco, Mishkan in
Chicago, Sixth & I in
Washington, D.C., and Lab/Shul and Romemu in New York.
About the Fellows
Rabbi Joshua Buchin
- Rabbi Joshua Buchin is a fifth year Rabbinical student at the
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, from which he will be ordained this May.
He currently works as a Rabbinic Intern and Spiritual Counselor at
Beit T'Shuvah, a Jewish residential treatment center in Culver City. For the
last three years he has also served as the Rabbinic Intern at Congregation
Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA. As an educator, he has worked with a wide range
of children and adults in diverse settings, helping people find meaning in the
Jewish tradition and connection with one another. He has been involved with the
Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Yeshivat Hadar in New York, Wilderness
Torah, Bend The Arc, Rabbis Without Borders, and AJWS. He is also the author of
a children's book, Tefilat HaDerech: The Traveler's Prayer (EKS
Publishing, 2012). He is joining the Jewish Emergent Network as a Rabbinic
Fellow at Romemu.
Rabbi Jonathan
Bubis - Rabbi Jonathan Bubis is the assistant rabbi of Shomrei Torah
Synagogue in West Hills, California. A graduate of the Ziegler School of
Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University, he is a Jewish educator and
performing artist with a passion for music, theater, and Jewish text.
Additionally, Rabbi Bubis has a penchant for Jewish prayer and leading
communities in participatory, spiritually uplifting prayer services. He spent
three summers heading up the drama department at Camp Ramah in Wisconsin—and
seven summers total on drama staff—where he directed Broadway musicals in
Hebrew and created original pieces of Jewish theater. Rabbi Bubis also works as
a Storahtelling Maven, a revived form of the ancient translator/interpreter of
Jewish biblical text, making ancient stories and traditions accessible for new
generations in the synagogue and in the classroom, advancing Judaic literacy and raising social
consciousness. He, along with his wife Becca, are thrilled at the opportunity
to join the Jewish Emergent Network. He will be a Rabbinic Fellow at The
Kitchen.
Rabbi Kerry Chaplin
-
Ordained in 2015 by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, Rabbi Kerry
Chaplin has been serving college students and other university constituents for
the past three years: first as the Rabbinic Intern at Hillel at UCLA and then
as the Director of Jewish Life and Assistant Director of Religious and
Spiritual Life at Vassar College. Relationship is at the core of Kerry's
rabbinate and her inspiration to work towards justice and peace. Kerry's own
relationship with Judaism and Jewishness is anchored in tradition and evolving
towards intersectional spirituality, in which our greatest socio-political
challenges inform our religious identities and practices, and help us to become
more of who we are in the world. Through projects like Two Faiths One Prayer and
Talmud + Yoga, Kerry encourages others to bring all of who they are to Torah
and Torah to all the pieces of who they are. She received both a B.A. in
Religious Studies and an M.A. in Non-Profit Management from Washington
University in St. Louis. A former rugby player, Kerry misses her
nationally ranked #4 Santa Monica Women's Rugby team. She lives with her wife
Julia, their cats Izzy and Louie, and their dog Charlie (Chaplin). She is
joining the Jewish Emergent Network as a Rabbinic Fellow at Lab/Shul.
Rabbi Nate DeGroot - A sixth and final year rabbinical
student at Hebrew College in Boston and an east coast native, Rabbi Nate
DeGroot brings a love of community, a curiosity of form, a devotion to
justice-healing work, a propensity for celebration, and a passion for
connecting with the sacred to all that he does. With a B.A. in Human and
Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University, Nate has extensive
experience in community building, experiential education,
entrepreneurship, and organizational consulting to bolster his formal rabbinic
learning. Currently serving as IKAR's Rabbinic Intern, Nate will further bring
his passions and gifts to the IKAR community as their Rabbinic Fellow via the
Jewish Emergent Network.
Rabbi Lauren
Henderson - Lauren Henderson is finishing up rabbinical
school at the Jewish Theological Seminary, with a Master’s in Midrash and a
Certificate in Pastoral Care. Lauren grew up in a small but mighty Jewish
community in Spartanburg, South Carolina as part of an interfaith family and
went from there to Rice University in Houston, where she graduated cum laude in
Religious Studies and History and was very involved with Houston
Hillel. After a year at Pardes in Jerusalem, Lauren began her rabbinic studies
at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles and then moved to New
York to continue studying at JTS. She's taught Torah and led prayer in a wide
variety of settings such as IKAR, the Pelham Jewish Center, and Congregation
B'nai Jeshurun in Cleveland, and also served as a chaplain with DOROT and
Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Last summer, Lauren worked with
fifth and sixth graders at Camp Ramah in the Rockies as their Rosh Edah (unit
head) and is proud to report that she survived a three-day backpacking trip
with a group of eleven year olds. When she's not doing Jew-y things, Lauren
loves running, baking, and having spontaneous dance parties. She is joining the
Jewish Emergent Network as a Rabbinic Fellow at Mishkan and can't wait to rock
out to all the davening tunes.
Rabbi Sydney
Henning - Born and raised in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, Rabbi Sydney Henning attended New York University and the University of
New Mexico, graduating with honors and a degree in Political Science and
Journalism. Immediately after graduating, she spent three months in Israel
studying at a Hebrew ulpan in Haifa and enjoying her
first experience in the Jewish homeland. After returning to the United States,
she became professionally involved in national politics and, shortly
thereafter, became a labor union organizer for the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). In 2006, she decided that she
would like to continue community organizing, but within a Jewish context. She
moved to New York in February of that year to become the Director of National
Initiatives for Birthright Israel NEXT, where she worked with unaffiliated
young adults who were looking to deepen their connection to their Jewish roots.
The experience she had with these young adults through Birthright Israel
eventually inspired her to apply to rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion. During her time at HUC, Sydney interned at variety of
synagogues and Jewish organizations across the United States, from Temple
Shaaray Tefila in New York, to Congregation Albert in New Mexico and Hillel at
UCLA in California. As a student, Sydney was the recipient of the coveted
Schusterman Rabbinical Fellowship. Ordained in May of 2013, Sydney joined Isaac
M. Wise, where she has served as the Assistant Rabbi for the past three years. Sydney
currently lives in Cincinnati with her very-soon-to-be-husband, Benjamin
Danziger, and her golden retriever. She is joining the Jewish Emergent Network as
a Rabbinic Fellow at Kavana.
Rabbi Suzy Stone - Originally from Minneapolis,
MN, Rabbi Suzy Stone graduated from Brandeis University with a B.A. in History
in 2002. After graduating she worked as a community organizer, teacher and
coach in Boston and Phoenix. Inspired by her experience in the Boston Jewish
community, she decided to pursue rabbinical school as a way to combine her
passion for Tikkun Olam (healing the world) and Tikkun
HaNefesh (healing oneself). She received her rabbinic ordination from
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles in May 2012
and is a proud alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. As a newly ordained
rabbi, Rabbi Stone began her career at Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa
Barbara, CA. She has served their Associate Rabbi for the last four years,
during which time she focused on establishing strong adult education classes,
new social justice initiatives, and teen engagement. In her free time she loves
playing softball, cycling, and exploring new music and restaurants. She is joining the Jewish
Emergent Network as a Rabbinic Fellow at Sixth & I.
