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synagogue leadership behind the scenes
I'm a member of this year's nominating committee. This year we're also nominating the executive committee (last year was just board members). The executive committee consists of the president and three VPs (with an obvious line of succession), and also a treasurer, financial secretary, secretary, and a couple assistants. My understanding had been that getting onto the VP track leads to eventually being president, but that the other positions are not tied into that.
At this week's meeting of the nominating committee, though, the chair said something like "so-and-so (currently on the exec committee) is interested in keeping his current job but isn't interested in moving up the ranks" (so he was willing to step aside). That's when I learned that, actually, it's assumed that once you're on the executive committee you'll eventually move up to a VP and thence to president. How odd.
Our committee suggested that it's more important to have people who are both competent and interested holding positions like treasurer, and if such people don't have other aspirations that's fine with us. Two past presidents of the congregation thought this was right too, so it's obviously not a hard-and-fast rule. But still -- the skills that make one a good treasurer aren't obviously related to those that make one a good secretary or a good president. I'm still planning to insert myself into the budget committee, mind, but now I know that I probably shouldn't let them eventually make me treasurer. :-)
This morning at breakfast after minyan there was some discussion of that congregation's current rabbinic search. (Their rabbi gave notice a few weeks ago.) One of the minyanaires who (I gather) is on their board or executive committee had copies of a survey the Rabbinic Assembly asked the congregation to fill out. (The RA matches available rabbis with congregations.) She was soliciting feedback from the people there. I asked to look at the questions because I'm curious, though it would be wrong for me to contribute answers. (I'm not a member of that congregation. I'm just this person who shows up and now leads services.)
There were some interesting questions, including many that I wouldn't have thought to ask. (Obviously they have many more clues about this than I do. :-) ) They asked about congregational customs in a number of areas, including the role of women. (This is a Conservative congregation, so not automatically egalitarian.) They asked about attitudes toward intermarriages, conversions, and (I think) gays. They asked what activities in the last year the congregation is most proud of, what things the congregation does not want the rabbi to change, and what things the congregation does want the rabbi to change. They asked what the most recent major decision regarding worship was and how it was made, and what major decision the congregation expects to be next. These are all good questions -- in addition to providing raw data they give the potential rabbi a feel for what the congregation is like even before a phone screen happens.
I was amused by one question: "After leading services, what are the three most important jobs of the rabbi?". This is interesting because of the built-in assumption. Actually, at many congregations the rabbi doesn't lead services, or does so only for Shabbat and Yom Tov (that's the case at this one). And if a congregation has more than one rabbi, I gather that it's fairly common for leading services to fall primarily to one. I know a congregational rabbi who never leads services (except in an emergency); she was hired to oversee the religious school, not to lead worship, and she likes it that way.
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Well, I hate to say it, but this is probably a pretty good assumption for most "normal"[1] Conservative shuls in the U.S. The average congregant in a "normal" C. shul expects the Rabbi to be on the Bimah on Friday night and Saturday morning services. If he[2] isn't leading prayers (he might be accompanied by a cantor[3] or congregant who does the actual singing), he's at least standing up there, announcing pages, leading spoken readings in english, etc.
The average congregant probably doesn't care as much about weekday services (often you have shuls where shabbat services are packed but they barely get a minyan for morning and evening minyan - if they hold them at all), so the fact that the Rabbi might or might not lead 'em isn't a big deal.
Educational director/Religious school leader is a different position -- although C. shuls like having Rabbis doing this, they don't expect that person[4] to be leading the main services regularly (other than an occasional youth service).
As far as what happens when a shul has a "senior rabbi" and "associate rabbi" (who is not the educational director) -- I don't have as much experience with C. shuls like that. I have a friend who was just hired as associate rabbi, and I think she's sharing the leading duties with the senior rabbi... although I think she leads fewer Sat morning/ Friday night services than he does.
Of course, my current shul has a bunch of lay-led minyans... but I'm in Manhattan, and so excluded by my definition of "normal" below.
[1] OK, this begs the question of what "normal" means. I guess what I mean is an affiliated shul outside of manhattan -- probably in a suburb or small town/city -- with a building of their own. This excludes most havurot, independent shuls, wandering minyanim...
[2] Or maybe she -- look, this isn't me saying what should be, this is me describing what I've seen
[3] There seems to be less resistance to female cantors.
[4] A lot of women Rabbis have been pursuing this path, for whatever reason.
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This seems to be the case at Tree of Life. But the rabbi usually isn't even there for weekday services (a point of contention in the congregation), and if he is he isn't on the bimah (which is fine with the congregation). When they had two rabbis, the associate was only on the bimah if it was a school-oriented service (he was in charge of the school). So if they were trying to fill that position, they might not care about service-leading nearly as much as education and administration.
Educational director/Religious school leader is a different position -- although C. shuls like having Rabbis doing this, they don't expect that person[4] to be leading the main services regularly (other than an occasional youth service).
Ah, ok. From the outside, that looks like "senior rabbi" and "associate rabbi", and the associate rabbi's job includes the school. I'm not used to seeing "education director" in place of "associate rabbi". And actually, in my own (Reform) congregation, we have a "religious school director" who is different from the associate rabbi who runs the school. The director is an administrator; the rabbi oversees the educational content.
[4] A lot of women Rabbis have been pursuing this path, for whatever reason.
That seems obvious to me. Traditionally, women aren't supposed to work but teaching children is an exception. So women gravitate toward teaching positions. Now the Conservative movement as a whole no longer has that "the woman's place is in the home, or well ok in the school" attitude, but for many Conservative Jews, their (Orthodox) parents did have that attitude. And there are still a few C shuls out there with a mechitzah, and a bunch more that don't let women onto the bimah. So put all this together and I think you have a greater-than-US-average likelihood of women who aspire to synagogue positions heading for the school.