rabbinic transitions

[cellio]

An observation from perhaps too little data (so further data welcome): if a rabbi leaves his congregation and is seeking other employment, then it seems that one of the following things is true: (1) his next job is not with a congregation; (2) he's helping to found a new congregation; (3) he's leaving town. It appears that trying to move to another established congregation in the same city is awkward in several ways and thus rarely done.

Just something for someone thinking about the rabbinate to keep in mind: congregational life implies nomadic life.

Comments

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

are you sure it implies nomadic life? In my experience, once a rabbi finds a congregation, they tend to stay there for a long time.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

Let's use TBT, home of the revolving door rabbis, as an example. This is all from memory. They had many more transitions, but they've taken the information I had up off their webpages.

Rabbi Jerry Fisher left, went to start another congregation in the valley.

Rabbi Harry Essrig left, became more of a fill-in rabbi and author.

Rabbi E. Robert Kraus left, moved to Northern California, working as a chaplin in the prison system.

Rabbi Arnold Stiebel left, opened a divorce mediation service.

Rabbi Sheryl Nosan-Blank left, went to a congregation in Sacramento.

These do fit all your examples, but I also know that some of these interviewed for other positions locally. There is also the difference, I think between a Rabbi that leaves voluntarily and one that is fired. One that is fired might be more likely to stay in the same city.

Another factor might be the size of the city. In the greater metropolitan Los Angeles area, there are sufficient congregations that moving within the city is like leaving town; this isn't true in smaller cities.

[cellio]

From what I've seen -- and of course this is a limited data set -- the first couple jobs tend to be for shorter periods of time (5 or fewer years) before settling into a place long-term. I don't know if this is a characteristic of being an associate rabbi (you can't necessarily move up when you only have 4 or 5 years of experience, but maybe there's some pressure to move on?).

It occurs to me that CCAR almost certainly has useful data on this. (Presumably so do USCY and OU.) I wonder if anyone has compiled -- say, for inquiring students at HUC -- a profile of a "typical" career path.

[cellio]

Thanks for the information. Good point about city size being relevant; to this outsider LA seems like, oh, six or eight cities in very close proximity. :-)

I know of a rabbi who's leaving his congregation (I neither know nor need to know the reasons) who is looking at other congregations in his city. From what I hear from insiders at another local congregation, they're getting two kinds of feedback: people from the source congregation who'll join them if they pick up this rabbi, and people from their congregation who'll leave if they do. I don't know how strong either trend is, but it sure looks like it could be a divisive move for at least the two congregations involved. This makes me wonder if most congregations wouldn't rather just avoid that situation.

This is really, really different from the world of software, where there are a gazillion players in a city and it's assumed that people will move around among them. Ok, maybe not so different; a CEO probably has limited options. Hmm.

Similar to Christians

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen a very similar pattern in Christian churches as well.

The first couple jobs a minister gets are as assistant. After a couple positions like that in various congregations, the minister finds a permanent position as the head minister or teacher at a seminary or something like that and settles down for a long while.

Methodists may be different, if I remember right.

Anyone knows what happens to assistant Imams? I bet it's the same thing.

Rob of UnSpace (http://www.unspace.net/)

Re: Similar to Christians

[cellio]

Good point. And within the Catholic church, at least, the church hierarchy itself moves people around; priests don't go looking for congregations but instead go where they're sent, so there's even more uncertainty. I was talking with a rabbi this morning who's doing some interfaith stuff with a church that, though no apparent fault of their own, has been getting revolving-door priests; they stay for a year or two and then get moved. That's got to really, really suck. I guess not being allowed to have families (no kids to find good schools for, spousal jobs, etc) and not having to worry about housing makes it easier.

Re: Similar to Christians

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

The Methodist pattern is as you describe. A minister will have a couple of assistant pastor positions, in increasingly large/difficult places, then senior pastor. He might stay at one church for 10-20 years, and if he's quite good, he might become District Superintendent or Bishop eventually. Many seem to settle in to one charge (church) for life or nearly so once they achieve senior pastor.

[goljerp]

New York, and probably the Boston metro area are two other places where this is possible. There's a Rabbi I know who's very nice, who was Rabbi down in lower manhattan, then had a pulpit up on the Upper West Side (UWS) of manhattan, before moving to philly, where he's been for 4 years. (He's Reconstructionist, if that makes any difference...) Or, again on the UWS, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld left Ansche Chesed for SAJ (which is not that far away). But I know there were people who left AC for SAJ (and probably a few who did the reverse move).

I suspect that things have to do also with why the rabbi is leaving, where they're going, and the personalities involved. I believe that in Portland, ME (not a huge Jewish community, certainly not on the LA/Boston/NY level), there's a Rabbi who's emeritius at one shul and part-time at a different one... but I think that's probably not typical, and there may have been a certain amount of 'new shul founding' going on (or, more accurately, revitalizing an existing shul which was dissapearing.)

But as a generalization, the places where you're likely to be able to move from rabbinic pulpit to pulpit without leaving the greater metro area are also places that probably wouldn't fit into your critera of 'not too big a city'.

[cellio]

New York, and probably the Boston metro area are two other places where this is possible.

Yeah, to the outsider New York is like 20 cities packed in very tightly. :-)

[magid.livejournal.com]

But Boston's not!
(she says, completely disinterestedly :-)

[cellio]

It's true; of LA, NYC, and Boston, I find Boston the most city-like (as opposed to metropolis-like), even though I know you've got suburbs and stuff just like everyone else.

I should clarify that I have visited each of these cities (or metro areas) one or two times in my life, though, so this really is an outside perspective.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Boston is only like 3 or 4 cities packed in very tightly.

Either is better than having seven cities spread out over five times as much land as they should be. Psigh.

not necessarily nomadic

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Well, let's see. Before our congregation had Rabbi Laurie Rice, we had Rabbi Drora Setel.

Rabbi Setel, iirc, was rabbi part-time to 2 different small congregations (ours & another). She left our congregation (on good terms) to devote extra attention to some family issues (I believe her mother was very ill) around the time our congregation decided we wanted a full-time rabbi, and that's when we found Rabbi Rice. But Rabbi Setel still stayed in the Seattle area with her other congregation (though I note they have a different rabbi now). I think she eventually moved to Buffalo because she has family there.