April 9, 2024

Fellow Congregants,

The Rabbinic Search Committee is very excited to announce that Rabbi Hannah Estrin will be joining our community as our interim rabbi from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.

Following her visit, the congregation's feedback was extremely positive. Many people described her as engaging, personable, approachable, comfortable, friendly, and warm. Congregants appreciated the candor and thoroughness of her answers during the Q&A session, highlighting her good fit for the interim role, especially her ability to manage the changes our congregation is navigating. Others spoke positively about Rabbi Estrin’s sermon on Saturday, liking the connections she made between Purim, Yom Kippur, and the current conflict in Israel.

Based on the congregation’s feedback and our positive experiences with Rabbi Estrin, the Search Committee unanimously recommended the Board hire Rabbi Estrin, and the Board also unanimously voted to approve the hire.

We very much appreciate the congregation's active engagement throughout this process. Please stay tuned for more information later this spring about further community engagement (including a survey and listening sessions) that will help guide the Search Committee as we hire a permanent successor to Rabbi Braun.

In the meantime, we are seeking support from TBE members to assist with Rabbi Estrin’s move to Maine. Please let us know if you can help with leads on housing within walking distance of the synagogue (roughly one to 1.5 miles), furnishings, and a vehicle that Rabbi Estrin can use. We are also looking for donations of miles for airlines that fly from Israel to the United States (such as Delta and El Al) to facilitate Rabbi Estrin and her family being able to visit each other. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the search committee with any questions. 

B’shalom,

The Rabbinic Search Committee

Brian Allenby

David Brenerman

Rebecca Cohen

Barbara Dichter

Sara Kahn-Troster, Committee Chair

David Klein

Joan Levy

Shannon McKinnon

Joshua Steirman

Matthew Tzuker

February 21, 2024

The TBE Rabbinic Search Committee is pleased to invite our community to meet Rabbi Hannah Estrin, a candidate for the interim rabbi position to lead Temple Beth El during the year following Rabbi Braun’s retirement. Rabbi Estrin will join us on the weekend of March 8-10 to lead services, get to know our community, and meet with TBE members.

We urge you to take this opportunity to join the congregation in welcoming Rabbi Estrin at the following events:

• Friday, March 8th at 5pm: Oneg and Kabbalat Shabbat
• Saturday, March 9th at 9:30am: Shabbat Morning Services and Kiddush
• Sunday, March 10th at 10:30am: Bagels and Community Q&A

Please fill out this RSVP form to give us a sense of how many people to expect at each event, but feel free to join us even if you haven’t RSVP’d. We hope you can attend as many of these events as possible.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts after you’ve met her and heard her views about how she would help the congregation transition to a new permanent rabbi in 2025. The Search Committee will release a survey after Rabbi Estrin’s visit to gather responses to the community’s interaction with her (print copies will be available as well).

We are really excited to bring Rabbi Estrin to TBE and look forward to your participation in her visit.

TBE Rabbinic Search Committee

August 18, 2023

Dear fellow congregants,

I am excited to announce the members of the Rabbinic Search Committee, as approved by the Temple Beth El Board on August 15. We believe that they represent TBE’s many facets, including a wide range of ages, diverse backgrounds, varied length of time as members and in Maine, and previous volunteer service, including two past presidents. I am looking forward to working with all them on this important endeavor:

Brian Allenby

David Brenerman

Rebecca Cohen

Barbara Dichter

David Klein

Joan Levy

Shannon McKinnon

Joshua Steirman

Matthew Tzuker

There will be multiple opportunities for congregants who are not on the committee to contribute to the selection of our new rabbi, including a congregational engagement process to think through what we are looking for in a long-term rabbi. There will also be opportunities to engage with and provide feedback on rabbinic candidate visits for both the interim and long-term positions. The Rabbinic Search Committee will share regular communications with the TBE community to keep you all up-to-date on the process.

Sincerely,

Sara Kahn-Troster

TBE Vice President and Rabbinic Search Committee Chair

July 19, 2023

Dear fellow congregants,

As we prepare for Rabbi Braun’s retirement next summer, we are excited by the prospect of welcoming new spiritual leaders to guide our congregation: an interim rabbi followed by a long-term rabbi. The first step in this process is to form a Rabbinic Search Committee, and we are looking for congregants interested in participating in this crucial yet challenging work.

We seek to form a committee that reflects as fully as possible the diversity of perspectives, identities, and roles within our congregation while keeping the group small enough to work effectively over an extended time period. As outlined in the TBE Bylaws, the Executive Committee will propose a slate of committee members that will be approved by the full Board. 

The committee will be tasked with:

• Hiring an interim rabbi in the early months of 2024
• Developing and then implementing a community engagement process in the spring and summer of 2024
• Hiring a long-term rabbi in the fall of 2024 and winter of 2025
• Assisting with the rabbinic transition process once a long-term rabbi has been hired

Participation in the Rabbinic Search Committee is restricted to TBE members and will involve a major time commitment, including regular (often weekly) meetings. Committee members must also demonstrate a willingness to step up and take on responsibilities as well as high levels of professionalism, collaboration, community-mindedness, and confidentiality. This is a two-year commitment, stretching from late August 2023 through the rabbinic transition process in the summer of 2025.

If you are interested in serving and able to make the necessary commitments, please fill out this form no later than July 26, indicating why you want to serve on the search committee, what perspective you bring to the conversation, and your general time availability. Please understand that we expect to receive many more expressions of interest than we can accept. 

We will regularly update the entire congregation as the committee is selected and our work begins.

Sincerely,

Jon Gelchinsky

TBE President

Sara Kahn-Troster

TBE Vice President and Rabbinic Search Committee Chair

July 3, 2023

Dear fellow congregants,

When Rabbi Braun retires next year, she will have been the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El for over a third of its existence. While I want to express my deep gratitude to her for all that she has contributed over the nearly three decades that she has served as our rabbi, ‘thank you’ simply does not feel adequate at this moment. Fortunately, we have an entire year ahead of us to show her in words, actions, and celebrations how much her leadership and support has meant to all of us. I look forward to working with all of you to honor her distinguished career both at TBE, and in the wider Jewish community. 

While celebrating Rabbi Braun will be one important part of our focus in the coming year, we must also turn our attention toward planning for this important transition. In preparation for this moment, our board of directors has met with our USCJ (United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism) district representative to gain an understanding of the rabbinic search process, and we have conducted informational interviews with synagogues who have recently navigated this transition to learn from their experiences. Based on that research, and on advice from the USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly, we determined at our May meeting that once Rabbi Braun made her final decision to retire, our next step would be to commence a search for an interim rabbi to serve for one year. 

There are a few reasons why we have chosen to pursue this path, as opposed to immediately searching for a long-term successor. An interim rabbi affords us the opportunity to thoughtfully conduct our search for a new rabbi without the immediate pressure of a deadline, giving us time as a congregation to think creatively about what we are looking for in a new leader. An interim rabbi can also be helpful in facilitating the conversations that will help us determine what qualities will best match the needs and interests of our community. Since interim rabbis are not eligible to become permanent rabbis, they are in a unique position to work with the congregational leadership to help the congregation prepare for the next spiritual leader. We want to ensure that we put our best foot forward not only in our search for our next rabbi, but also in how we present our congregation to potential candidates.

We will be sharing more information about the rabbinic search process, including the development of a search committee and a community engagement process, over the summer. We are committed to a transparent, open process. A dedicated space on the TBE website [insert link here] will contain all updates to the congregation. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.

Wishing you all a relaxing and enjoyable summer,

Jon Gelchinsky

July 3, 2023

Chaverimot (Friends),

One of my favorite Hasidic parables is attributed to Rabbi Hayim of Tzanz. He used to tell the story of a person who had been wandering in the woods for several days. (And here, I embellish the story.) They’ve enjoyed their walk as they passed huge trees, bountiful ferns, and sweet smelling flowers. They’ve thought about so many things and have reveled in the smells and the sights. After a while, though, they realize that they are lost and are unsure how to get out. Looking up, they suddenly see another person coming towards them. Excitedly, they run to the other person. “I’m so glad to see you!,” they say, “I’ve been wandering in these beautiful woods for several days, but I am afraid that now I am lost and can’t find my way back.” The other replies in a most comforting and assuring voice, “I too am lost; but I can show you the ways that will not lead us to our destination. Come, take my hand and let us search for a way together.”

This is the story I told the congregation on my first Shabbat in December of 1994. I believed then, and I still believe, that all of life, including our religious life, is a sacred journey. Sometimes we feel wonder; sometimes we feel lost and alone; and other times we feel joined and supported. If we have been perceptive on our journey, we can share our knowledge and experience with others with the intention of being helpful. All of life, including the spiritual, is best lived as a dialogue within ourselves, as well as with our friends, our families, our peers, our teachers, and our mentors. 

Since December of 1994, when I came to TBE, I have strived to nurture and support the many journeys experienced by our members and others throughout the community. I have not done it alone, rather we have done it together. There were times when the path was bumpy and exhausting and there were other times when the path seemed clear and shared. Over these last several years it has been gratifying to watch our community grow, our spaces become more beautiful, and our members display an overwhelming generosity of spirit and shared commitment to our mission and values. It has been an honor to walk this path with you. After much thought, and between moments of sadness and excitement for the future, I have decided that this is the time for me to move on to my next “forest.” My contract will continue through June 30, 2024 when a new and wonderful spiritual leader will continue the journey with you. I am confident that TBE is in a perfect position to go from strength to strength and that you are and will be in very good hands. 

There are so many people I want to thank for taking the brave step to engage one of the first Female Rabbis in the Conservative movement, and for entrusting me to accompany you on this journey for 28 (it will be 29 next year!) years. Fortunately, I will have a year to thank you personally, but for now I want to focus on next year; on the births, weddings, holidays, b’nai mitzvot, and all the unforeseen moments that will bring us together, and help to bring TBE to the next generation of rabbinic leadership. 

Warmly,

Rabbi Carolyn Braun