At a time when research studies are concluding that the observance of Judaism is not as relevant to American Jews as it has been in generations past, two 30-something Canadians are working to inspire a Reform synagogue in Edison, N.J., to find meaning in their Jewishness.
Rabbi David Vaisberg, the Montreal-born and Mississauga-raised spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-el Congregation, said one of the things that attracted him to this 223-family synagogue, which he’s been leading for the past four years, is its inclusive, welcoming philosophy.
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Rabbi Vaisberg said that under the leadership of Rabbi Al Lansberg for nearly 40 years, the congregation was “a very social-justice-oriented community. The temple is really well known for its diversity – a lot of interfaith, a lot of interracial members, Jews from all sorts of diverse backgrounds.”
Cantor Aviva Marer, 33, who grew up in Ottawa, fits perfectly into the Temple Emanu-el family and serves as an example of how diverse the Jewish community is.
Marer is a member of the Bene Israel Jews from India, who can be trace their roots back to the early 15th century. In fact, her grandfather helped build the first synagogue in New Delhi, which still stands to this day.
Marer, who was ordained by the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music at Hebrew Union College in 2013, explained that her path toward a career as a cantor in an American Reform shul was a long one.
“After growing up in the Conservative movement, I spent three years in more of a modern Orthodox way of life, and I remember on Kol Nidre driving to shul and parking blocks away so that no one would see, and even though it was pouring rain, not opening an umbrella, because that would be igniting something,” she recalled.
“And I think that moment for me made it pretty clear that this kind of Judaism no longer worked for me. It was definitely informed by gender as well. There is something to be said about sitting behind a mechitzah versus leading services from the bimah. That was how I came to explore the Reform movement.”
For 31-year-old Rabbi Vaisberg, although he knew from the age of 14 that he wanted to obtain his ordination from the Hebrew Union College, he called himself “an accidental Reform Jew.”
“I was from Montreal. My father came from Uzbekistan in the 1970s, and we lived on the west side and we were cultural Jews. I went to a preschool at an Orthodox synagogue, and we showed up occasionally for Chanukah and Purim parties, but Montreal was a Jewish enough place, like New York or Toronto, where you could do whatever you wanted and you could still feel Jewish,” he said.
A congregation ahead of its time
“When the economy tanked… my father had to look elsewhere for work and he found work in Hamilton. We had some family in Toronto so we moved to Mississauga, and there, if you don’t go to synagogue, you don’t feel Jewish at all,” Rabbi Vaisberg said, adding that Mississauga’s Solel Congregation and its retired spiritual leader, Rabbi Larry Englander, influenced his decision to pursue a rabbinical career.
In terms of a vision for their synagogue, which both Marer and Rabbi Vaisberg agree is a congregation that has always been ahead of its time, they hope it will continue to be a warm, welcoming place for Jews of all kinds, and they’re always working together to define what their mission is going forward.
“I really think what is unique is our sense of camaraderie. It would no doubt be there regardless of whether one of us was American, but the fact that we’re both Canadian and are informed by the same experiences has really contributed to this beautiful kind of co-clergy relationship,” Marer said.
“We don’t work in terms of the traditional clergy hierarchy. It’s quite lovely. I think this is actually something to be said about when we came out of school and the generation we’re in, Dave and I really see our roles as co-clergy in the sense that they intentionally bleed into one another. It’s not uncommon for Dave to pick up the guitar and sing something, just as it’s not uncommon for me to deliver a dvar Torah or teach a class.”
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And the idea of feeling a connection to being Jewish is something Rabbi Vaisberg tries to encourage his congregation to do.
“What we bring, which is much more the case in Canada, is a sense of obligation to your culture, the sense of doing something for the value of being part of klal Yisrael. It is a value that we often push here, not to the point of doing rituals blindly, but pushing in the sense of relations with the synagogues around us, relationships with other Jews around us and participating,” he said.
“I believe in engaging and grappling with our old tradition with a full heart, because when you do that, regardless of what you choose to do, when you engage in it in all the behaviours of your life, it adds layers of meaning, and it means you’ll approach the world in a better way.”
