Tree of Life Congregation – Pittsburgh, PA Conservative (liberal-leaning) congregation seeks creative, engaged and engaging, full-time rabbi as ours plans retirement. As we rebuild our building, we are building our congregation for the future. Rabbi will also work in education and speaking with the nonprofit The Tree of Life, Inc.
THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE CONGREGATION
Tree of Life Congregation is seeking a member of the clergy who will lead and be responsible for all spiritual, liturgical, halakhic, and practice needs of the congregation. With about 150 family units, we are currently seeking a solo or an interim clergyperson to help the congregation through the coming transition.
This individual will work with the congregational board and the members to maintain the course of this 160+-year-old congregation and to broaden and enlarge its scope as we move to our new facility currently under construction.
This person will also interface with The Tree of Life, Inc., a separate nonprofit entity that was formed in the wake of the October 27, 2018, attack which will operate out of the new building and which has a mission to “uproot antisemitism by remembering those taken from us and building relationships across difference to repair our world.”
The October 27, 2018, attack (the “Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting”) that took eleven members of the three congregations praying in our synaplex building is a part of our history. As our building is being rebuilt, we navigate an interesting path as a living, vital congregation as well as the face of one of many groups who have survived such a horror.
As a congregation, we remain steadfast that we will not let the murderer win by having the congregation recede into silent ignominy. We stand up against hatred in the world – as we have for a very long time – and we represent that stance by continuing to forge ahead as an active community, full of life and determined in our resolve to improve the world.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
This (solo or interim) clergyperson will fill an active role on the pulpit, in leading and/or managing all formal religious services, in congregational rites of passage, and in halakhic matters.
Additionally, we will rely on this person to assist us in developing programming, maintaining congregational involvement, and broadening the reach of the congregation. Additionally, they will also need to be able to collaborate with the board and committees that plan special events, with the Men’s Club and Sisterhood, etc.
Pittsburgh offers an active Jewish community, and Tree of Life Congregation has a very long-standing position in the Squirrel Hill / East End of Pittsburgh. We actively collaborate with other congregations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and maintaining those connections is also important to the congregation.
In addition, this position will include interface with The Tree of Life, Inc. the nonprofit entity (TheTreeOfLife.org), formed as a positive response to the October 27, 2018, attack. As our building is being rebuilt, we navigate an interesting path as a living, vital congregation as well as the face of one of many groups who have survived such a horror.
As a congregation, we remain steadfast that we will not let the murderer win by having the congregation recede into silent ignominy. We stand up against hatred in the world – as we have for a very long time – and we represent that stance by continuing to forge ahead as an active community, full of life and determined in our resolve to improve the world.
QUALIFICATIONS
Qualifications include ordination from a recognized seminary, experience leading a congregation, providing pastoral care, providing prayer services, engaging young persons, teaching youth, inspiring others, and working collaboratively. Torah reading ability is a plus. Also should have some experience with and/or be open to interfaith clergy involvement. A sense of humor is greatly appreciated, along with an understanding of intermarried couples.
POSSIBLY INTERIM CLERGY
If you are offering to serve as Interim Clergy, we are very open.
The motivating factor that leads us to potentially pursue an interim rabbi is that we were a congregation in transition at the time that our current clergy joined us in 2017. The attack on October 27, 2018, threw us into another form of transition.
What we can say is that we are a knowledgeable and flexible congregation, with members who enjoy various types of involvement.
We would like to find ways to enhance our religious services on Shabbatot (Friday evening and Saturday morning), as well as on High Holidays.
We are also eager to find more ways to engage our congregants and encourage them to take part in our services, but we are most open to seeking out the strengths and ideas of the clergyperson.
We are seeking an individual who can help us formulate our future needs and coordinate our current journey to achieve them. We need a strong individual to help bridge the transition from our retiring well-known rabbi/hazzan, and our currently rented space in another congregation’s building, to our new building (estimated to be completed toward the end of 2027).
We are seeking someone who will come to understand our congregation and help us to see and define our needs more clearly than we might do by ourselves.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Compensation and benefits are negotiable.
ABOUT PITTSBURGH
The Jewish community of greater Pittsburgh is unique among American communities: except for New York City, Pittsburgh is the only city that has retained the core of the community within City limits. Although we have many congregations in the surrounding suburbs, the main organizations for news, education, philanthropy, and so on, have stayed within Pittsburgh, and we remain a solid community.
We have a weekly newspaper, a JCC, and a Federation. We have more than a dozen congregations of nearly all denominations. We have the Community Day School, and a set of Orthodox educational and religious institutions as well.
Additionally, Pittsburgh Jewry has a deep-rooted history that is well documented. The Rauh Jewish Archives at the Senator H. John Heinz History Center actively works to document our history in this region. Additionally, The University of Pittsburgh has a full Jewish Studies program.
Moreover, this area has readily available resources such as the Squirrel Hill Historical Society and the East Liberty Valley Historical Society. Although Squirrel Hill has long been considered a Jewish community (for well over one hundred years), it has remained 40% Jewish for much of its existence.
Inspired in the aftermath of the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting (which is how we refer to it), two sympathetic individuals created a coalition and began the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, which has been going strong since 2021. It takes place in Pittsburgh, and brings together quiet workers, activists, leaders, intellectuals, and changemakers from around the world.
- Pastoral
- Lifecycle Ritual
- Prayer Leader
- Torah Reading
- Broader Community Involvement