RABBINIC CANDIDATE WEEKEND: RABBI BETH KALISCH
DECEMBER 9 – 11, 2011
The Rabbi Search Committee is pleased to announce the visit of our first candidate, Rabbi Beth Kalisch (see biography below). During her visit, Rabbi Kalisch will meet with the Board, Religious School students, staff members, committee members, and others. The following are events to which the whole community is invited.
Friday, December 9th
6:00 pm: Erev Shabbat Family Dinner
7:30 pm: Friday Night Services, led by George Walker and the Shir Simcha band, followed by a congregational Oneg.
At the service, Rabbi Kalisch will:
· Present a short explanation of Psalm 29 and lead a responsive reading
· Introduce and sing the Hashkiveynu prayer
· Deliver a Sermon
Shabbat, December 10th
9:30 am, Shabbat morning minyan: Rabbi Kalisch will read the third aliya from this week’s Torah portion, VaYishlach
12:30 pm: Pitch-in Dairy Luncheon
1:30 pm: Lead Torah Study on the weekly portion
5:00 pm: Havdalah with the Renewal minyan. Rabbi Kalisch will give a 5-minute kavannah/intention during the service.
8:00 pm: Congregational meeting with the candidate. After brief introductions, Rabbi Kalisch will answer congregants’ questions, facilitated by Search Committee co-chairs Aviva Orenstein and Bruce Solomon. In order to avoid duplication and use our limited time wisely, questions must be sent in advance to bethshalomrabbisearch@gmail.com. If you do not have access to email, please call Bruce Solomon (333-8409).
There will be opportunities for all Congregants to give feedback about this candidate to the Rabbi Search Committee.
Bio of Rabbi Beth Kalisch
Rabbi Beth Kalisch is currently the Associate Rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City. At Stephen Wise, in addition to her pastoral work and leading of services, she directs the Center for Community Learning, teaches in the Religious School and the Early Childhood Center, staffs the Social Action and Israel committees, and works with the Adult B'nai Mitzvah program.
Rabbi Kalisch is a 2009 graduate of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, in New York City, where she received numerous academic awards. Rabbi Kalisch received her B.A. with Distinction in Religious Studies from Yale University, where she also performed internationally with Magevet, Yale's Jewish a cappella group, and served as Vice President of Yale University’s Hillel.
Rabbi Kalisch served as the student rabbi for congregations in New York, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, and the Former Soviet Union. She has been an educator at URJ summer camp and a chaplain intern at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. A former Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, she also participated in rabbinical student delegations with the American Jewish World Service and Encounter, in the Jewish Funds for Justice’s Rabbinical Student Fellowship for Leadership in Public Life, and in the KAVOD Tzedakah Fellowship.
