2025 CBB Annual Meeting Senior Rabbi Report
Sunday June 22, 2025
Congregation Bnai Brith, Santa Barbara CA
Twenty-one years ago Gail Teton Landis and Craig Bassin, co-chairs of CBB’s rabbinic search committee, came to my office in Isla Vista and asked me to consider applying for the job as CBB’s rabbi. They convinced me not to say “no” right away…but to go home, discuss it with Marian and to really think about it. Thank you Gail and Craig, for launching me on the greatest adventure of my life.
My first partner on the journey was the Temple President, Deborah Naish. Unfortunately Deborah is at home with covid; I wish that she could be here tonight. I want to thank each of the Temple Presidents who have joined me in this sacred and exhausting work of leading the congregation: Deborah Naish, Aaron Ettenberg, Bob Temkin, Daniel Hochman, Hallie Avolio, Judi Koper, Steve Amerikaner, Diane Zipperstein, Nancy Sheldon and Marcy Wimbish. I am proud and grateful to have worked side by side with that extraordinary group of leaders.
In the next few minutes I would like to look back with you over my 21 years as the Senior Rabbi of this congregation. Over the past twenty-one years, I think that my priorities have been fairly consistent.
First of all, life-long Jewish learning. The highlight of my week, every week, has been the shabbat morning Torah study group. For ninety minutes every week, we have traveled together through time and space, to distant lands and prior centuries. Thank you to my fellow lovers of Torah. But also, special thanks to Dr. Judy Karin who has built our Melton School of Adult Jewish Education into one of the best in the country. And thanks to all of you who made the commitment to be part of the Melton learning community. And to those who got up early in the morning over the years for the psalms class, and the kabbalah class, and the short story class and the book club. And most recently, our class on the books of my teacher Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg. I am proud to have been the rabbi of this congregation of learners.
My second priority, over all of these years, has been communal prayer. I knew all along that this would be hard, and frustrating, in this time and place where most Jews say “I’m not religious!” But prayer has been important to me, ever since I was a boy, and so I have been obsessed with the conundrum of how to make prayer work for this community. My deepest thanks to my partner on the pulpit for all these years, our extraordinary Cantor Mark Childs. Together, we have at times made prayer come alive in this space. Thank you also to Susan Rakov and to everyone else who worked on our CBB prayerbook, which is one of the things of which I feel proudest. And thank you to all of you who have opened your hearts, to pray together on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, and opened your mouths and sung together! And thanks to our choir whose singing has cracked my heart open, especially on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and to Rob Raede and Soul Aviv, and the Temple Band and the Red Sea Rhythm Rockers. And to the kids who for years jumped out of their seats to dance around us while we sang Mi Chamocha, and also to the smaller prayer minyanim that have met over the years….in the chapel at Cottage hospital, and on the Ellwood bluffs, and especially in each other’s homes for shiva. I know we are living in a secular age, and I know that most of our Jews do declare “I’m not religious!” But for a community of non-religious Jews, I think we have somehow found a way to pray together.
My third priority, through all of these years, has been looking for opportunities for tikkun olam, big and little ways that we could join together to bring some healing to the world. I know it feels like the world is more broken than ever at the moment, but I am grateful to all of you who have brought your talents and your energies, and your love of life and belief in human beings, to make this an oasis of optimism! Mitzvah Day, and dinners in Pershing Park, and the creation of the Ubumwe Center in Rwanda, and our Jewish/Muslim study group, and our Santa Barbara support for Younited: the Givat Haviva International School, and our transformational visit from the women of Kibbutz Kfar Aza after the trauma of October 7th, and our serious and persistent efforts, like the Braver Angels program, to create a culture of healthy, respectful communication even when we disagree. That work has been particularly hard, but it has been supremely important in this time of polarization. Our work will never be done, but this congregation has been a force for good in our world.
My fourth priority has been our children, and our Jewish learning programs. About ten years ago, we set out to reinvent our educational program, bringing together all of the talented teachers and educators in our congregation to create a model for Jewish education that would actually make our kids love being Jewish. A group of us traveled all over the country visiting some places that were regarded as models for Jewish education, and we read books like Succeeding at Jewish Education. You might think that we Jews have been educating our children for so many thousands of years that by now we would know what it takes. But in fact, our Jewish world is changing so fast, that Jewish education requires a completely new, visionary approach. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to our Director of Education Jen Lewis, who has given her heart and soul and devoted her life to creating a superb education program for our children…both our preschoolers and our K-12 students. And I want to thank the teachers. And the parents, who choose to make Jewish education a priority in your lives. And the kids!! Thank you….for listening to my stories, and for going hiking with me!!
It has always felt important to me that the word synagogue, or in Hebrew Bet Knesset, just means “House of Gathering.” Many of my favorite moments over the past twenty-one years have been times when we all got together and didn’t feel the need to do anything, other than just to be together. Things like the men’s gatherings, when we announced loudly “there will be no program!” just food and drink and friends. Or family camp or the camping at Skofield Park, or even Sunday Morning Live….where the speakers were almost always interesting (thank you Ken Rotman!), but the truly most important activity was in the kitchen, where Kenny Gaynes organized a crack team of volunteer chefs, and then after Kenny died his son David took over.
Also on our trips to Israel, the speakers and the people we met were often fascinating, but what mattered most was the times in between, over meals, and on the bus and in the park on Shabbat afternoon. Also our Friday wine and cheese before services and the dinners afterwards. I know we are all tired of egg salad and tuna salad, but honestly, we were never there for the food itself….it is the people!! Which also makes me think of Tashlikh on the beach on Rosh Hashanah afternoon, after we have all been in Temple all morning (well, some of us) and it feels so good to just meet at the beach, and go down to the water…and maybe even to jump in, and to hang out there with our friends and let the hours go by. Thank you all for believing that life is with people.
For me personally, of course, this moment is bittersweet. I am walking away from a job that has given my life purpose and meaning….for nineteen years at Hillel, and for twenty-one years at CBB. I am looking forward to the freedom and the vast possibilities that lie before me, but I am also grieving a lot of loss. There are a number of people who have in different ways made it easier for me to let go. First of all, the team who pulled off the completely over the top retirement celebration weekend a little more than a month ago. Three days of celebration! It was over the top because I kept asking for more, but they made it all happen, with joy, and love and teamwork. Crystal Wyatt, Robin Himovitz, Judi Weisbart, Lisa Raphael, Jessica Truitt, Laura Habecker. Thank you for giving us all a celebration that we will remember for years and years.
Another thing that makes it easier for me to let go is seeing the completion of the Building Dreams project, which we celebrated earlier this afternoon. It is impossible to express what it feels like to see ten years of dreaming and planning and laboring together coming to fruition. I am so deeply grateful to everyone who helped make it happen. Especially Martie, and Steve, and Nancy, and Judi, and Diane and Elizabeth. We have been on a long road together.
Speaking of Elizabeth Gaynes, our Executive Director. While I have had many important partners on this journey, there is one person with whom I have shared every single major decision and the full weight of responsibility for our congregation. When I decided to retire, Elizabeth was the first person I had to tell. And I am retiring with a deep sense of peace and trust in the future because we have all come to trust in Elizabeth’s leadership.
Last but certainly not least, my successor Rabbi Daniel Brenner. This is the other person who makes it possible for me to retire, with a deep and firm trust in the future. Rabbi Brenner and I have worked together now for six years and I cannot imagine anyone to whom I would rather hand over the leadership of the congregation. Rabbi Daniel is a man of great joy and also seriousness. He loves people deeply. Children, the elderly, teens and adults of all ages. Rabbi Daniel has great reverence for our tradition, our texts and our festivals, but he is also open to change, and creativity, and adaptation to the new world all around us. He is a powerful presence as he leads our community, but he is also humble, and knows that he does not know. For me personally, he has been a student, a friend and a teacher and he has been profoundly sensitive to me, as we navigate together this huge transition in both of our lives. Together with all of you, my love and my prayers are with Rabbi Daniel and Felicia, and with their beautiful daughters Leanna and Nava, as they travel their own road into the unknown.
And finally. My wife Marian is on her way back to Santa Barbara from England right now; I will be leaving from here to pick her up at the airport. Marian scheduled this trip before the date of this meeting was set and she is heartbroken to miss it. But Marian, and my mother, and my children Rachel and Ari and their partners, Zach and Malia, and my granddaughter Laila, are all waiting for me in retirement. They are the human beings that make this moment in my life so exciting and full of promise. I look forward to the time and the space to create new and deeper relationships with all of them.
Thank you all.