Some beginnings represent dramatic severance from the past; others signal careful steps between periods. Rabbi Hannah Estrin, the newly named interim rabbi of Tree of Life Congregation, sees her pulpit as closer to the latter. In the coming weeks, the Jerusalemite will replace Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers at the 162-year-old congregation.
The goal, she told the Chronicle by phone from northern Colorado, is that her year with Tree of Life enables the congregation to “look deeply and broadly into who they are and what they want, so that their next search committee and their next rabbi will hopefully be a good match.”
Estrin, a former Californian who’s called Israel home for nearly two decades, said guiding congregants from one era to the next evokes a familiar spiritual journey.
“Every community, especially communities coming off of long-term rabbis or out of difficult times, which Tree of Life has got both, sometimes need that 40 years in the wilderness to kind of just pause and take a break,” she said. “I walk with them through that break — and hopefully do some deep soul work for individuals and community — in order to leave them in a healthy place.”
Estrin, 57, is no novice to shepherding. As an interim rabbi, she formerly aided congregations in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Portland, Maine.
The work, she said from inside a Jeep Renegade near Rocky Mountain National Park, is an outgrowth of earlier professional ventures. After obtaining an undergraduate degree in Judaic studies and education at University of California, San Diego, Estrin worked in Jewish education for more than a decade. From there, the married mother of two later obtained a master’s and ordination from Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies.
Promoting pause and introspection from an interim pulpit is similar to another job Estrin held for almost 20 years: licensed tour guide in Israel.
The challenge and rush of sometimes having mere days to help people “find a connection with the land — whether that’s historical or archeological or whatever,” is that “I can really dive into it wholeheartedly,” she said. “You just jump in with both feet, there’s no onboarding time,” she said. “I throw it all out and see what sticks.”
Less chaotic than comprehensive, the approach, which Estrin will adopt after arriving in Pittsburgh, will include meeting as many people as possible, holding fireside chats and assessing needs before the High Holidays arrive.
Those activities, she said, will continue after the holidays, “as needed,” with overarching questions no different than those a tour guide asks. “Who is this person? Who is this family? What are they looking for? And how do I not change the itinerary, but adjust what we’re doing in any given location to meet what their needs are, and really find the thing that speaks deeply to them?”
When an interim rabbi enables congregants to experience various endeavors and recognize preferences, future parties benefit, she said. “If you hate musical instruments in your services, then you know not to bring in somebody who’s a guitar player and really wants to do that. If you love musical instruments, then you need to lean that way. If you are looking for high intellectual, we’re going to try these classes that are high intellectual. If they go well, great. If not, not a problem.”
Part of the challenge and opportunity Tree of Life faces is that almost 50 new families joined the congregation weeks ago.
Those individuals, Estrin said, represent a “very different demographic from the families that have been there, so one of the things we’ll be looking at this year is how do we honor the past and also make space for this future.”
The rabbi, who before arriving in Pittsburgh spent four days hiking in the Rockies with her wife Shari Robins as part of a cross-country drive from Portland, Oregon, is looking forward to helping Tree of Life answer what it means “to be progressive Conservative Jews,” she said.
The search has long held meaning for Estrin.
After growing up in San Diego, riding horses, and raising sheep and guide dogs for the blind, she converted to Judaism at 21.
What appealed most was an “intellectual honesty” encouraged by the faith, Estrin explained.
Judaism possesses “rules and regulations that you have to follow, whether you like them or not, but we can argue until you are done arguing about it,” she said. “Coming out of a Catholic background, I really appreciated that ability to challenge and ask why.”
Given Estrin’s background and talents, “We are looking for her expertise in guiding the congregation into our next chapter,” Robin Friedman, Tree of Life’s president, told the Chronicle. “We are excited to start this new chapter for Tree of Life Congregation, and we are looking forward to the changes that Rabbi Estrin will bring to the congregation, while putting her individual mark on the traditions that the congregation has had for 162 years.”
Estrin, a self-proclaimed National Parks and coffee lover, welcomed the praise and said the purpose of her year in Pittsburgh is to “listen with a deep and open heart, on both the personal and the communal level, and to work with the community to find their best selves, so that when they do go and search for a new rabbi, that becomes a long-term partnership between the two.”
Being an interim rabbi is about delivering the “ultimate goal,” she continued. The hope is that the “next rabbi is successful with the community, and that the partnership is successful.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
comments