Rodef Shalom, Temple Sinai boards approve unification plans

Pittsburgh’s two largest Reform congregations are one step closer to unification.

Rodef Shalom Congregation and Temple Sinai’s respective boards of trustees, in separate meetings, approved a term sheet that outlines how the congregations will proceed with a unification, according to Stephen Jurman, Temple Sinai’s president.

“The brit, or covenant as we’re calling it, is really an agreement that we want to join together,” Rodef Shalom President Bill Battistone said. “While there are legal steps to be taken, we want to make sure we’re approaching it with the right kind of mentality, so brit was important.”

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Both boards, Jurman said, not only passed the brit, but recommended each congregation’s membership pass it, which would formally merge the two congregations.

Special meetings will take place at both congregations on June 8 to accept or reject the boards’ recommendation.

If approved, the new congregation would be located in Rodef Shalom’s building on the corner of Fifth and Morewood Avenues. Its clergy team will include Temple Sinai’s Rabbi Daniel Fellman and Cantor David Reinwald, as well as Rodef Shalom’s interim Rabbi David Young.

According to the website Unity412, created to provide congregation members with information about the unification, after Young’s term ends in 2026, the new congregation will seek an assistant or associate rabbi.

Drew Barkley, Temple Sinai’s executive director, will stay in his role for the newly united congregation.

The congregation’s religious school will be headed by both Fellman and Rabbi Larry Freedman, the director of J-JEP, Rodef Shalom’s joint religious school with Congregation Beth Shalom, which will be invited to continue as a partner in the new school.

Jurman said that students already studying for their b’nai mitzvah will finish up in whatever program they’re currently enrolled.

“Eventually we’ll have one program for everybody,” he said, but noted that there will be some time before Temple Sinai’s building is sold. “There will be an element of choice but people who want to finish up their service in their existing building will be able to do that.”

Those leasing space in Rodef Shalom’s building, including Tree of Life Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, can continue to do so. Organizations that want to continue to rent space after the unification takes place, Battistone said, will negotiate and sign a lease with the new congregation.

“We have no plans of displacing anybody at the moment that has an agreement to be at Fifth and Morewood,” he said.

The new congregation will adopt the pledge/dues model used by Temple Sinai.

The two congregations represent a total of more than 1,300 family units, with about 680 affiliated with Rodef Shalom and about 650 affiliated with Temple Sinai.

The reasons for considering unification were simple, Jurman told the Chronicle in December 2023, when the possibility of merger was first announced.

“We’re all painfully aware that we need to do something to strengthen our hand,” he said. “We’re all losing members. Everybody knows but no one seems to have tackled the fact that we have a serious real estate problem in the Jewish community. That’s just one of our issues. We really have needed to engage in talk, playing to our strengths and doing something to minimize our weaknesses.”

Even if both congregations vote to approve the unification, Battistone said, there are several legal steps which must be undertaken to finalize the merger.

“It’s kind of a long process,” he said. “We are already working towards a lot of these things just to try and keep the momentum and ball rolling. That’s going to be another process that may take a few months.”

In the interim, Battistone said, the congregations’ boards of trustees will continue to oversee the organization, but a new management committee will be established consisting of eight lay leaders from each congregation.

The new committee, he said, will take over from the steering committee, which oversaw the unification process. The group will begin making some of the needed executive decisions, including those as mundane as when a congregational newsletter will be sent out, and as significant as what a new staffing model will look like for the united congregation.

Memorial and donor plaques will be brought to the building at Fifth and Morewood, according to the Unity412 website, along with art from Temple Sinai. The fate of different religious artifacts and Torah scrolls will be determined though a committee, with guidance from the congregation’s clergy.

If all goes as planned, the two congregations will create joint services and activities in July with additional joint programming for the High Holidays.

Jurman said the congregations have been holding question-and-answer sessions with their members and hope they help answer lingering questions.

Battistone isn’t certain how the congregations will vote but said he hoped there would be 100% participation from members. Information about the voting process will be sent later this week and the Rodef Shalom president said he felt a lot of “positive enthusiasm” from members.

“I think people are excited about this future that we’ve pointed to,” Battistone said, “and they want to see what comes out of it. I’m excited about it.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.