Dear Agudas Community,
As Pesach quickly approaches, we are writing with an update from the Rabbinic Search Committee. As many of you know, Rabbi Treu will be ending her time with us after Pesach. She has accepted a permanent position in South Orange, New Jersey and we want to thank her for her energy, spirit, and time over the past 6 months. We will surely miss her. Given that our shul will not have a Rabbi in place after Pesach, and that our permanent position is simply not gaining traction at this point in the process, our Search Committee believes that hiring a one-year interim Rabbi is in the best interest of our shul. We believe that we are an attractive synagogue for a top-tier rabbi and that when we are able to bring folks to our community for visits, our shul will truly be able to show off what makes us special. Although this Covid year has thrown a wrench in thus far getting the end result we want, we will continue to make sure that we do not settle and we find the right leader for our shul.
After our initial round of candidate visits, we re-opened our job description in order to attract additional applications. Unfortunately, that did not bear fruit as we had hoped, and so at the beginning of March we added an additional posting with the intent to attract candidates for a one year interim position. We have received applications for our interim position and are in the process of reviewing the appropriateness of those candidates for our shul. Our candidates are planning to move to Columbus, and will be full-time Rabbis for our congregation. We will continue our search process and will go through the placement process again next fall. Our recruitment efforts, however, are on-going and we are actively seeking the right fit to lead our shul’s next chapter.
As a reminder, our interview process for the interim position is a little different from how we conducted interviews for the permanent position. The Co-Chairs will meet with each of our candidates to act as a screen. Subsequently, the voting members of the Search Committee will conduct a full interview of candidates who may be appropriate candidates for our shul, and our Rabbinic Advisors will meet with those candidates separately. After all interviews are complete, we will make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees if we believe we have identified the right candidate to lead our congregation on an interim basis. We will not have in-person virtual visits for our interim candidates. This is the identical process that we used this summer, culminating in the hiring of Rabbi Treu.
As always, if anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected].
Wishing you an early Chag Kasher v’Sameach,
Avi Allen and Brad Kastan
