A Starting Place

Yes, playing ukulele is one of my hobbies/passions!  Here on the deck of my home in Colorado Springs.

A Starting Place...

The e-mail came Friday; our work visas for Australia had come through.  It had been such a long process, a long wait to arrive at this moment, I felt like saying shehecheyanu – the blessing for when momentous occasions arrive.  But let me back up and start from the beginning…
I am a retired USAF chaplain, having decided in 2008 to leave the service while I was still at an age where it was possible to have a second career as a congregational rabbi.  And I didn’t mean to have a part-time ‘retirement’ job with a sleepy little congregation, rather a dynamic career where I could shepherd a vibrant congregation where exciting things are happening.

I guess I took the ‘wrong’ position, with a small congregation in Colorado Springs that presented itself in the interview as having aspirations to become such a place but which, when it came to participating and funding, did not have the will.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they aren't lovely people!  But I realized I would never fully realize my vocation while working with them.  Although Clara and I very much enjoy living in Colorado Springs, a place we had already known because I was stationed at the Air Force Academy from 2001-2004, the congregation simply didn’t have the collective will to provide me with the challenges I was seeking.  After completing my second year with them, I let them know I would be looking for new challenges and opportunities in the coming year, that they should begin the process of looking for a new rabbi.

Well, I guess I took a risky gamble – at least as some would say – because the economic recession which had collapsed the market for Jewish communal jobs including those for rabbis, had not yet begun to recover.  Okay, that’s not the only issue; Reform Judaism has a deserved reputation for being a liberal (actually, I would say ‘Leftist’) movement, and I am center-right in many ways.  I got down to the placement finish line with only one congregation, a small place in north-central Florida, and I feared it was a mirror image of my first congregation – not offering the kind of challenge and security to warrant moving my household clear across a continent to take.  I recommended they consider other candidates, and I enrolled in graduate school to take a needed ‘time-out’ from work, and give me a cushion of time to discern where I needed to go with my vocation.

A small congregation in Gold Coast, Australia had been on the placement list back the previous summer when I began my job search.  Their profile looked interesting, so I sent them a resumé; they acknowledged receiving it, but then I heard no more and the congregation disappeared from the list, so I guessed the position had been filled.

Then, just as I started school in the summer of 2011,   the congregation re-appeared.  Although I had committed to studying for two years, I went ahead and sent another resumé.  This time they responded with an immediate request for an interview, and we talked early in the morning Colorado time on July 4^th, 2011.

The interview went well; at its conclusion the committee wanted to know when my wife Clara and I thought we could travel to Australia to meet them in person.  I had already prepared an answer to this question; because I was in school, and my kids were home from school for summer holidays, I didn’t want to take off and travel until the end of the summer semester.  And because the August semester break was not really long enough for a trip to Australia, and the Jewish High Holydays were not far off, why not plan for me to come to Australia for the important holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to support the congregation (since they were currently rabbi-less) and have a mutual look-see?

The committee liked the idea, but after the conversation there was some back-and-forth and it was the end of July before we agreed on the details.  I couldn’t know at the time, but the indecision reflected a big change in the congregation’s lay leadership and not any ambivalence over whether they wanted me to come.

Clara and I travelled to Australia in September and spent two wonderful weeks with the congregation and the Gold Coast.  It was a very busy time owing to the important festivals but we managed to get a good sense as to whether we would be a good ‘fit’ for this congregation and they for us, and the answer was in the affirmative.  We let them know that I would like to be considered a candidate for a long-term position with them.  I returned to Colorado let the department know of my intention to withdraw from the university at the end of the fall semester.  We busied ourselves with a few process steps and planned to move to Australia in early 2012.

I won’t bore you with the details and all the reasons why, but here it is May 2012 and we’re finally getting ready to leave in a few weeks.  This, months after we told everybody in the community here that we were going and having to endure months of “So, when are you going already??!”

So now the decision is made and the die is cast; we’re planning to travel to Australia on 21 May, immediately after our son Eyal’s high school graduation.

This new blog will document the experiences of an American couple living and working in Australia; it will also serve as a place to share my thoughts on various topics, of Jewish and general interest that may arise.  I will probably use it as a vehicle to share my weekly reflections on the Torah, as well as other religious issues.  Please enjoy, and if you’d like to offer feedback or any recommendations for a topic then feel free to communicate with me.