Thank you to our congregants and volunteers for providing a very warm welcome to Rabbi Steven Henkin and Orly Henkin this past weekend. Please read this email for next steps. 

 

Now that we have completed our two candidate weekends, we’d like to take this opportunity to clarify the TBE policy on hiring a new senior rabbi. This procedure was recommended by the Governance Task Force and was approved by the board in May 2019. 

   “Procedure:

  • The search committee screens candidates and identifies the ones they want to bring to Birmingham for a weekend interview.
  • Within a week after a candidates’ visit, a survey is sent to the congregation.
  • When the search committee meets to discuss a candidate (or several candidates), the first portion of the meeting is open to the congregation for the purpose of allowing members to express their views on the candidate(s). 
  • Based on its own evaluation, the survey, and the input from congregants, the search committee recommends making an offer to a candidate to the board, and the board decides whether or not to make an offer to the candidate.” 

 

We have completed items 1 and 2 of the procedure above, and now it’s your turn! We ask all who met Rabbi Henkin (including attending in-person or virtual services) to please complete the survey linked here.

If you did not get a chance to meet him in person or attend services, you can view Friday evening and Saturday morning Shabbat Services on YouTube.

Please note that all adults should complete their own survey (i.e., one survey per adult, not one survey per household.) We request that you complete the survey by Thursday, February 3, 2022 at 5pm.

In accordance with part 3 of the procedure listed above: our search committee will meet on Zoom on Monday February 7 from 6:30-7:30 pm, and you are invited to join us. We will have time for two minutes per person, and your comments should be in addition to, not instead of, completing the survey. If you would like to speak at this meeting, please email rebeccarothman@gmail.com to sign up for a time slot, and please register for the meeting here. Once you register, you will receive the Zoom link for the meeting.

Please remember that your opinion matters, and we look forward to hearing from you; the more congregants we hear from, the better equipped we are to assess if the candidate is the right fit for us and vice versa.

As always, please reach out to Jacob or Rebecca with any questions, ideas, concerns, or anything else. Please call or email us directly, or write to: rabbinicsearch@templebeth-el.net

 

Jacob Halpern – 205-369-5151 – jhalpern@majorpromotions.net

Rebecca Rothman – 205-759-9955 – rebeccarothman@gmail.com