A Personal View

Week of Study Theme:

The weeklong study conference with its theme, “Love your Neighbor – A Jewish Guide to Intergroup and Interpersonal Relationships,” was developed by The Jewish Theological Seminary in cooperation with United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism and the North American Association of Synagogue Executives. It included sessions presented by renowned Seminary scholars Rabbi Joel Roth, our scholar-in-residence, and Rabbi Neil Gillman as well as Rabbi Mychal Springer, Rabbi Shai Held, Rabbi David Hoffman, Hazzan Henry Rosenblum, Rabbi Marc Wolf, Rabbi Jan Uhrbach. United Synagogue’s Rabbi Moshe Edelman, Mark Waldman, Rabbi Jan Kaufman and Rabbi Paul Drazen led other sessions relating to our theme.

A spa retreat experience can be re-energizing, refreshing and renewing, but it can also require effort, focus and dedication. For thirty executive directors from the Conservative Movement, the NAASE Week of Study at JTS “Spa Retreat” was a unique time to bask in the mental attention given by the scholars; to be participants, not supervisors; to have our needs met, not only to see to the need of others. The payoff is an executive director whose soul feels massaged and whose mind feels quenched.

Before the Week of Study, when presented with the opportunity to study text, my first inclination would have been to head for the nearest exit. While one week of intense study does not a scholar make, neither will I now feel intimidated nor out of my league when this opportunity arises again. Challenging but also reachable, inspirational but also practical, serious but also entertaining—these are the characteristics that triggered a newfound confidence in myself as the week progressed.

The initial reason for registering for the Week of Study was to experience for myself the excitement expressed by my colleagues who had previously attended, but it was also to fulfill a goal for the upcoming year I had made to identify one way to expand my Jewish experiences. I assumed that once I attended the Week of Study, I would be able to check that off of my goal-list. Now I know that it simply and surprisingly sparked a wealth of new possibilities to grow Jewishly. And for that I am not only grateful but also blessed.