What we have done together
By Paul Haist
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"The congregation has been my life, going through not only all the joyous occasions, but also all the sad and tragic ones," said Rabbi Emanuel Rose, who will retire this month as rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel after 46 years on the job.
"They stay with you forever," he said of all the memories of both the joyous and the tragic times.
"I have tremendous admiration for those who had real tragedies, they become part of your life. How do you say goodbye to that? It's part of your life, part of your being."
During his tenure at Beth Israel, Rose has witnessed and been part of many changes, not just within the families he has served, but within his congregation generally, the Reform movement and the broader secular community.
In a recent missive to his congregation, the rabbi stressed that all the changes at Congregation Beth Israel over the last nearly five decades that he has been there have been changes he and the congregants have made together.
He is proud of what he and his congregation have achieved within his congregation, beginning with tangible, material things such as the transformation of the bimah in the sanctuary of the great temple from an arrangement that focused on the rabbi to one that focuses instead on Torah.
"The pulpit, as it is now, is my design, with these broad steps, sort of welcoming, and moving the rabbi off to the side so the focus is now the ark," said Rose.
That was one of the earliest transformations during Rose's tenure.
In later years other physical transformations included a new wing on the congregation's education building and construction of the Schnitzer Family Center, across Northwest Flanders Street from the temple.
"We had a vision of what we wanted to achieve and we did it. It was an exciting process. It is just wonderful to have this building and everything it makes possible. We badly needed it. It's a magnificent place; it's made so much possible for us," he said to the Jewish Review.
In his letter, he pointed to other changes, including creation of the post of cantor, the establishment of "a superb" early childhood education program, and the hiring of a professional educator to oversee a comprehensive Jewish study program for children and adults, annual lecture programs in social justice and Jewish life, and the empowering of Jewish children by teaching the concepts of social justice and the practice of social action.
Rose made note also of other kinds of changes in which his congregation has participated and to which his congregation has adapted, including, for example, Reform's recent increased emphasis on some aspects of traditional observance.
"When I first became a rabbi here it was a classical Reform congregation just like Emanu-el in New York," he said. New York's Temple Emanu-el is where Rose served before coming to Portland in 1960.
"Over a period of time, there have been dynamic changes," he said, pointing to the influx to Reform of Jews from Conservative and Orthodox backgrounds.
"That has had a big impact on the growth of the Reform movement and the changes that have taken place in the Reform movement," said Rose
This, he added, has been "complicated by all the talk we hear of spirituality today."
He does not believe that either Judaism generally or Reform in particular has wanted for spirituality, that it always has been there, although "it was not framed in language that resonates today," he said, referring especially to Reform's now retired Union Prayer Book.
Rose notes with pride that Beth Israel has participated in the evaluation of new Reform prayer books designed to address concerns relating to issues such as gender neutrality and sexual preference, among others.
The rabbi notes that the huge social changes that have unfolded in America since the mid-20th century have been reflected in the Reform movement and that Beth Israel has responded accordingly.
"We have so many more institutions today, which is part of the desire of people to do their own thing and express themselves in non-traditional ways," said Rose.
As the Reform prayer book has evolved in recent decades, so to have Reform services to reflect the desire of individuals to find an expression of their Judaism that more directly addresses their personal preference.
"There has been a dramatic change in the nature of services—very informal on Friday night. That's why I wanted the new chapel (in the Schnitzer Family Center), which we finally got 13 years ago. Saturday morning is a more formal kind of service," said Rose
Such diverse needs have made congregational life increasingly complex, he explained.
While Rose has guided Beth Israel through decades of increasingly momentous change—which he also notes is a reflection of our society in general—he suspects it cannot continue.
"While there is a positive dynamic quality to this, ultimately I have a feeling that this can't go on," he said. "A society in which everybody does what is right in his or her own eyes can't live forever."
Throughout all the change Rose has witnessed and helped to make possible one thing that has remained constant, he wrote to his congregation.
"We have supported one another and we have blessed one another," he said. "There are few rabbis in the history of the rabbinate who have had the mazal to be so intertwined with the lives of so many."