Winston-Salem Journal Aug. 23, 2002

Search for right leader is a struggle

By John Railey

JOURNAL REPORTER

It's never easy when the beloved, longtime head of a congregation announces retirement plans. In many faith traditions, congregations don't pick the replacement. Denominational officials simply send one in, often leaving that person and the congregation struggling to fit together.

But in those faith traditions in which the congregation gets to choose, the process can be just as thorny. I have seen Episcopalians, Baptists and Jews here wrestle with that choice. As painful as the process can be, it can also offer fascinating peeks at people and politics.

That's readily apparent in The New Rabbi, a nonfiction book by Stephen Fried that is coming out this month from Bantam Books. Fried details the search for a new rabbi at Har Zion Temple on Philadelphia's Main Line, one of this country's largest and most influential temples. The book contains many wise passages about the state of Judaism in this country, but the clergy search it describes should be familiar to many Christians.

An agonizing search

As Fried's book begins, it's the dawn of this century and Gerald Wolpe, the rabbi for 30 years at Har Zion, has announced his retirement. He has been a major force in conservative Judaism, one of three main branches of the religion.

Wolpe's sermons and leadership are legendary, but he's tired. "The voice is still there, and he still knows how to work a room, but his vigor is depleted and his perspective is now several generations removed," Fried writes.

A committee is chosen to search for Wolpe's replacement, and there's the usual grumbling from members of the congregation about who gets to be on the committee. Wolpe tries to stay out of the search. "He knows that if he gets involved - even if they beg him to help - he will ultimately be branded as an egocentric meddler who can't let go of the past, more interested in legacy preservation than the future of the synagogue," Fried writes.

The committee, like so many search committees, wants a new version of their leader. "They want what every congregation wants: a younger, hipper version of their beloved rabbi, someone who has all of his qualities and none of his imperfections, all of his wisdom plus all of the energy he expended acquiring that wisdom."

Not surprisingly, the committee members find few qualified candidates. And some members began to realize that their synagogue is not without its own flaws, that it's kind of a "secular, suburban country-club synagogue" that lacks the spiritual commitment of many smaller temples. One committee member even thinks about leaving the synagogue.

The committee nixes one candidate because he talks about quoting Bob Dylan in a recent sermon. It likes another candidate, but he finally says he wants to stay where he is.

The search goes through several other candidates and stretches to three years, during which time Wolpe steps down and his assistant fills in as interim rabbi.

Choices and challenges

I won't give away the book's ending, but the committee's work is over. Another search has ended, but similar searches continue across the country in temples, mosques and churches.

Fried's book doesn't offer any solutions that would make the process easier. I'm not sure there are many.

What the book does illuminate is that, if we can ever get past the politics, such searches can be tests of faith, spiritual journeys for both the searchers and the candidates.

o John Railey can be reached at 727-7288 or at jrailey@wsjournal.com

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