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People on the Move: Rabbi Shira Stern
03/14/2008 - By Teja Anderson
Rabbi Shira Stern
Rabbi Shira Stern - Working To Keep The Faith
Although being a female rabbi is not as unusual as it was, say, 30 years ago, sharing the title of Rabbi with your spouse perhaps is. Add to this being a chaplain, a counselor, an educator, a PhD, a mother of three boys in college, and the daughter of one of the world’s most famous virtuoso violinists (Isaac Stern) and you have got one extraordinary woman! When Temple Rodeph Torah’s longtime rabbi, Donald Weber, led me to his wife of 25 years for our interview, I found Shira Stern at the back of the school, standing happily in the winter’s first snow, waiting for some of her younger charges to be dropped off for class. Her warm demeanor, firm handshake, wide smile, and impossibly light blue eyes made me feel welcome…despite the cold.
Back in her cozy, book-lined office at at the temple’s Hebrew School, the first of many quotable statements popped from her mouth: “It’s fun to be a Jew!” By the time I left, I believed her. Rabbi Shira Stern loves her job. Her favorite thing to do is to listen outside the classrooms to the happy sounds of children learning. Almost 200 Jewish children study here, finding out who they are and where they came from, and most importantly, where they are going. Identity and community are stressed above all else. With all the activities in which today’s children are involved – sports, video games, music, and television – most of them will probably not grow up to work in any of those professions. Her hope is that they will grow up to be proud Jewish adults, and that what they are absorbing at the school she oversees will enable them to do that. She especially loves when she hears back from the parents that they, too, have learned things; the children often go home and share their newly found lessons and knowledge with their families. Although, she admits, there is an old Jewish expression: “Oy! It’s difficult to be a Jew!” She says that being a Jew can also be a lot of fun. In a world that is increasingly disjointed, isolating, and confusing, Judaism, she says, offers a very close and tightly knit sense of belonging. All over the world you can always run into other Jews with whom a strong bond and special camaraderie are often felt.
One of the fun parts of Judaism, the rabbi says, is celebrating all the holidays. Chanukah, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Purim, and Passover are familiar to most people, but there is also a wonderful holiday – Tu B’Shevat (celebrated in January) – which is a birthday for trees. Every year the students of Rodeph Torah send trees to Israel to be planted, and also learn about the importance of the environment and “going green.”
Besides being the director of the religious school, overseeing the curricula of the lower grades, and teaching an advanced high school-level program in affiliation with a temple in Aberdeen, Rabbi Stern has been teaching for 28 years and is entering her 25th year in the rabbinate; she was ordained in 1983 at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She has also served on the Board of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and the American Red Cross Critical Response Team. She has been a full-time acute-care hospital chaplain and also has a private pastoral counseling practice in Marlboro. She lectures and teaches at synagogues, Jewish community centers, and healing centers, and leads services at two independent assisted-living facilities. In addition, Rabbi Stern is a member of the Task Force on Drugs and Addiction of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Prior to coming to Marlboro, she served as rabbi for the Monroe Township Jewish Center, Director of the Jewish Institute for Pastoral Care in New York City, and as a full-time hospital/hospice and nursing home chaplain. The Jewish community of Marlboro is truly fortunate to have this wonderfully inspiring woman at the helm of one of their schools. –by Teja Anderson
Are you or someone you know in Marlboro a “Person on the Move”? If you’ve got a story to tell this could be you! E-mail a brief description to us at info@livinginmedia.com and let us know who you are.
STATS
Favorite restaurant: Konbu
Favorite music: classical
Favorite movie: The Frisco Kid
Pet peeve: mean people
Three people you would like to have dinner with: Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Golda Meir (in her own kitchen)
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