About Rabbi Fine
The Board of Directors of Temple Sinai is proud and excited to announce its selection of our new Rabbi. Aaron Fine will assume his duties as our rabbi within the next few months. We are making this announcement not only to the Temple Sinai membership, but the surrounding Jewish community and the greater community of the North Shore as well. The Rabbi Search Committee, under the chairmanship of our President Allen Kamer, began intensive deliberation last December. Sometimes meeting as often as twice weekly, the Search Committee reviewed seven applications, interviewed several candidates, invited four candidates to meet the Temple membership and officiate during Shabbat weekends, and reviewed the answers to questionnaires sent out following each candidate visit, finally presenting its selection to the Ritual Committee. This was followed by an overwhelming majority vote by the Ritual Committee to approve the recommendation of the Rabbi Search Committee and finally unanimous approval by the Board. Rabbi Fine has enthusiastically accepted the Rabbinical and leadership responsibilities that Temple Sinai asked and required.
Rabbi Fine, a native of Massachusetts, attended Oberlin College, where he graduated with a BA in Jewish Studies. He also studied for several months at Shappells College of Jewish Studies, Yeshivat Darche Noam in Jerusalem. He will be ordained at the end of May 2009 at Hebrew College graduating with a dual degree in Rabbinical Studies leading to Ordination and a Masters in Jewish Education. Quoting a reference the Rabbi Search Committee received: “Judaism is central to Aaron and he is very steeped in Jewish traditions, he will provide to any Congregation a strong traditional, Jewish lifestyle for them to follow. He is a natural leader, seeking out people.”
Besides his strong interest and dedication to Judaism, Rabbi Fine has an additional strong interest in the arts. To that end he spent several months studying filmmaking at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. He has since then completed six film projects.
During several interviews with the Rabbi Search Committee, Aaron emphasized his interest in integrating the arts with his rabbinical responsibilities at Temple Sinai. His past experience would certainly prepare him for that and we look forward to what he will be doing especially developing programs with Adult Education, the NSHS and Temple Youth.
His rabbinic work experience included working as chaplain for the Heart and Lung Transplant ICU at University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA. Rabbi Fine expanded on this particular experience during the Question and Answer period during his weekend visit with us and the profound effect it had on him. He also interned at Temple Beth Zion and Kehilat Israel in Brookline, MA. His experience in Jewish Education included teaching at Gann Academy, and Prozdor Hebrew High School where he created and taught several semester classes which included such diverse subjects as “Dreaming in the Jewish Tradition” and “Hasidism a Personal Exploration.”
With respect to our pre-teen population and pre- and post- Bar/Bat Mitzvah members of Temple Sinai and the surrounding Community, Rabbi Fine will bring the experience he received while being a counselor and Camp Director for several years at a Jewish Day Camp in Amherst. While there he developed and implemented educational programming based in Jewish culture, Jewish tradition and social activism. Additionally, Rabbi Fine showed early administrative skills, by creating the necessary pathway by which Camp Shemesh continued to grow and thrive following his departure as Camp Director. Rabbi Fine has strongly indicated that he wants to bring his interests in youth and Judaism to Temple Sinai and the surrounding community and we look forward to his future programming, innovation and strengthening the “young” Jewish community bond within the North Shore.
Very soon, Rabbi Aaron Fine and his wife Emily, who is studying clinical psychology at Antioch, will be moving to the Marblehead-Swampscott area. These are exciting times for Temple Sinai and our Community. We all look forward to a “revival of Jewishness” led by our new Rabbi and Cantor Aronson who has expressed enthusiasm about working with Rabbi Fine. We not only can look forward to “innovation within tradition” of our spiritual experience at Temple Sinai but also the exciting possibility of our Cantor and Rabbi working together to make Temple Sinai the center to “be, experience and rediscover our Judaism”.
Quoting from another of the references we received for Rabbi Fine, “Aaron will help a synagogue find out where they are religiously and then help them meet those needs. He will do this by his teachings and by the rituals the congregation wants”. Rabbi Fine is looking forward to meeting each one of us individually, to listen to our needs and just simply to get to know us. However, for our Temple to grow and provide the spiritual needs of our membership we need your participation and input. We look forward to participating not only within the four walls of our Sanctuary but also within the greater Community.
Please join the Temple Sinai Board in welcoming Rabbi Aaron Fine to our community. For questions regarding the process or to Rabbi Fine please direct them to Temple_Sinai@verizon.net where they will be forwarded appropriately.
Sincerely,
Michael S. Lawee
Chair-Ritual Committee