Rabbi Dana Saroken (Courtesy of Beth El Congregation)
Rabbi Dana Saroken said when she visited Beth El Congregation in Baltimore, it was love at first sight.
Saroken joined the Beth El clergy team in 2007 as the congregation’s first female rabbi. Today, she is transitioning into the congregation’s senior rabbi role.
“What I experienced on that quick visit was a congregation unlike any I had experienced before: There was a generosity and a civility that came through in all of my interactions, there was a clergy team that supported [each other] and a community that was thoughtful and devoted,” Saroken wrote in an email to Baltimore Jewish Times. “Probably what excited me most was that it was a synagogue that was open to creative thinking, collaborating and was willing to take risks for the sake of our shared future.”
Saroken graduated summa cum laude from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and Jewish studies. After graduating, she served as the educational director for Up With People, an international organization where she traveled with 150 young adults to bring performances about social issues to communities.
“It wasn’t one particular moment, but I would describe it as a path that seemed to lead me to the rabbinate,” added Saroken.
While working for Up With People, she found herself in Wyoming for the High Holidays.
“I found the nearest shul and showed up to find barely a minyan of people who didn’t really know the prayers nor did they know how to read the Hebrew, but they cared enough to show up and they generously shared whatever skills they had to create a service. That experience made an impact on me,” she recalled. “I realized how vulnerable Judaism will be if we don’t make sure to pass Jewish rituals, skills, wisdom and Torah from one generation to the next. That experience inspired me to find a job working within the Jewish community. I moved to Washington, D.C., and became the program director and then the director of the Jewish students organization at Georgetown University.”
At Georgetown, Saroken explained that she found herself being drawn to doing things that a rabbi was uniquely skilled to do. So, she sent in her application to the Jewish Theological Seminary and became ordained in 2003.
Saroken is stepping into her new role formerly filled by Rabbi Steven Schwartz, who first joined the congregation as an assistant rabbi in 1998. Then, in 2008, Schwartz stepped into the senior rabbi position. Today, he is transitioning into a part-time role at the synagogue.
“It’s not a bad idea in the cycle of communities just to open the floor for new ideas and a fresh approach and different people and different sensibilities,” said Schwartz.
He explained that the decision to step into a part-time role was because he wanted to do many of the “standard retirement things” without retiring just yet, like traveling, playing his guitar, reading and more.
“I see it as a kind of transitional phase where I will have some more of those opportunities … but also I’ll be able to stay involved with the congregation,” he added. “At the same time, I think with me being around a little bit less than I have over the last 28 years, it’s an opportunity for the congregation … to begin to understand what’s life after Schwartz going to be? How’s it going to look? Because the congregation needs an opportunity to begin to do that, too.”
The transition in senior leadership is coming as the congregation welcomes a new full-time rabbi in July and a new executive director.
“Right now, our synagogue happens to be in a place where many of our senior staff are … nearing their retirements. Mostly, I feel grateful for all that they’ve done to help build and strengthen our community, each in their own beautiful ways,” Saroken wrote. “As colleagues and friends, I’m excited for them for all that is still to come in their next chapters. And of course, there’s always a bit of bittersweet as people retire as we’ll miss their presence and partnership. We’ll miss them. But we also have a spectacular team that will still be in place at Beth El.”
She added, “Some people will be moving up, others cutting back their hours, but our team will remain strong, inspired and deeply devoted to the work that we do and the community that we serve.”
Schwartz noted that with transitions happening in many different roles throughout the congregation, it’s an exciting time at Beth El.
“I have a lot of gratitude for the people I’ve worked with over the years, and the lay leadership at the congregation, which is just incredible,” he said. “And gratitude for the community, for all the congregants who take the time to pay attention to their Judaism, to come into the building, to be thoughtful, to be caring about Jewish life and about each other and about their clergy.”
