Rabbi Emily Stern has a flair for the dramatic. And the theater student-turned-rabbinical student is now taking on her biggest role yet: becoming Kol HaLev’s rabbi.
She took over the position from the interim rabbi and her mentor, Rabbi Steven Silvern, in May, after having spent a year creating family programming for the Reconstructionist synagogue.
She is currently a student at the ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal Ordination Program and is projected to be officially ordained as a rabbi in January 2024. She first got involved with Kol HaLev when she moved to Baltimore from Long Island, N.Y., and reconnected with Silvern, who was once ALEPH’s associate dean. At the time they reconnected, Silvern was working under Rabbi Emeritus Geoff Basik at Kol HaLev.
“I’ve always loved the Kol HaLev community,” Stern said. “They’re very conversational, very sweet and loving to each other. They care about each other.”
Stern recalled that she always knew she wanted to be a rabbi, but she initially went down a more artistic path in life, studying theater at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. While she loved acting, she eventually began finding the plays she was acting in to be unfulfilling. She had started to turn to religion for guidance and discovered that the messages she was looking for in religious texts were often absent from her work as a stage actress.
“They weren’t meaningful enough in their messages and the characters I was playing,” she said. “Originally, I loved playing characters who were evil because I got to redeem them and see the beauty in them. But it just got old. Later on, the Jewish Journal interviewed me for a role I was in. I was so happy to be talking to them about Judaism that I realized I wanted to become a rabbi.”
Stern’s theatrical experience still influences how she approaches religion. ALEPH takes a joyous, often-musical approach to Judaism, which fit well with her artistic interests. When she started working at Kol HaLev, she joined their musical group, Shabbat Unplugged, and has written several original compositions for them.
When Basik retired and Silvern stepped into the interim rabbi position, he had Stern serve as his assistant rabbi.
“He said ‘I’m getting older, and I’m not doing this without Emily,’” she recalled. “I learned so much from him about the ins and outs of the community. There’s a lot I never would have known without him.”
As the end of Silvern’s tenure was approaching in November 2022, Kol HaLev’s community had the opportunity to vote for their next rabbi. Stern won the vote in a landslide, securing the position shortly after.
In addition to her work as a rabbi, Stern is also studying to be a mashpia, a spiritual director. Mashpiot work to guide people on their individual spiritual journeys. She prefers the title of “spiritual companion,” though, because she feels that she works with people directly rather than telling them what to do.
She has also worked as a chaplain in the past at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Church of the Holy Comforter, which Kol HaLev has a partnership with. The two houses of worship often collaborate on community service projects.
“It’s a great way to bring people together and deepen their connections across religions,” she said.
Stern has big plans for the future of Kol HaLev. Currently, the synagogue is working on connecting with the Towson University Hillel, as well as expanding their b’nai mitzvah schooling. One thing she praised about Kol HaLev is its openness toward interfaith families, and she wants more to join.
She added that she wants to encourage congregants to learn through experiences and forming meaningful connections with others, rather than just reading and listening.
“I want to keep the best parts of Kol HaLev, and for me, that’s the conversational element,” Stern said. “I love experiential Judaism. … I love getting to explore what Judaism means to people, and how the Torah affects them on a deeper level. It’s meeting people where they’re at.”
