Hinenu Baltimore hired its first executive director, Mariya Strauss, earlier this summer.
According to the congregation’s founding rabbi, Ariana Katz, the congregation received a large donation from one of its members, allowing it to create the executive director position.
“During [the hiring] process, the [strategic planning] committee was laughing because we knew we would be hiring an executive director, God willing, in the next year, and they would be in charge of implementing the strategic plan,” said Katz. “They were like, ‘Oh, this poor sucker is going to be handed a strategic plan they had nothing to do with,’ and then, lo and behold, Mariya chose to apply, and she’s been in the room the whole time.”
Strauss has been on the Strategic Planning and Chesed committees for the congregation since she joined as one of its founding members in 2017.
“My personal practice is really around service and community care,” Strauss said. “I’ve been active in our Chesed Committee, doing community care, cooking meals for people who have had recent surgeries or hospitalizations or just are in need of that in our congregation.”
Strauss, originally from Oak Park, Illinois, described herself as a patrilineal Jew, with strong Jewish roots on her father’s side of the family, but she does not have a Jewish mother. Nonetheless, she considers herself part of the diaspora.
Strauss said she considers herself in a “zone of discovery and learning” when it comes to Jewish practices, traditions and her relationship with Rabbi Katz.
“The rabbi and I had, previously, a pastoral relationship,” Strauss explained. “I was just one of her congregants for the last seven years, so we have had to transition that relationship and become co-workers. That has been very interesting and fun.”
Since the congregation is young, many of Hinenu’s programs are just beginning. Just a few weeks ago, Hinenu started providing Shabbat lunches for congregants, prepared by a team of roughly 20 members who rotate responsibilities each week, such as grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning up.
According to Katz, the congregation recently established a hospitality team after having previously hosted potluck lunches for Shabbat. The team will also be making food for b’nai mitzvah and other programs at the congregation.
While the launch of the hospitality team has been successful, Strauss said the synagogue has had challenges attracting and keeping families with young children because it is still establishing its Hebrew school.
“We haven’t had the numbers of people to consistently keep classrooms full,” said Strauss.
However, Strauss also said there have been advantages to being part of a young synagogue.
“We get to invent new ways of doing things,” Strauss said. “Those of us coming from synagogues and congregations earlier in our lives may have seen things not work so well in a particular area. We may have said to ourselves as younger people, ‘I would do it differently if I ran the circus,’ and now we get to run the circus.”
Strauss hopes the congregation will find a permanent space in Baltimore.
“We are a vibrant collection of energetic, enthusiastic and joyful Jews who are really committed to Jewish ritual life and to the arts and culture of the diaspora. There is a lot to do with about 300 [congregants],” Strauss said.
