Rabbi Gordon Fuller has worked across the Jewish community throughout the country in various roles, including 25 years in education, over a decade as a pulpit rabbi in Waco, Texas, and recently as chairperson of the board and director of strategic partnerships for the Jewish Federation of Howard County.
Fuller also started his own business during the pandemic, MyFamilyRabbi.com, where he offers his services as a pluralistic rabbi to assist people with lifecycle events, converting and Jewish learning.
The Columbia resident has a passion for Jewish connection and gets to put that passion into practice at the Federation, where he works to build community partnerships.
Tell me about your background that led to you becoming a rabbi.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in a Conservative congregation. I was very active in my youth group there from seventh grade onward, and I was a leader in a group the last few years in high school, which included the assistant rabbi asking me if I would lead congregation services at their satellite location. So that was sort of my first experience leading services for other people.
I attended lots of services, and it was a positive experience. I was then asked to lead the middle school services for my holidays the year after I graduated, along with a friend of mine, and it was very well received by the kids. I had to take time off from college to come in during the week, and I got back to campus and found myself way behind in my work and started thinking, what kind of career could I go into where I won’t be penalized for being an observant Jew? Between that and the positive experience leading services, it led me to start pondering perhaps becoming a rabbi.
How did you start working in the Jewish community?
I attended Northwestern University, got a bachelor’s in human development there and had an internship as part of my undergraduate studies. The internship was with the Jewish Federation of Chicago that ran a program for college-age students where we had seminars in the evening — one on human services, one on Judaica — and then we were placed in social service agencies throughout the community. Mine was with a Jewish Family Service children’s program, and the genetic seminars and the human service seminars helped me concretize the direction I wanted to take when I graduated.
So I applied to the rabbinical school programs and the joint master’s [degrees] between Hebrew Union College and Southern Cal School of Social Work. In any case, I did start at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles after their program in Israel the summer after I graduated, and for a whole bunch of different reasons, I dropped out of medical school and ended up pursuing a master’s in social work later in life.
What are some of the things you do as the director of strategic partnerships?
[I’m] trying to rebuild relationships with what we call our allies. So, in addition to the [Howard County] school system, I was building a strong relationship with the county executive’s office and his office of human rights and equity, with our county library system and their DEI office, with Howard Community College; and then with other nonprofits and organizations, including places like the African American Community Roundtable; prior to Oct. 7, the Howard County Muslim Council; other nonprofits like that, as well as interfaith organizations.
So it was a natural fit for me to help our new CEO out by taking on those tasks on a very part-time basis, since I don’t want to work full-time at this point in my life, and so that’s what I’m doing, is building and nurturing those relationships.
What about the work in your career has brought you joy?
The general umbrella is just serving my fellow Jews, whether that’s in a pastoral role, congregational role or community role, like at the Federation. I like helping other people. I like solving problems. I like building relationships with non-Jews so that we reduce antisemitism. And I believe in collaboration, whether it’s collaborating with leadership in a congregation or an agency or a non-Jewish ally. The work fits. It’s trying to make the world a better place for all of us, not just the Jews.
What would you say to the next generation about the benefit of Jewish service?
Judaism has such a long and wonderful history of living out our values and being a light to the nations that anybody who really wants to can find something in Judaism that’s meaningful to them, whether that’s prayer or social action or meditation or a whole host of other things that stem from our Jewish values. I would say, find what your passion is within our Jewish values and try to connect others in a similar way to whatever is meaningful for them.
As you enter the other stages of your career, have you given thought to what’s next for you after work?
I don’t know that I’m ever going to fully retire, because when your guiding light is serving other people, it’s hard not to be doing something part-time. But I can be in a little bit more control of my own time, so that my wife and I can travel, spend time with our grandkids, different things like that.
