Rabbi Tyler Dratch moved to Baltimore and joined the Beth Am Synagogue team in 2021, taking on the roles of rabbi, youth education leader and prayer leader. He knew it was a special place right away, saying he and his family immediately felt at home at Beth Am.

On July 1, Dratch took on his biggest role yet: he was elevated to the synagogue’s senior rabbi position, formally called the Alexander Grass Rabbinic Chair. He follows Rabbi Daniel Cotzin Burg in that role, who served at Beth Am for 16 years.

“When the outgoing senior rabbi announced that he was going to be leaving Baltimore, I was asked after some time to take on the senior rabbi position, and was surprised, but mainly delighted that I would get to keep serving this community in this new capacity that I grew to love,” Dratch said.

Dratch is originally from Newtown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was ordained at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts. Dratch’s wife grew up in Baltimore and has lots of family in the region, which made the city an attractive destination. What sealed the deal, however, was Beth Am. Now, Dratch gets to help lead the shul from the very top. His first order of business is to listen and learn, he said.

“I know enough to know that the role of a new rabbi is to listen, so the commitment this year is to spend lots of time talking to lots of people, meeting with them, having meals and hearing from them about what excites them most about their community, what some of their concerns are, and what animates their souls in spiritual community,” Dratch said. “Only from doing that can you get the whole picture.”

He laughed, and then added, “So, in a way, I was excited about the opportunity to slow down and get to listen to the really rich stories that folks carry with them.”

Don’t mistake that excitement for complacency, however. Dratch has plans, and he said that the community has expressed its excitement for his tenure. His new period of leadership will start with an overarching theme, as every year at Beth Am does, to help guide shul members and leaders.

“It’s a little early to really be clear, but what I will tell you is that each year at Beth Am, we pick a theme for the year that says something about what’s important to our community, what we think makes it special and what we want to put extra focus on,” he said. “This year’s theme that I picked, along with our synagogue leaders, is the year of ‘chesed’ or loving kindness.”

For Dratch, that means finding ways to compassionately navigate relationships, show up for each other in times of need and contribute to the synagogue ecosystem as a whole. He said that this message ties in nicely to the Beth Am C2C initiative, which stands for “congregant to congregant.”

“Congregants who are delivering meals, driving people to chemotherapy appointments, visiting elders in our community, and celebrating and strengthening that work,” he said.

Something Dratch already knew, but that has been reinforced in the last few weeks and months since he started preparing for this role, is that a synagogue can mean many things.

“People are looking to build communities of meaning to join and be a part of places in which they matter … they’re also looking for communities that help them live their values in the world. If that’s to promote justice in our city, if it’s to find opportunities to slow down or be connected to history and past generations, if it’s to combat antisemitism … I think that the Jewish community has the opportunity to bring people together. When we show up to care for others, that’s where you find great meaning in life,” Dratch said.

Dratch is still relatively new to Baltimore, but said this is where he and his family are building their life.

“Beth Am has been such a warm community for our family. We love this city for so many reasons — the vibrancy of it, the diversity, the excitement of folks who live all across the neighborhoods of Baltimore City. Along with the community, a synagogue that is not like other synagogues in a lot of ways, we are just delighted to be a part of it,” he said.

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com