These women, who are not Jewish, all work for Jewish agencies. It is not uncommon for communal organizations such as Jewish community centers, synagogues, homes for the aged and federations to employ non-Jews as receptionists, social workers, dietitians and in other support-staff positions.
For them to feel at home and comfortable in their work environment, however, it helps to have a basic understanding of Jewish rituals, terminology and current issues. Responding to that need, the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay recently hosted “Jewish Education in a Day” for East Bay Jewish communal and synagogue support staff.
With new staff at many of these agencies, particularly the recently expanded Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living, administrators were asking for the service. “We did this one other time several years ago,” said Rabbi Glenn Karonsky, executive director of the federation’s Center for Jewish Living and Learning. “Synagogues [and other agencies] aren’t in a position to give that kind of an orientation.”
Although those in attendance were not asked their “religious preference,” Karonsky estimated that about 80 percent of the 39 participants were not Jewish. The rest were Jews who wanted a general, working knowledge of their religion, he said.
Karonsky and Cara Buckalter, who chaired the event, solicited ideas from administrators and fashioned a program that included sessions on basic Judaism, Hebrew, history, communal agencies, text study, current issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Buckalter felt the Mideast conflict component was necessary because, with beefed-up security at Jewish organizations and events, employees often have to field questions about safety and other related issues.
“We wanted to create an environment where people could ask questions,” said Buckalter. The workshop, led by Riva Gambert, director of the federation’s Israel Center, covered the history of Israel and how the conflict evolved to its current status.
“People got the idea that everything you see in the news isn’t accurate or the whole story,” Buckalter said.
Participants gave the Mideast discussion very high ratings on their evaluations, and Pring came away with a whole new perspective on Israel.
“I had no idea Israel was this tiny country on the map,” said Pring, who has worked as a receptionist at Oakland’s Temple Sinai for the past year. “I enjoyed learning about all the wonderful things they do there — medicine, technology and research.”
Hall’s knowledge of Israel had been pretty much limited to what she’d read in the Bible and heard on the news. Learning about the history of Israel and the diaspora was very helpful to her understanding of the conflict.
“I went from what you see on the news to really knowing the history and reasons why things are like they are,” said Hall, who after working at the federation for a year as a receptionist is now the teen department administrator, planning retreats and other events. “It gave me a new respect for the country. It was a real eye-opener.”
In his introductory comments, Ami Nahshon, federation executive vice president likened the organization to a city council for the East Bay’s Jewish community — providing funds, programming support and other services.
Until Nahshon’s talk, Stockwell said, all she knew about the federation was that it issued her paychecks.
“It’s very impressive, the depth and breadth of the services,” commented Stockwell, a teacher in the Kitah Bet program for 3-year-olds at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center for the past year. “It gave me a sense of the community.”
Overall, the event helped participants fill in gaps in their knowledge about Judaism. Many discovered similarities to as well as differences from their own religions.
Although Stockwell, who has a Jewish partner, feels comfortable around Jewish rituals, she had felt put off by Hebrew and the fact that it uses a different alphabet. The ulpan seminar taught by Ophira Druch demystified the language for her, and now she’s thinking about taking a class in modern Hebrew.
Pring, a Lutheran who converted to Catholicism in her late 20s, said the rituals — particularly those surrounding death and mourning — made a lot of sense and were compatible with her way of thinking.
In the text-study class taught by Rabbi Andrea Berlin from Temple Sinai, Hall learned about the different movements of Judaism. She also found the brief Torah study exercise to be very different from the Bible study classes she’d attended through the Church of Christ. This one was “thought-provoking, more open, almost debatable.”
Compared with other Bible study classes where “things will be explained if you don’t understand them,” she said, “Jews create stories to fill in the unknown. Christians don’t do that. If you don’t know, you don’t know and you’re left with that. It was really different, a nice change.”
But the biggest revelation that Hall came away with was Jews’ sense of tikkun olam – repairing the world.
“Jews feel that they have a responsibility to be good and help people,” said the federation employee. “I’m happy to be working in a place where people think that’s their purpose.”