Dear Congregants,

I am delighted to share with you the news that Rabbi Andrew Straus will join us as Interim Rabbi for the twelve months beginning July 1, 2014.

Rabbi Straus is a dynamic, compassionate, and committed religious leader, counselor, and teacher. He is an experienced rabbi, having spent the last three years as Senior Rabbi of Temple Sinai in Oakland, California, a congregation of about a thousand households, and, before that, thirteen years as the Rabbi at Temple Emanuel of Tempe, Arizona, where he led that community’s expansion of its religious, social justice, and educational programs. Rabbi Straus also served as Associate Rabbi and Director of Education in Burlingame, California. Rabbi Straus also has considerable experience in social justice and pastoral care. He believes passionately in helping bring Judaism into the lives of his congregants in innovative ways.

Everyone who met Rabbi Straus during the interview process found him to be a warm, down-to-earth, genuine, thoughtful, and sensitive person. He was raised in Poughkeepsie, where he gained an appreciation for both traditional and contemporary Judaism—two forces he believes must be blended for Judaism to flourish. Rabbi Straus is excited to be joining Central, helping to strengthen and support us during this transitional period for the congregation. He will be an asset to our community and an invaluable addition to our clergy team as we bid farewell to Rabbi Michael Friedman at the end of June and offer full membership to our associates.

Given the changes at the top of our clergy, namely the transition from Rabbi Rubinstein to Rabbi Buchdahl and the hiring of Cantor Glazman as our new senior cantor, we concluded that it would be best to appoint an experienced interim rabbi for the coming year to share numerous clergy duties. During the summer, we will commence a search for a longer-term associate rabbi to join Rabbis Buchdahl, Salth, and Lorge and Cantors Glazman and Katz.

We are grateful to the members of the associate rabbi search committee for their hard work in identifying Rabbi Straus as our interim rabbi, as well as for agreeing to continue their efforts next year when we turn to the associate rabbi search process. Our sincere thanks to Seth Berger, Marshall Brozost, Jeremy Cohen, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, Sharon Friedberg, Jeffrey Goldstein, Freeman Shore, Shonni Silverberg, and Committee Chair Jeremy Fielding.

Rabbi Straus is married to Karen Pasternack Straus and is the proud father of three children, Carly, Elana, and Michael. I hope that all of you have the opportunity to meet and get to know Rabbi Straus during his year at Central.

David B. Edelson
President