Job Opening: Executive Director
July 20, 2010
Executive Director (Portland)
FTE: Full Time
Salary: Range 42,000 – $50,000
Job Summary
Havurah Shalom is a vibrant, diverse, participatory Jewish community of 350 families, steeped in Jewish values, promoting spirituality, learning and acts of social responsibility. We are seeking a full time Executive Director. Primary duties include working as a staff liaison to the steering and finance committees and working closely with Havurah’s Rabbi, Educator and office staff. Management responsibilities include day-to-day operation of the congregation, including hiring and managing direct staff reports, overseeing personnel policies, building-related activities, financial management, e-mail marketing, technical infrastructure and content managed website. The Executive Director participates in appropriate community initiatives and activities, organizes and maintains internal and external publicity and advertising. This position also oversees communications, and Havurah’s cemetery policies and procedures. Program and religious support is provided by this position to insure the logistical aspects of preparing for religious and holiday services are complete. To apply please send a cover letter documenting how you meet the job qualifications, a current resume, and three current references to this link.
Job Qualifications
- A bachelor’s degree required, with 3+ years of administrative experience.
- Demonstrated ability to manage people, facilities, and financial responsibilities.
- Strong organizational skills.
- Experience with, and passion for, working with the Jewish community.
- Self-starter with proven ability to work with a diversity of people and responsibilities.
- Experience in donor relations preferred.
- Knowledge of the local Jewish Community and congregations preferred.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, appreciation for ethnic, racial and sexual diversity, strong cultural competence and sensitivity in working with diverse populations.
- IT knowledge that would include Microsoft Office
- Good sense of humor!
Health and vacation benefits included.
Havurah Shalom is an equal opportunity employer.
Location: Multnomah County
Compensation based on experience and qualifications
This a full time job
Principals only. Recruiters please don’t contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job. For more information, see the Havurah Shalom website at: www.havurahshalom.org.
Shabbat is Everywhere! Join us at the Pool and on the Farm!
June 9, 2010
Shabbat is Everywhere!
Why not celebrate Shabbat outside in the beauty of creation?
Join Havurah Shalom for Shabbat in the Pool, and on the Farm!
SHABBAT IN THE POOL
Saturday, July 24, 10:00 am, Sellwood Park
We have the pool to ourselves 10:00 am-12:00 pm, followed by Shabbat singing, storytelling, picnicking under the trees. All ages welcome.
RSVP by July 15, with family names and/or ages of kids, to enable us to reserve enough life-guards. We will send you directions and an inclement weather plan. Click here to RSVP!
SHABBAT ON THE FARM
Saturday, August 28, 10:30 am, Sauvie Island Organics Farm
We enjoy a brief Shabbat celebration amidst the fields of lovely vegetables. Then, we harvest carrots and corn, search for frogs, play ball in the field – and really sing out about the beauty of creation!
All ages welcome.
RSVP by August 17 to enable us to send you directions and to plan appropriately. Click here to RSVP
Operation Reconnect: What We Heard
April 19, 2010
Operation Reconnect is a year-long, Havurah-community-wide process through which we will reconnect ourselves with each other and with our origins as a vibrant, participatory community, and restore our roots in Jewish values and history.
This is being done through a three-step process: 1) Interviews with a significant portion of Havurah members provided information on broad areas of agreement about priorities for the future. The Operation Reconnect Committee analyzed those interviews to isolate and list those priorities. 2) Parlor meetings in April and early May are eliciting group discussions to confirm the themes of greatest interest and help set priorities from among the programming ideas arising from the interviews. 3) A congregation-wide meeting on May 16 will present these findings and information about our plan to implement them.
Remaining parlor meetings are scheduled for April 19 and 25 and May 2. We encourage all Havurah members to attend one of the parlor meetings and the May 16 congregational meeting. What follows is a synopsis of the one-on-one interviews that were held earlier this year.
What We Heard in the Operation Reconnect Interviews
You told us that you are drawn to Havurah because you experience:
- A sense of community. Havurah is a safe, happy and affirming place for most people. This sentiment was articulated by a woman who described the times when her daughters went through their bat mitzvahs. She felt connected to other families in this process and appreciated the involvement of her daughters’ friends. People also commented on the variety of workshops and education programs offered by the education director, including a recent program on death and dying, as being meaningful and not pedantic. Others mentioned the role the Rabbi has played at critical moments of life change, such as offering a special blessing for an unborn child. Many people cited the impact of participation in Shabbat School and the lasting relationships that had emerged out of that experience. Many congregants noted the powerful impact of music in their experience at Havurah.
- A feeling of welcoming. We bring together a relatively diverse, Jewish-identified population, a wide range of belief systems and a wide range of experience with the religion, including a lack thereof. One person mentioned the impact of the Rabbi dropping everything to go to the courthouse to support the sanctioning of gay marriages. Many described opportunities to participate at their own ‘level’ of familiarity with Judaism, having a role in the High Holidays or learning as they led their Shabbat School class. Another person identified the ‘trust’ given to members to pay what you can for membership without requiring documentation. The acceptance of interfaith marriages among membership was also commonly mentioned as a characteristic of our welcoming environment.
Yet you described a Havurah that has become fragmented over time and challenging to connect into – especially for new members:
- People participating in Shabbat school experience Havurah mostly with people participating in Shabbat school. The same is true for people attending services who only see people in that context. Long time members continue to experience relationships with long time members, but no longer recognize anyone when they attend any number of events. These congregants want to engage with other members and participate, but find it difficult to overcome their feeling of being unconnected.
- The staff and their responsibilities are not well-known. There is a sense of an inner circle making decisions, such as who should participate in certain events or which Social Action projects should be emphasized, without a sense of how and why these decisions are made. Some interviewees would like more access to the Rabbi especially as they enter the congregation.
- Access points into Havurah are not clearly defined, nor easy to navigate, especially for newcomers who need to better understand what ‘joining’ means. New members do not understand the structure of Havurah, and the synagogue suffers from not knowing the talents of its membership. Some people wondered if the Rabbi knew who they were, others wanted to participate in services but did not know how to. Still others expressed a desire to connect with Havurahniks living in the same neighborhood but can’t find that information easily. While the overall sentiment towards Shabbat School was positive, there were clear statements about the uneven quality of the experience. Frustration with the wide range of teaching styles led more than one person away from the experience.
- Spiritual life, as might be expected, drew some of the most impassioned comments from congregants. Many people were moved by a more traditional delivery of services. Others prefer non-traditional services. Still others noted a lack of energy around Friday night and Saturday morning services. People raised questions about what the role of politics should be, if any, in services.
Still you expressed great energy around Havurah. You are willing and sometimes eager to make it a more dynamic place. You have some great ideas and some simple ideas for how to do this which we will talk about today.
We heard your desires fall into four overarching categories. Suggestions for concrete changes in programming and the function of Havurah will be discussed after providing these parameters for those suggestions. You want:
- A stronger community marked by clearer points of access. We need better membership (re)orientation, greeters visible at events, the opportunity to meet in mini-havorot and a richer adult education program. All of these points of access will be enhanced with greater emphasis on intergenerational participation.
- More transparency of process and greater accountability. Activities and the people running them need clearly stated goals, along with a sensible and workable communication structure. Everyone needs to know who is responsible for what.
- Increasing clarity around spiritual life issues, driven by a spiritual life committee which is already forming. Spiritual life issues, including low attendance at services and difficulties in getting leaders for Friday night services, have been identified as a concern over the last several years. The findings of Operation Reconnect reinforce that this is an area that needs to be addressed, and Rabbi Liebling has strongly recommended that we should establish a Spiritual Life Committee. We are in the process of getting a committee formed, and if you want to participate on that committee please let Herman Asarnow or Rachel Shimshak know.
- More Social action that is local in nature. You are proud of Havurah’s support for global issues, but you desire a deeper and wider engagement with local needs where participants, especially children, can more easily engage and see the results.
In addition, we want to build on the work done by the group that submitted the Music Grant this year. Unfortunately, we did not receive the grant funding, but we want to form a Music Committee to take that proposal, identify the top priorities and begin to move forward on strengthening music within our community. We believe that it fits with the findings from Operation Reconnect of music being a key way that people feel a connection to Havurah.
Passover Greetings from Havurah’s Steering Committee
March 25, 2010
On behalf of the Steering Committee, we extend our warmest wishes to all for a happy and healthy Pesach.
Pesach is a rich, multi-sensory, multi-themed, many layered holiday. You will find ideas and information here to whet your appetite, and help you create an enjoyable, meaningful family holiday.
May all your sedarim be uplifting and inspiring as you enjoy the company of friends and family. We look forward to a productive and prosperous year for our congregation.
Herman Asarnow
Rachel Shimshak
Havurah Shalom Co-Presidents
An Evening of Memories – Friday March 19 at 8:00 p.m.
February 23, 2010
Enjoy a special Shabbat celebration followed by a reading of works by members of the Havurah “Memoir Writing from a Jewish Perspective” workshop led by Rob Freedman. After services, members of the Memoir group will read short pieces that explore the nature of memory, both joyful and traumatic. Above all else, these readings are brave and true, and close to the bone. As writers and Jews, we celebrate the word.
Readers will include:
Ruth Tuttle
Andrine de la Rocha
Mario Castellar
Anne Lebwohl
Adela Basayne
Sandi Meyer
Sivia Kaye
Ed Reckford
Diane Chaplin
Fufkin Vollmayer