Interim rabbi to guide Beth Torah through a process of transition

by Jill Huber
NJJN Bureau Chief/Monmouth

His years of experience in the Conservative movement will guide Rabbi Robert Fine’s tenure as the interim religious leader at Temple Beth Torah in Ocean Township.

Fine was selected as the interim rabbi in August, following the departure of Rabbi David Booth, who filled the pulpit at Beth Torah for five years. Booth, a California native, has accepted a position at a congregation in that state.

Fine will serve as interim rabbi at Beth Torah, which has a membership of approximately 450 families, until August 2007, at which time the congregation will have decided on a permanent replacement for Booth.

This is not the first time Fine has served as an interim rabbi; he filled that position at the Hillcrest Jewish Center in Queens, NY, last year and spent the previous year as the interim rabbi at Congregation B’nai Israel in Rumson.

He served a synagogue in Westchester County, NY, for almost 20 years, Fine said, but his work as an interim rabbi has enriched his perspective.

Helping a congregation through a time of transition establishes a different relationship between congregants and rabbi, he said. “You get to know a new community for a year. Your job is to help a congregation come together, feel confident, and to look forward rather than back. Hopefully, the result will be a successful match between the congregants and the permanent rabbi that they choose.

“The interim rabbi can advise the members about what to ask or what not to ask a candidate during an interview,” Fine said, “but it would be unprofessional for the interim rabbi to weigh colleagues against each other.”

It’s also inappropriate for the interim rabbi to advocate for major changes in systems or policies. “It’s not appropriate because you’re only there for a year,” Fine said. “You have to respect minhag makom — local custom.”

From 1985 to 2004, Fine was religious leader at Bet Torah, a synagogue in Mount Kisco, NY. When he arrived, the membership consisted of 250 families; when he left in 2004, the membership had reached more than 500 families. “The growth of the Jewish population in Westchester County and two huge capital campaigns resulted in the expansion of the membership,” Fine said. “It was a time of growth all around.”

He and his wife, Helene, a retired public high school English teacher who now teaches at Westchester Hebrew High School in Mamaroneck, NY, have a permanent home in Jersey City. The couple has three sons, the oldest a rabbi at Congregation Shaaray Tikvah in Scarsdale, NY; their other sons live in Denver, Col., and Berkeley, Calif.

Fine was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Los Angeles. He was ordained in 1973 at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He received a bachelor’s degree in the classics at Stanford University and enrolled in a graduate program in the classics at Columbia University at the same time he began his studies at JTS.

His interest in Jewish history during the Greek and Roman periods eventually led him to the pulpit, a pathway he regards as a natural progression.

“A classicist is asked to do everything — to totally embrace an ancient culture, along with that culture’s literature, art, history, and philosophy….” Fine said. “In medicine or law, you must choose a particular area of expertise. But, like a classicist, a rabbi is asked to do everything, and that’s the challenge. The ideal is to be a generalist, rather than a specialist.”

After his ordination, Fine performed rabbinical work while teaching the classics at New York’s Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Columbia University. “But I found my way into congregational work, and I liked it,” Fine said. “At the point at which I decided I wanted to become a rabbi, I already was one. That’s the professional path I chose to follow.”

Being a rabbi requires more than religious knowledge and pastoral work, according to Fine. It requires skills in administrative work, community relations, public speaking, fund-raising, programming, and working with adults, teens, and young children, he said.

“There is no end to the variety, and no single day is like any other,” said Fine. “As a rabbi. you are engaged in the life-cycle events in the lives of the congregants. In the span of 24 hours, you may be called upon to celebrate a happy occasion with one family, and then help another family through a difficult time. A rabbi has to be there, so you can relate to people and give them what they need, when they need it.”

Fine said he especially enjoys the teaching aspects of a rabbi’s job. “I started off in an academic environment, and my instinct is to be a teacher…,” he said. “Teaching adults and teens within a synagogue is a give-and-take procedure of exploration. I’m studying as well, and I invite others to join me.”

Since 2001, Fine has been a member of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement, which explores ritual matters and social issues, resulting in the making of policy and law within the movement. The work is demanding; recent subjects have included stem-cell research, forming a minyan with the assistance of electronic technology, and issues surrounding sexual orientation, Fine said.

“The Conservative movement looks to this committee to be its collective decision-making body,” he said. “The issues under discussion always require substantial study, and the results are an effort to represent the Conservative movement as a whole. It’s a privilege to serve on this committee, and it’s exciting work.”