Welcome, Rabbi Daniel Schaefer
Dear Congregants,
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Congregation Mishkan IsraeI, I am delighted to share with you that Rabbi Daniel Schaefer has accepted our offer to be the next spiritual leader of CMI starting July 1.
In his acceptance, Rabbi Schaefer wrote: “I’m happy to share that it would be my honor to be the next rabbi of Mishkan Israel. CMI means so much to me and my family, and it was wonderful to connect with so many members of the community on my visit who share that feeling.”
Rabbi Schaefer grew up at CMI. He received his BA from Stanford University, where he studied History and Jewish Studies. He earned his MA in Jewish Studies and received his ordination from the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. He has also studied at Mechon Hadar, the Hartman Institute, the Jewish Theological Seminary, and Hebrew Union College. Before becoming a rabbi, he guided students at a therapeutic wilderness program and served in AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps.
For four years, Rabbi Schaefer served as the Assistant Rabbi at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Massachusetts. For the past two years he has been the Interim Director for Jewish Life at Georgetown University.
Rabbi Schaefer is passionate about building pluralistic Jewish communities, making Torah accessible to everyone, and engaging in interfaith dialogue. We look forward to the innovation and enthusiasm he will bring to CMI.
It has been a long journey. The search committee, under the exceptionally capable leadership of Sarah Greenblatt and Michael Dimenstein, has done outstanding work over the past year and a half. After an extensive search last year, they determined that our best route was to bring in an interim rabbi this year. Rabbi Ross has done an outstanding job, exceeding virtually everyone's expectations of how meaningful a year with an interim rabbi can be. They then renewed the search and, after countless hours of thoughtful and difficult work, they presented Rabbi Schaefer. We are so grateful to the committee for their work. Yasher Koach!
Please join me in welcoming Rabbi Schaefer to CMI. We will hold a congregational meeting on Sunday, March 3, at 10:30am to introduce Rabbi Schaefer to our community and formally approve his selection as our next rabbi. The meeting will be held in person and via live stream. If you are unable to attend the meeting in-person or plan to participate via livestream, please complete either the online proxy form or download, print, and mail in the printable form to allow us to reach a quorum of at least 75 members who can vote at the meeting.
We look forward to seeing you at the congregational meeting on March 3.
L'shalom,
David Silverstone
President, Congregation Mishkan Israel