NVHC Selects New Rabbi

On Sunday, January 10, 2010, nearly 170 members of NVHC filled the sanctuary and voted unanimously to confirm Rabbi Michael G. Holzman as NVHC's next Rabbi.  The congregational confirmation vote followed the Rabbi Search Committee's unanimous vote on December 28, 2009, to recommend to the Board of Trustees that Rabbi Holzman be our next Rabbi, and the Board's unanimous vote on January 6, 2010, to approve that recommendation.

We are so pleased that Rabbi Holzman and his wife, Nicole Saffell Holzman, as well as their seven-year-old son, Avi, and five-year-old daughter, Talia, were able to join us for this wonderful lifecycle event for our community.

On behalf of our 14-person RSC, we would like to provide some background on how and why we selected Rabbi Holzman.

When we began our search on June 8 of last year, we started by seeking to define who it was we were looking for. We held two discussion forums and conducted an online survey to get as much input as we could from the congregation, and then we spent hours discussing and envisioning the rabbi we hoped for the ideal rabbi.

The RSC set out to find the very best rabbi for NVHC and, after nearly seven months, 30 meetings, 32 resumes, 15 telephone interviews, four semi-finalists, two finalists and constant thoughtful deliberation, together and individually, we knew we had found our Rabbi.

We selected Rabbi Holzman from among the excellent candidates we considered because he is not only an outstanding rabbi worthy of NVHC, but also truly the best fit for our community.  We believe Rabbi Holzman epitomizes the rabbi we and our congregation envisioned and hoped for:

• A rabbi who is warm, compassionate and approachable, with a sense of humor and the ability to relate and be responsive to congregants of all ages and backgrounds, and to make each feel valued.
• A rabbi who is an inspirational leader who  through worship, teaching, shared wisdom, community action and tikkun olam  will motivate us to explore the many rich facets of progressive Judaism; to connect to and support Israel; and to find meaning in being part of a caring and inclusive Jewish community.
• A rabbi who is a forward-looking and strategic thinker who will use these skills to help us build upon our strengths, deepen our spirituality and enhance members' connections to the temple and one another.
• A rabbi who is a sensitive and empathetic provider of pastoral care.
• A rabbi who is supportive of interfaith couples and families.
• A rabbi who is able to connect with and engage our teenagers.
• A rabbi who is able, and has the desire, to continue and build upon the model collaborative and creative partnership on and off the bima that has been established by our beloved Rabbi and our beloved Cantor.
• A rabbi who is a collaborative, collegial and creative leader and partner with the staff and lay leadership.
• And a rabbi who will feel as at home at NVHC, and love NVHC, as much as we do.

Rabbi Holzman is currently an Associate Rabbi of Congregation Rodeph Shalom (RS), a 1,000-household Reform congregation in Philadelphia.  He began his tenure at RS in 2004, and since 2007, in addition to maintaining his duties as a pulpit rabbi, he has also served as Director of Youth Learning.  Before joining RS, Rabbi Holzman served for one year as the Rabbi of B'nei Israel Congregation in San Jose, Costa Rica.

He was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003, and is a 1995 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.  Prior to rabbinic school, Rabbi Holzman worked for three years as a paralegal specialist with the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

The RSC is very proud of the work we have done and the selection we made, and we have a number of very special people to thank.

The Committee offers its deep appreciation to NVHC's clergy for its support and assistance throughout the search process to Cantor Altshul, for meeting at length with each semi-finalist and finalist, for making herself completely accessible to us and for sharing her very thoughtful insights with the Committee, and to Rabbi Nosanchuk and Rabbi Emerita Gold, for meeting with the candidates and serving as resources for them and for their wise counsel to us when we sought it.

We also thank the NVHC professional staff, Moshe Ben-Lev, Fay Weiss and Fran Gibbs, who met with each candidate and helped them gain a more complete picture of our community and the tremendous talent and skill behind our religious school, administration and preschool.

We are very grateful to Hana Newcomb for assembling the 14 of us, many of whom did not know one another before, into a group and placing in our hands the sacred responsibility of selecting our next Rabbi.

And, finally, we are thankful to the NVHC community for your support and trust as we fulfilled this responsibility.

As the Committee Co-Chairs, we would like express our admiration of and respect and affection for our search partners, and now friends, who worked so incredibly hard and with such full hearts, a true dream team, if there ever was one: Alison Behar, Sandra Blumberg, Chuck Cash, Karen Forman, David Fram, Bob Gladstone, Don Hirsch, Andrea Leehan, Janis Linkov-Johnson, Leah McSteen, David Selden and Susan Shapiro.  It has been an honor to work alongside them.

As a community, we now turn toward ensuring a smooth transition in our spiritual leadership.  We are very fortunate to have our wonderful Cantor Altshul to provide us with continuity as we move from strength to strength.  We hope you will join us in savoring the precious months remaining in Rabbi Nosanchuk's tenure and in helping to welcome Rabbi Holzman and his family to NVHC.

-Nancy Kruger and Andy Lacher, Rabbi Search Committee Co-Chairs