Student returns to congregation as part-time rabbi

A rabbinical intern with a secular background, Debra Rappaport called it ''love at first sight" when she met members of Congregation Shirat Hayam in Marshfield two years ago. The affair is to resume next month, when Rappaport returns to the ''secular congregation" after spending a year in Israel.

''It's a wonderful fit for me," said Rappaport, who is studying for ordination in a five-year program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, outside Philadelphia. As Shirat Hayam's part-time rabbi, she will spend two weekends a month on the South Shore, leading services and working with the congregation's religious education program.

Founded nine years ago by members of interfaith families, Shirat Hayam is ''a fairly secular group," Rappaport said. ''That's the kind of background I have, not necessarily so day-to-day immersed in a Jewish world like more traditional religious people are."

She grew up in Minneapolis in Reform Judaism, an American movement that modified Orthodox Judaism to make it fit better with life in the modern world. It's a familiar balance for the members of Shirat Hayam, which originally met in Duxbury. ''In Duxbury," Rappaport said, ''life at large does not revolve around the religious week or year or social structure."

Hiring a rabbinical student as a part-time or temporary rabbi is a common arrangement for Jewish congregations. Shirat Hayam is a Reconstructionist synagogue, part of a movement that seeks to study the meaning of Jewish religious practices and then decide whether to adopt, drop, or ''reconstruct" them for modern worship.

The congregation was looking for a rabbi who would be open to its unusual makeup, including the high number of interfaith families, said Lisa Lefkovitz, Shirat Hayam's president.

''Because our congregation includes a wide range of religious backgrounds, we needed someone who would be patient and be accepting of all of our different approaches to Judaism," Lefkovitz said. Rappaport ''embodied all of the things we value: openness to the ideas of the community, support of our non-Jewish partners, and an obvious excitement about what Judaism can bring to our daily lives."

What Rappaport will bring to a suburban American congregation after her stay in Israel is harder to say. Following a year with Shirat Hayam, Rappaport went to Israel to complete one of the requirements of her rabbinical program.

''Israel is the center of our peoplehood; it's the homeland of the people," she said. Religion is one part of Jewish life, she said; Jewish values and Jewish culture are equally important.

Working in a botanical garden in Israel, she found herself touching the same land and the same plants as those mentioned in the Torah and in Jewish holiday traditions. But while living in Israel was moving and motivating for her, returning to the South Shore will not be like descending from the mountain with a pair of stone tablets. Nor will it be, she said, a matter of interpreting headlines.

''We get so stuck on politics," Rappaport said, ''and it's so divisive."

Understanding and appreciating life in Israel does not mean approving all the Israeli government's policies in the ongoing Palestinian conflict, she said.

''We can be aware of so many other things," she said. ''I'll probably mention things from my experiences as we celebrate holidays. I'll fit it in."

The most important lesson she has taken from her year there is ''the need to be in a relationship with the land and people of Israel," she said. ''Not just say, 'We're Americans,' and abandon that relationship."

One of the ways to continue the connection is to take advantage of the Birthright Israel program. Designed to encourage young people in their late teens and early 20s to visit Israel as a way to ensure the survival of the Jewish people, the international program offers anyone of Jewish heritage an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel. Rappaport plans to encourage families in the congregation to take advantage of it.

Rappaport, 41, attended Vassar College, earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, and had a career in marketing before studying to become a rabbi. From marketing to being a rabbi ''is less a leap than it might seem," she said. ''You have a way of communicating with people to connect their need with the things you have to offer."

One thing she has to offer is outreach and adult education, Rappaport said. ''Judaism is not just for children," she said. ''That's my campaign title."

Among the adult education programs she's planning this year is a session on ''what it's like to be in an interfaith family during the holiday season."

Rappaport will take part in a Sept. 9 service and open house in the United Methodist Church building where the 50-family congregation holds its services, at 185 Plain St. (Route 139) in Marshfield. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., the open house will include refreshments and a chance to meet Rappaport and to learn about Congregation Shirat Hayam's religious school and high holiday services. A service will follow the open house.

For more information, go to www.shirathayam.net or call the congregation at 781-582-2700. Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox@gmail.com.