The position of synagogue or temple executive
director in the American Jewish scene is relatively
new in terms of Judaism as a whole. When immi-
grants poured into America in the early part of the
century, many considered themselves Orthodox and
tended to worship in neighborhood shuls, as was
the practice in their homelands.
These shuls drew from the immediate area
because of the prohibition against driving during
Shabbat and they tended to be smaller. Volunteers
and board members took on the various organiza-
tional and management tasks. To this day, only a
small number of Orthodox congregations employ
full-time executive directors.
Congregations began growing in the pre-World
War II era when the Reform and Conservative move-
ments began to attract more members. The Reform
movement did not restrict driving on Saturdays; the
Conservative movement allowed driving for the pur-
pose of attending shul. This provision enabled mem-
bers to live further from their place of worship, allow-
ing the shuls to attract larger numbers of members.
With surging membership, congregations encoun-
tered organizational growing pains. Some experienced
an increased need for large, multipurpose facilities and
the accompanying facilities management. Fund-raising
and financial planning grew in importance, but some-
one had to head up those areas as well.
As the tasks of the congregations grew, a position
to oversee the business of the temple or synagogue
was created: executive directors (a Conservative
term) or temple administrators (the Reform equiva-
lent for some congregations) were born.
The National Association of Temple Administrators
(NATA) first formed in 1931 as professionals in the field
began to recognize a need to organize, share information
and provide support. Now, the organization, affiliated
with the Reform movement, counts 350 members who
work in the estimated 900 Reform congregations in
America, said Gary S. Cohn, treasurer of NATA and the
temple administrator of the 1,700-member
Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco.
"There has to be a point person to go to who
will handle all of these responsibilities," he said.
"Up until you have 400 to 500 members, it is
mostly lay run. When you get to be 500 to 600
members, you have a large enough organization
that you need a point person."
The position itself has evolved. Thirty years ago,
it involved some facilities management with a bit of
volunteer management. Now, executive directors
have a multitude of complex tasks, ranging from
selecting investment plans to choosing complicated
computer systems.
Burnout is a constant worry, because executive
directors are expected to be on call 24 hours a day,
seven days a week to handle emergencies or concerns.
"This is not a five-day, 40-hour a week job," Yost
said. "You are always on."
True enough, said the Birmingham Temple's
Forman. "I have a lot of contact with the congrega-
tion. I serve as a liaison between the congregation and
the board, the congregation and the rabbi. I do staff
supervision, work with volunteers, on fund-raising,
membership."
And with or without lightning, she noted, "every
day is different." Fl
Preparing Leaders
Two degree programs teach
executive directors what to do.
T
wo degree programs specifically train
synagogue executive directors for the
approximately 900 such positions in
the Reform and Conservative congre-
gations in America.
For Conservative congregations, the
University of Judaism in Los Angeles offers a
master's in business administration with a con- -
centration in non-profit organizations and
Jewish communal service.
At the Irwin Daniels School of Communal
Service at Hebrew Union College in Los
Angeles, a handful of Reform students have
completed a Masters of Arts in Jewish commu-
nal service with a concentration in synagogue
management, a joint program offered through
the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion and public administration school at the
University of Southern California.
Only five individuals have graduated with the
degree in the five years since the specialty has
been offered. Program director Steven
Windmueller expects the number to grow, in
part because the school will be adding another
joint program with USC's business school. But
mostly, he sees the increase in interest due to the
increasing emphasis on the professional syna-
gogue executive.
"It is a business and it needs to be understood
in the context. You can't just put someone who
might have been an administrative secretary or
someone who might have done extensive volun-
teer work into these positions without more
training and education," Windmueller said. "It
is a very complicated and complex position and
needs to be treated in that manner."
The Birmingham Temple's executive director
Helen Forman said formal programs won't neces-
sarily produce more executive directors and tern-
ple administrators. Formerly a first-grade teacher
in the Willow Run district, Forman said teaching
financial skills and computer awareness is rela-
tively rote but administrators generally have to
have something that can't necessarily be taught.
"I think you can teach some of it, like the
financial area," she said. "But you can have all of
the financial skills in the world and not be a
good administrator.
"You have to be sensitive and intuitive to
what the rabbis, the support staff, the members
and potential members want and need and you
have to respond to that," she said. "People who
succeed in this type of jobinternalize these
skills."
A formal education program would bring
respect to the job, insists Deborah Rubyan, for-
mer executive director at Congregation B'nai
Moshe. While professionals such as doctors and
lawyers are revered and not often questioned
when they offer advice, Jewish communal pro-
fessionals are seen as volunteers who were unable
to find jobs in the non-Jewish marketplace, she
said.
"Jewish communal workers are not highly val-
ued whereas Jewish communal volunteers are
highly valued," she said. "People feel that the
professionals get paid for what the volunteers do
for free. There is some perception that because
there is no degree and no achievement that the
professionals are there because they can't get a
job elsewhere in the private sector."
Specific training and education may change
that perception and add weight to the profes-
sional status of executive directors, Rubyan said.
For now, as in the past, executives continue to
come to the field through other professions. For
example, one administrator in New York was the
former director of the New York Port Authority,
another was a lawyer, another was an executive at
a medium-sized company, others were bankers.
For these individuals entering positions in the
Reform movement from another profession,
training and education are available through a
master's level class in temple management
offered through HUC-JIR branches in Chicago,
Washington, Los Angeles and New York; the
class is taught from a manual assembled by
NATA members. Another course, offered once
every other year, provides additional training
with which administrators can earn the degree of
Fellow in Temple Administration (FTA).
In the Conservative movement, about 30
executive directors will gather soon for a week-
long, intense Jewish studies seminar at the
Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. The
seminar, said JTS vice chancellor Rabbi William
Lebeau, includes one day of professional training
on a wide variety of topics.
Glenn Easton, vice president of NAASE and
executive director of Congregation Adas Israel in
Washington, D.C., said the Conservative pro-
grams are a part of the movement's emphasis on
continuing education for the current directors
while helping to create more in the future. The
JTS is also co-sponsoring a new program with
the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism,
to provide further training to the executives.
"There is certainly a shortage of well-trained
executives, and that is something that we as an
organization are trying to do something about,"
Easton said. ❑
— Jill Davidson- Skkve.
7/23
1999
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