Rabbinic Transition

In January 2019 Rabbi Pruzansky announced his upcoming Aliyah when his contract term comes to a close in the summer of 2020. As a shul we would like to express our tremendous appreciation to the Rabbi and Karen for their decades of service to our shul and community.

When the Rabbi and Karen arrived, they brought four small children and the desire to help Bnai Yeshurun achieve its potential to become one of America's flagship shuls. For twenty-five years, we've watched each other's children grow, get married, and have children of their own. We've celebrated and mourned together. Many of us have images of the Rabbi at our side at a bris, under the chuppah, at a graveside, and sharing so many significant moments in between.

Today, we are over 530 families strong, many of us second generation, raising our own families with CBY as our constant guidepost. With fourteen minyanim daily and myriad weekly shiurim and programs, Bnai Yeshurun has not only increased its member base, but has become the central hub of Torah and Tefillah for the greater community- all during Rabbi Pruzansky's tenure.

The Rabbi's scholarly and entertaining sermons have been a mainstay of the daily CBY experience for a generation. Perhaps most notably, Rabbi Pruzansky has instilled within the lifeblood of our kehillah a deep connection to, and passion for, the Land of Israel. There is no greater inspiration to the congregation than to see the Rabbi and Karen realize their lifelong goal of settling there. The Rabbi has assured us that he will maintain his connection to our Kehillah and will return periodically for Shabbat to deliver the derasha in shul and to spend time catching up.

There will be many opportunities in the coming months to express our sincere hakarat hatov to the Rabbi and Karen for their service to our shul and we will invite you to participate in those initiatives.

While the Rabbi's departure will undoubtedly leave a void, CBY is in a strong place. The Executive Committee is establishing a road map for the transition and will be communicating about the process for succession planning during the next few months. We will do our best to share all updates here as well as any resources along the process.

Several Committees have been (and will be) established to guide us through this process:

Rabbinic Transition Committee: Chaired by Esti Kaminetzky, and comprised of members Steven Becker, Frank Breslau, Chava Gamss, Michael Karlin, Clive Lipshitz, and David Zomick. This committee will work to gather information from community members via focus groups and surveys that will be used to create the job description of the next Mara D'atra. The committee can be reached at rabbinictransition@bnaiyeshurun.org.

Rabbinic Search Committee: Chaired by Steven Becker and Saul Kaszovitz, and comprised of members Rhonda Avner, Chani Chesner, Simcha Katz, David Rauch, Danny Saks, Chaya Schwartz, Yaakov Sheinfeld, and Dovid Weinstein. This committee will be responsible for the advertisement and recruitment of the Mara D'atra position, the review of resumes, and presentation of candidates to the Board of Directors. This committee can be reached at rabbinicsearch@bnaiyeshurun.org.

Rabbinic Tribute Committee: Chaired by Chaim Kiss and Miriam Kopel, and comprised of members Sheila Apfel, Joey Bodner, Jackie Feigenbaum, Barbara Frohlich, Banji Ganchrow, Hadassah Goldberg, Miriam Greenspan, Mark Gruenbaum, Neil Halpern, Betty Kay, Chaim Kiss (Co-Chair), Miriam Kopel (Co-Chair), Sandra Lerer, Esther Levenbrown, Jennifer Prince, Hedy Richman, Michael Roth, Dan Schwartz, Mugsy Sheinfeld, Lori Steinreich, Gila Weinstein, Deena Wrubel, Moshe Zwebner. This committee will establish a framework for all of us to be makir tov to Karen and Rabbi Steven Pruzansky for their decades of service to our community as they prepare for their Aliyah, including, but not limited to, a Tribute Dinner on May 31, 2020. For updates on Tribute opportunities please click HERE.

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Dear CBY Member - To access the Rabbinic Search Process, please first log into your CBY Account. For assistance please contact the CBY Office.

Dear CBY Member - To access the Rabbinic Search Survey Results, please first log into your CBY Account. For assistance please contact the CBY Office.

Click here to see the Position Description

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