Rabbi Todd Silverman tackling new duties at Touro

By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN

As rabbinic director of lifelong learning, Rabbi Todd Silverman is finding his new duties at Touro Synagogue as both exciting and challenging. Having just completed the first of his High Holidays roles as an assistant rabbi at the historic Uptown Reform synagogue, Silverman looks forward to continuing his work as the administrator for the religious school too.

Rabbinic director of lifelong learning Todd Silverman is enjoying his new assistant rabbi position at Touro Synagogue. (Photo by Alan Smason)

But it is exactly that duality of roles that drew him here, fresh from his ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Los Angeles. Silverman, who holds two masters degrees – one in Hebrew letters and the other in Jewish education – was intent on doing more when surveying available job postings offered through the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ).”I was looking for a rabbinic position and an education position so when a rabbinic-educator position popped up, that kind of pinged my radar,” Silverman confided to the CCJN.

“Some of the jobs say you’re a pulpit rabbi and you’re doing lifecycle events. Others say ‘We want you to run the religious school or run the early childhood program,'” he continued.

The job offer from Touro specifically said both.

Another plus was the opportunity to work with Rabbi Alexis Berk, whom he met for the first time during the interview process, and Cantor David Mintz, a former classmate at HUC-JIR.

A native of Clifton Park, a small upstate New York town nestled between Schenectady and the state capital of Albany, Silverman attended the State University of New York at Oswego, earning a bachelor’s degree in theatre. Following graduation, he moved to the West Coast, teaching grades one and four at the Brawerman Elementary School of Wilshire Boulevard Temple for four years.

He was clearly drawn to teaching, but he was restless. A career as a rabbi seemed a logical extension to what he was already doing as a teacher. He enrolled at HUC-JIR in 2009 and spent his initial year in Jerusalem.

Throughout his six years of study, Silverman taught and worked as an administrator at several Los Angeles area religious schools. He was an educational intern at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills and also worked as a rabbinical intern at Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles and Temple Beth El of Santa Maria, CA. He also gained valuable High Holidays experience when he acted as a visiting rabbi for temples in Butte, MT and Walla Walla, WA.

Seated at his desk in his Touro Synagogue office is Rabbi Todd Silverman, the new assistant rabbi there. (Photo by Alan Smason)

While interviewing for the position at Touro, Silverman came down twice, but found both of his arrivals as a bit inopportune. “When I came down for my interview, I was a week late for Mardi Gras and the entire city was hung over,” he explained. “When I came back down, I was a week early for Jazz Fest.”

Silverman knows the importance of both of those celebrations and the city’s love of music and festivity has charmed him.  “We’re always either geared up for a big event or coming down from a formal big event,” he mused.

Since arriving to start the position on July 1, Silverman has plunged into administering the religious school. “The synagogue has a really good achievement good with keeping students past that perceived finish line, past Bar or Bat Mitzvah,” he said. “My first year I would like to see the continuation of a really great history of Jewish education here.” He hopes to increase the numbers of students who undertake post Bnai Mitzvah instruction.

He cited an example of his forward thinking. “We have a teaching assistant, the madrachim (“guide”) position. If you feel a little bit done with being in a formal learning experience, and learn how to become a Jewish teacher,” Silverman suggested.

Silverman believes it is vitally important for students to learn by teaching the skills they have learned to others.

Anything that has a Jewish element or you do through a Jewish lens,” Silverman added. “You should be coming in and sharing that with your Jewish community because, if it’s not explicity Jewish, somehow I guess it’s implicitly Jewish.”

To that end, he offered an example of a visit by religious school members to a food bank to sort out perishable and non-perishable items. “If we do that here, great,” he said in referencing the religious school. “If you do it with your own family, great.” Either way, the Jewish values learned through formal education or those acquired through upbringing are reinforced, he noted.