GOP’s Rabbi Pinsky returns to familiar role
By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN
Rabbi Alexis Pinsky is out to prove that Thomas Wolfe was wrong, that you can go home again, or at least return to your spiritual home. With her radiant smile and raven tresses, she has the appearance of a driven young businesswoman. But the newly-minted assistant rabbi, who started her recently-created post at Metairie’s Congregation Gates of Prayer in July, is no stranger to New Orleans. It might be said that it is here where she began to prepare herself earnestly for a role as a spiritual leader.
Rabbi Alexis Pinsky in her office at Congregation Gates of Prayer. (Photo by Alan Smason)
As a fledgling freshman at Tulane University, the co-ed attended to a void she discovered during the High Holidays at the Hillel House there. “When I started that year there were no separate Reform services that were being held,” she recalled. “There was one service that was altogether something for the Conservative students, so I kinda saw a need for that and ended up leading the services, which was the first time.”
Her involvement led to her continuing to lead separate Reform worship services for the next three years, assuming the role of Hillel’s vice-president of religious life and becoming a leader in several other roles. The psychology major knew she had wanted to work with people and her immersion in the Jewish community got her thinking about a possible rabbinic career.
“From the time I finished Tulane I knew I wanted to be a rabbi and really from the time I left here it was in the back of my mind: wouldn’t it be great if I could end up back in New Orleans?,” Pinsky confided. “I honestly didn’t think it would ever be possible. It was beyond exciting to me.”
When Pinsky moved to Jerusalem for the first year of her studies at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC) in 2010, she was no stranger there either. “My year in Israel was my fifth time there,” she recollected, noting her love for Israel had been sparked when she first went to the Jewish State as part of a NFTY-sponsored trip in high school.
The favorable impression that trip engendered led to her sojourning there for three additional times during her summers away from Tulane. One of those was a March of the Living trip. “It was a week in Poland and then a week in Israel with a huge component of education, Holocaust education and Jewish education in general,” Pinsky explained. “The time in Poland actually overlaps for Yom HaShoah and then you’re in Israel for Yom Ha’Atzmaut.”
While studying for the rabbinate at HUC, she found she had refined her attraction to Jerusalem. “There’s like this notion you are either a Tel Avivit or you’re a Yerushlamit,” she mused. “I am a true Yerushlamit. Not to say I don’t love Tel Aviv and everything else, but I think Jerusalem has an amazing energy. I studied history at Tulane – especially during the Second Temple period – and to actually be walking around and to see the walls of an ancient walled city was amazing to me.”
Originally from Sandy Springs, a northern suburb of Atlanta, Pinsky was exposed to Reform Judaism at an early age while attending Temple Sinai, which she described as very big, vibrant temple. One of the major influences on her was a young rabbi, freshly ordained from HUC, who took over the Reform congregation’s pulpit while she was still in high school. “He became a really fantastic mentor to me,” she admitted.
Not only did she find a spiritual connection with the rabbi, but she noted his immediate effect on the congregation. “First of all, I got to see someone young who had been just ordained and taking over a leadership role,” Pinsky continued, “and I think with his transition, he brought a lot of vibrancy.”
That ability to make a difference straight out of the seminary made a profound impression upon her. As she neared graduation and ordination and, while looking over opportunities for placement, Pinsky was astounded to see that Gates of Prayer had posted an available opening for an assistant rabbi position.
“What drew me to this job description was that I found it to be a well-founded pulpit rabbi position,” she stated. “Here there’s an amazing (opportunity) to do everything that a congregational rabbi can do. The things I want to do are leading worship and everything in lifecycle events.”
And the ability to work side by side with Rabbi Robert Loewy was another plus to the job. “I think one of the the best (aspects) is to work with Rabbi Loewy, to have him as a mentor,” she beamed.
Rabbi Alexis Pinsky holds both volumes of the Mishkan Hanefesh machzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. (Photo by Alan Smason)
Loewy had known Pinsky while she was a Tulane student. But that favorable impression alone was only part of what factored into her successful candidacy at Gates of Prayer. While serving at Temple Emanu-El, the largest Jewish house of worship in the U.S., she had also gleaned considerable experience working with programs aimed at engaging 20- and 30-year-olds.
It has been Loewy’s hope to do outreach with that generation and coupling that with Pinsky’s love for New Orleans and her desire to make an immediate impact, he and search committee members saw her as an ideal candidate.
Aside from her regular duties as a pulpit rabbi facilitating lifecycle events, Pinsky will also be charged with offering alternative sites for worship to tap into the younger generation and to make Reform Judaism relevant to them. To that extent she will be making Shabbat worship more accessible to people, rotating locations and bringing traditional Friday night services to areas never before covered such as the Bywater, Faubourg Marigny and Mid-City areas of New Orleans.
Even though it is a significantly smaller community compared to that of New York, Pinsky is invigorated about the possibilities of these new duties. “We’re essentially bringing services and Shabbat to them,” she elaborated.
The assistant rabbi noted how she and Loewy had recently introduced recent High Holiday worshippers at Gates of Prayer to the new machzor, Mishkan Hanefesh. Published by the URJ’s rabbinic arm, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the special prayerbook was jointly used by them to lead High Holiday services for the first time. Pinsky pointed to alternative readings, more poetry and alternate translations as among its many positive aspects. “And then it takes it a step beyond for places for personal mediation, adding study texts to look at,” she noted.
In addition to promoting tradition and ritual, she also is looking to incorporate opportunities to promote Jewish spirituality. An example of that is incorporating Shabbat worship with the physical regimen of yoga, something she calls Shabbatsana. This is a take-off from the word shavatsana, the name for the final resting pose in yoga, combined with Shabbat. “Ritual can really enhance Judaism, enhancing Jewish life,” she continued. “I think that it’s kind of a pendulum that swings back and forth and it isn’t just isolated to the Reform community. You can see that across the Jewish world.”
As part of her outreach to the younger community, Pinsky conducted a wine and cheese Tashlich ceremony for 20- and 30-year-old attendees at Rosh Hashanah.
She insists that this kind of out-of-the-box thinking is fully in accordance with her mission at Gates of Prayer. “One thing about the Reform movement is integrating our faith with modernity – what I call informed decision making,” she continued. “What I really believe and hold onto and connect in the Reform movement is there is a responsibility to learn how to apply Jewish traditions to your own life that’s going to be meaningful and resonate.”
In addition to her work with Loewy, Pinsky is also looking forward to working with cantorial soloist Victoria Cohen May. “It’s so nice to have the team here,” she mused.
In addition, as part of the New Orleans Jewish Clergy Council, Pinsky will be working with all area cantors and rabbis including Touro Synagogue’s Rabbi Alexis Berk.
The area boasts but two full-time female rabbis and both are named Alexis?
“I think it’s great and funny,” mused Pinsky. “I knew Rabbi Berk when I went to Tulane and I actually taught religious school at Touro,” she said.
“It’s a great name for the rabbis in New Orleans,” she smiled in conclusion.
