Rabbi Shalom Plotkin took over the pulpit Aug. 1 at Congregation Brothers of Israel in Newtown, Pa. He succeeds Rabbi Howard Hersch, who retired after almost 50 years with the congregation.
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September 7, 2009
Whether it’s assisting military personnel during war or discussing health care reform with President Barack Obama, Rabbi Shalom Plotkin considers it his role to engage with the world.
“We in the Jewish community care tremendously about life,” said Plotkin, immediately after taking part in a Aug. 19 conference call with Obama and 1,000 rabbis to discuss heath-care reform. “We are getting ready for the High Holy Days, when we remind ourselves that matters of life and death take precedence. We have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters. Instead of fear-mongering, how can we be an advocate for change?”
Change and engagement are very much on his mind these days, said Plotkin as he takes over as religious leader at Congregation Brothers of Israel in Newtown, Pa., succeeding Rabbi Howard Hersch, who had served the congregation since 1961.
“It’s such a tremendous opportunity, with Rabbi Hersch retiring after close to 50 years in the pulpit,” the 39-year-old Plotkin said. “This congregation is poised and ready for some change and growth.”
The 126-year-old Conservative synagogue, which moved from Trenton to Newtown two years ago, has already embarked on that process and is currently building and equipping a classroom wing.
“At our Shabbat under the stars [on Aug. 14] we saw at least a dozen new families,” said Plotkin. “There are a lot of unaffiliated families looking for Jewish education for their children and looking for spirituality. We have a chance to reach and teach and the response was very enthusiastic.”
Plotkin spent the last seven years at Beth El Synagogue in Margate, near Atlantic City. He grew up in Silver Spring, Md., and holds a degree from the University of Maryland. He received his ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1998.
After serving as assistant rabbi at a synagogue in Marietta, Ga., he left for Montgomery, Ala., where he oversaw the merger of a conservative and Sephardi synagogue into Agudath Israel Etz Ahayem Synagogue.
“Being rabbi at a Sephardi synagogue was a fabulous learning experience,” he said. “We grew together. That wasn’t my goal but at the end we merged those two synagogues.”
Plotkin said that after having the “honor” of leading his last congregation to become egalitarian, he was “excited to be in a place where people coming from different places on the religious spectrum can find a home.” Brothers of Israel, he said, “is a place where we felt right at home.”
He and his wife, Elise Braverman-Plotkin, a Talmud scholar who most recently taught Jewish law and Jewish ethics at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona, have two daughters Hannah, four, and Elyana, two.
Plotkin has for 13 years also been a reserve chaplain for the Navy and Marines, having served on bases and military hospitals throughout the world. In 1995, he was stationed with the Navy in the Adriatic Sea, counseling and offering emotional support to sailors involved in fighting during the Bosnian conflict.
The rabbi has taken that spirit of engagement with him to Brothers of Israel, adding, “There is no question this community is growing, but it remains very member-oriented. We’re walking the path of Torah together.”
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