Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal’s first paycheck came from leading junior congregation at his childhood synagogue in Bethesda. Little did he know, he would go on to become the founding rabbi of a nearby shul and head the world’s largest network of Conservative Jews.

“I think my mother always saw me as a rabbi, but I really was not sure what I wanted to do in life,” the Gaithersburg resident said.

As an undergraduate, Blumenthal studied English literature and Jewish studies, fields he said didn’t naturally lend themselves to a particular career.

“I see my own career path as something that sort of unfolded gradually from being a USY adviser to then becoming a youth director working for USY after I graduated, then deciding to [pursue] a deeper education by pursuing the rabbinate,” he said.

Connections he made through the youth group led to Blumenthal’s first rabbinical role — two of his USY friends, Richard and Rebecca Prigal, had moved to the Quince Orchard area of Gaithersburg and were among a small group of Jewish families gathering locally.

That group asked Blumenthal, a rabbinical student, if he’d be interested in helping lead High Holidays services at a neighboring elementary school.

“We were at the same life stage,” the rabbi recalled. “Everybody was excited about the idea of creating a new community and experimenting with what a synagogue for this generation might look like.”

The rest is history — Shaare Torah, a Conservative synagogue in Gaithersburg, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. Blumenthal served as its founding rabbi for more than two decades.

“It’s always great when you feel like you’re growing together with others,” he said. “The members of the synagogue and I … took it step by step.”

They launched a religious school and an early childhood program, renting facilities in schools and a local church.

“It felt like a very blessed endeavor in that as we thought we might need a particular resource in the community, those things appeared,” Blumenthal said, citing newly available space that opened at another house of worship in time to accommodate Shaare Torah’s preschool.

“For me, it was a gift to be able to grow as a rabbi and as a person alongside many other families who are on their own Jewish journeys,” he said.

Blumenthal often told his congregants that while he was their rabbi 100% of the time, he only worked for Shaare Torah 80% of the time.

“That other 20% of my rabbinate has always been for the Jewish people as a whole, or for the Conservative Masorti movement,” Blumenthal said. “Even as a pulpit rabbi, I also had other projects that I wanted to work on that I thought were important.”

One was getting young adults engaged in Jewish life, so he helped create the Den Collective, an organization that aims to build intentional Jewish community among the DMV’s Jewish 20s, 30s and 40s.

Another was to brainstorm how Camp Ramah could establish a presence in the Washington, D.C., area. Blumenthal played a leading role in the development of Ramah Day Camp of Greater Washington.

“A day camp, an immersive summer experience for younger children, is an incredibly powerful way to bring Jewish living and Jewish community to students, especially [those] who might not experience that in public school,” Blumenthal said.

Yet another project involved becoming a lay leader within the Rabbinical Assembly.

“I loved being a rabbi and I found that I loved being with rabbis,” he said.

Under Blumenthal’s leadership as chief executive in 2019, the Rabbinical Assembly launched its Zera’im project, an organizational and cultural change initiative aimed at investing in new leadership and high-impact teams across the international Conservative Jewish movement.

He met with rabbis from North America, Latin America and Israel to hear and address their concerns. Blumenthal has also forged relationships with top Jewish communal leaders and hosted a webinar series bringing together rabbis from four different Jewish denominations on the topic of understanding contemporary antisemitism.

In the mid-2010s, the Rabbinical Assembly staff decided to engage more closely with other parts of the Conservative Masorti movement. In doing so, it chose to implement a joint CEO for both the RA and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism in July 2020: Blumenthal.

He wrapped up his term as CEO of USCJ in July and continues to lead the RA.

Blumenthal’s community building extends beyond the Jewish community. He also helped create the Faith Community Advisory Council for Montgomery County and hired its first director after meeting his Muslim neighbors in the wake of vandalism at their mosque.

“We need to be in relationship and partnership to build a more perfect society,” Blumenthal said. “It can’t just be about what our Jewish community needs; it needs to be about what our entire community needs, and if we want others to be allies with us, we need to be allies with them.”

These interfaith relationships, he said, have “enriched” his rabbinate.

Looking back on a decades-long career of Jewish leadership, Blumenthal has many points of pride.

“In my early career, I would say I’m proud of the communities I’ve been able to build, whether it’s Shaare Torah and the synagogue community, the Den and the community it’s built for young adults, the day camp and the community of families that it’s bringing together around summer experience, and also the community of faith leaders, which continues to evolve and grow in Montgomery County,” he said. “I have a lot of things to be excited about in my rabbinate.”

He hopes to continue moving onward and upward.

“My biggest goal is to strengthen the Conservative Masorti rabbinate to help our rabbis continue to grow in their skills and learning to meet the needs of ever more complex communities and leadership roles,” Blumenthal said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com