Zoe Bell and Braden Hamelin | Staff Writers
When Ben Sigal moved to Fairfax in July to serve as Congregation Olam Tikvah’s new assistant rabbi, six or seven community members contacted him to ask if he, his wife and infant son needed a place to sleep.
Some started a meal train while Sigal and his wife were unpacking into their new house.
“In under a week, I already feel like this is my Jewish community,” Sigal said of Fairfax.
Sigal is one of several rabbis who began new positions in the DMV in July or early August. He started at Olam Tikvah on July 15 during a time when many congregants are away on vacation.
“I’m taking advantage of the relatively quiet time to program as much as I can,” Sigal said. “As things progress throughout the year, [I hope to do] all sorts of programming.”
Sigal moved from Los Angeles, where he attended American Jewish University starting in 2019. There, he pursued rabbinical studies and earned a certificate in early childhood education.
Becoming a rabbi was a “winding road” for Sigal, who initially wanted to become a doctor — he took all of the pre-med classes during his first two years as an undergraduate at Tulane University, expecting to pursue medical school.
“There was a moment when I was studying for a physics exam in one of my favorite pre-med classes that I found myself procrastinating by preparing programming for [United Synagogue Youth] summer programs,” Sigal said. “In that moment, I realized as much as I liked medicine and enjoyed it, it wasn’t my life’s passion.”
Sigal decided to focus on his Jewish studies major. After graduating, Sigal worked for three years at the American Hebrew Academy, a Jewish boarding school in Greensboro, North Carolina.
“I really liked being a part of creating Jewish community,” he said. “That spoke to me, but what really pushed me towards rabbinical school was being there on a house team, as someone that the students would come to with social issues they were trying to work through, and being in a pastoral role led me to realize one of the things that is very specific to the rabbinate.”
Sigal said he feels that it’s an honor to help people through difficult times by offering a listening ear. He has done this work in L.A. as a spiritual care intern at Beit T’Shuvah, a Jewish inpatient addiction treatment facility, which will translate into his work as a rabbi.
“It was a lot of sitting down with people and just listening to what was going on in their life and trying to figure out how to build spiritual resiliency and strengthen their connection to a higher power,” Sigal said. “And, for me, that’s all about what being in the rabbinate is: building Jewish community and drawing people closer to their Judaism.”
He said he looks forward to getting to know the Northern Virginia Jewish community and having community members get to know him and his family.
Rabbi Emmanuel Cantor is another local rabbi who began his tenure at the start of August, joining the community at the Den Collective after receiving his rabbinical ordination in June.
Cantor said joining a new intentional Jewish community has led him to draw inspiration from his ordination ceremony, where ordination documents told the graduates to use their ears like a funnel to take in all the voices of the community.
“In my first few weeks, I’m trying to make my ears like this funnel. [By] meeting with members of the community, listening to their life stories, we are beginning to incorporate what we’re hearing to build upcoming gatherings,” Cantor said.
Cantor said despite joining the community right before a traditionally busy time for clergy with the High Holidays approaching, he’s excited to be able to experience the feeling of renewal and hope for positive change this time of year can bring with his new community.
Cantor also shared a piece of advice for aspiring young rabbis on ways to learn and grow into the role.
“I have really learned so much by asking Den members what they have learned about their community and Judaism through being part of the Den, especially when the community is built in partnership between the members and the staff. I found the members to have learned so much about building Jewish community and the ways we care for one another,” Cantor said.
Rabbi Scott Perlo was greeted by the Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation community in Bethesda with a First Friday Musical Kabbalat Shabbat on Aug. 2, the day after he began as its rabbi.
“I received a welcome that was overwhelming in its joy, kindness and its desire to have a thoughtful relationship with me,” Perlo said. “I have never experienced a community that has gone out of its way to make a rabbi feel so welcome.”
A rabbi of 16 years, Perlo returned to Washington, D.C., after a stint as a senior rabbi in Brooklyn. He served as an associate rabbi at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in D.C. from 2012 to 2018 before that. The Jewish community is what drew him back — Perlo now lives in American University Park with his wife and two sons.
“What I love about [Adat Shalom] is it’s very fun; it’s spiritually alive and vibrant,” Perlo said.
In Brooklyn, he taught Torah to hundreds of unaffiliated Jewish community members, their partners and those interested in learning about Jewish life. In doing so, Perlo said he aimed to think about all kinds of Jewish families and relationships.
“I think that one of the things that has defined what it means to be an American Jew is to embrace the world around us, and in many cases, being embraced by the world around us,” Perlo said.
Perlo said he looks forward to getting situated in his role, acknowledging that his job may not be smooth sailing.
“I think that this is the most complicated and difficult time I’ve ever seen in my life as a rabbi or in my life,” Perlo said. “I’m hoping to be worthy of the moment, and it’s going to take unrelenting commitment to each other.”
