Rabbi Rachel Saphire will soon make history as the first female rabbi to lead a 167-year-old Alexandria synagogue.

She is set to begin this role at Beth El Hebrew Congregation on July 1.

“I think it’s quite extraordinary to be the first [lead] rabbi who is a woman in the community, and I don’t take that lightly,” Saphire said. “I stand on the shoulders of many female rabbis who have come before me and who have navigated the challenges of being a female in this role, so I feel proud.

“I’m also excited for Beth El, that I can be a part of their story, and that having a female leader in this capacity is also part of their history now.”

For the past year, Beth El has operated under the auspices of Interim Rabbi Jennifer Weiner, who stepped in after Rabbi David Spinrad moved to California to be closer to his family. Rabbi Emeritus Brett Isserow preceded Spinrad, serving from 2001 to 2018.

“There are absolutely phenomenal female leaders who have come before me at Beth El — most recently, Jennifer Weiner, our interim rabbi,” Saphire said. “There have also been associate rabbis at the congregation before.”

The community is now ready to welcome a permanent rabbi.

Saphire brings 17 years of rabbinical experience to Beth El. She was ordained in June 2009 and has since served as associate rabbi at a large Reform temple in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

“I’m thrilled to have Rabbi Saphire as our first [lead] female rabbi,” said Carly Rubenstein, Beth El’s president. “She is warm, engaging, vibrant, so well-spoken, and [it] just feels like a light that shines through when she speaks. Everybody really just took to her right away.”

Rubenstein spoke to Saphire’s long tenure at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley.

“You can tell she really loves what she does [and] loves the community she’s been part of for 17 years,” the synagogue president said.

Starting in July, Saphire will help the Beth El community strengthen its vision of “one Beth El,” or a congregation for all, according to Rubenstein.

“Rabbi Saphire’s approach to Jewish life and community-building aligns beautifully with Beth El’s values and our historic commitment to providing a warm, welcoming environment for all,” Rubenstein said in an April news release.

Saphire spent 2 1/2 days at Beth El, meeting with staff members and the rabbinic search committee.

“She was great at answering our questions, telling stories, but [being] authentic as well,” Rubenstein said of Saphire.

The rabbi said she appreciated the community’s “warmth and the value that they place on relationships within the community.”

“I imagined what it might feel like to walk through those doors as a congregant, and I felt welcome,” Saphire said.

After nearly two decades of serving as an associate rabbi, she was looking to expand professionally.

“This is what I have been waiting for and working for,” Saphire said. “I’m feeling many things: gratitude for this opportunity and excitement. I feel very blessed that the opportunity has come to lead Beth El, and I think it’s going to be a great match in that it’s a community that aligns with my values.”

The transition from New England to Alexandria is also bittersweet for Saphire.

“It comes with a sense of loss because the community I have been a part of for 17 years has felt like home all of this time, so it’s certainly a difficult transition,” she said. “It’s hard to leave and it’s hard to say goodbye, but it’s definitely for a purpose that I have to step forward.”

Saphire’s leadership dates back to her early days growing up in Springfield, Ohio, a small town that she said lacks a large Jewish community.

“As a youth, I learned from a young age to step up and take a leadership role in that community if I wanted to feel connected to the Jewish community,” she said. “I think that my upbringing gives me … the knowledge that Jewish life exists in diverse forms in many different places, and I think that enriches my understanding of where we all come from and what Jewish life can look like.”

Saphire studied family studies and social work at Miami University, attended rabbinical school in Cincinnati — complete with the standard year studying in Jerusalem — and served a Massachusetts Reform community.

“I’m grateful that I haven’t always lived and led in one type of Jewish community,” Saphire said.

It was during her first year of seminary in 2004 that she crossed paths with Beth El’s Cantor Jason Kaufman.

“It’s a special type of joy to have the privilege to partner with her and welcome her to Beth El after all of these years,” Kaufman wrote in a statement to Washington Jewish Week. “I know what a gifted leader and kind-hearted person she is.”

The Beth El community will officially install Saphire as its rabbi in November.

“We’re just so excited to have Rabbi Saphire come and help continue to grow and build what already makes us a strong, sacred Jewish community,” Rubenstein said.

zbell@midatlanticmedia.com