Through youth groups and Jewish camps, Rabbi Jake Singer-Beilin discovered a type of worship that spoke to him. It was participatory, open, experimental, supportive and felt “emotionally real.”
“That really showed me the best of what a Jewish community can be — a place where people show up for each other and are happy to see each other, and where you pray together and study together,” the Washington, D.C., resident said.
“As I reflected on the things that I loved doing, I realized that some people do this for their whole life, and that you can … make a living being part of this community and helping to form this kind of community,” Singer-Beilin said. “That was really inspiring to me.”
Singer-Beilin also drew inspiration from his rabbi, with whom he had “open, honest conversations.”
“[My rabbi] was someone who I felt saw me and wanted [me] to be my best self,” Singer-Beilin said. “So, at some point in my high school years, I realized that she wasn’t born a rabbi, but she made that choice for herself, which was sort of a revelation to me. … I realized if she could make that decision, it’s something I could choose, too.”
Singer-Beilin grew up in a relatively small Jewish community in Southern California. His family belonged to a Reform synagogue that was the “center of [his] Jewish life.”
“I have very fond memories of my whole family taking up a pew in Shabbat services,” he said. “My extended family celebrat[ed] Shabbat and other holidays together. [We] spent Shabbat dinners at my grandparents’ house looking out over the Pacific Ocean, watching the sunset with my whole family and doing our Shabbat blessings.”
His desire to embrace his spirituality stemmed from participation in youth groups.
As part of what he calls a “typical Jewish upbringing,” Singer-Beilin was involved in his synagogue youth group and regional NFTY chapter. “That was a place where I really found my community and found a place of belonging, so I was really inspired by that to get more involved in my Judaism,” he said. “That’s eventually where I found out that I wanted to be a rabbi.”
He served as a rabbinic intern and in assistant rabbi roles at various synagogues, then worked as a Jewish life coordinator and Judaic studies teacher at Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital for the 2018-19 academic year.
Singer-Beilin began his search for a synagogue in D.C. Bet Mishpachah, the District’s LGBTQ+ synagogue, had been on his radar because a former colleague belonged there and encouraged him to apply for the open rabbi position.
“I started looking into the community, and I realized that there was a strong culture of lay leadership and engagement, that it was a community of really knowledgeable and committed people who created their own siddur, who took on leadership roles in ways that I didn’t find in other synagogues,” Singer-Beilin said.
He added that while he doesn’t identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, he is a longtime ally.
“I thought that I could bring that allyship into a new stage in my rabbinate, and if they would have me, it would be my honor to serve them,” he said.
The rabbi at Bet Mishpachah since summer 2019, Singer-Beilin focuses on pastoral care and belonging.
“One of my priorities is making sure that people find a sense of belonging, no matter who they are,” he said, adding that Bet Mishpachah was founded more than 50 years ago for this very purpose. “I think broadly about who’s not being served by the mainstream Jewish world.”
He ensures that his sermons are timely and meaningful, in part by reading others’ works to gain inspiration.
“I always try to keep in mind who I’m speaking to,” Singer-Beilin said. “This D’var Torah, this sermon, is not for me, but I try to have certain congregants in mind when I’m writing and to think about how might this fall on their ears. What’s the message that I think they need to hear?”
Singer-Beilin supports congregants in their explorations of spirituality and Jewish learning through one-on-one study and individual experiences. He also centers social justice work, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that we give space for people to have a voice and for people to get their message out,” he said. “So, whether that’s at Trans Day of Remembrance or Trans Day of Visibility or World AIDS Day or Pride, we are a forum where people can come and be heard, and where we can bear witness to their story in a way that they might not have in other Jewish spaces.”
The Bet Mishpachah community recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Singer-Beilin said he hopes to continue this positive trajectory: “There’s a lot of thinking about what the next 50 years look like for Bet Mishpachah.”
“We want to make sure that we are a place where Jews of color feel accepted and welcomed,” he said. “I want to make sure that our members who are going through struggles know that they have a family of their choosing who will be there for them and support them.”
The rabbi also wants to incorporate art forms such as music, meditation and poetry to uplift one another during services and “be a place where we feel The Holy One and where we feel like we can be together in ways that are rare these days.”
