Rabbi Jon Roos was 26 years old when he realized that the rabbinate was his calling.
“It just fit,” said Roos, the senior rabbi at Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C. “It was true for my childhood, it was my academic interest at that point … it’s what I wanted to be involved with.”
At the time, in the mid-1990s, Roos was pursuing a Ph.D. in history at the University of Maryland with the intent of becoming a professor. His proposed dissertation was on Jewish identity. Two of Roos’ closest friends in graduate school expressed an interest in going to seminary — and both went on to become Episcopal priests.
“One of those guys said to me, ‘You’re cut from the same cloth. You should think about [a clergy position] for your path as well,’” Roos recalled.
So, he began networking: “I talked to every rabbi in the area [that] I could, and I started working at some of the synagogues and volunteering and teaching and going to services and more. It just felt very natural.”
The next step was rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College. Growing up in the suburbs south of Boston, Roos hadn’t always wanted to be a rabbi.
“I didn’t have a [rabbinic] role model within the family,” he said. “I knew the rabbi from synagogue, but [being a rabbi] was not something that was in my plans at all.”
Roos and his brother and sister were raised by a lawyer father and a doctor mother who were deeply involved at their Randolph, Massachusetts, synagogue. Jewish community was a “big part of their life,” said Roos, who remembers setting up folding chairs in the living room for synagogue committee meetings as a child.
Roos carried that enthusiasm forward through United Synagogue Youth and many summers at a Jewish overnight camp.
After a stint in retail, then teaching during graduate school, Roos was ordained in 2002 and has served Temple Sinai since 2010, where he leads services, guides the staff team and teaches the 10th grade confirmation class and an adult education class, realizing his dream of being a teacher.
What’s kept him at the Reform temple for 16 years and counting? “It’s a great congregation,” the Kensington, Maryland, resident said. “It’s such a joy to work in this place and to be part of it as a member.”
His two adult sons are regulars at Temple Sinai, a “great fit for the family.”
Roos appreciates the synagogue’s balance between a “commitment to tradition and a commitment to modernity.”
“It’s got a long historical commitment to justice and activism and engaging with the issues of the day, and I find that to be one of the most important parts of Judaism for my own life,” he said.
Those social justice efforts involved facilitating complex, sometimes difficult conversations.
The community’s activism around Israel began in 2010. “At that point, it was working around a two-state solution [and speaking with] former diplomats and activists who are really committed to trying to bring about a lasting, peaceful solution in the Middle East,” he said.
Roos brought in a variety of guest speakers — from a J Street representative to then-Rep. Ron DeSantis — to talk about Israel.
“I brought people with really strong opinions — who have a national position, in some cases — that often might generate controversy to be in dialogue with each other and with the congregation over the course of a year,” Roos said. “Our community really responded to the challenge, engaging in all sides of an issue.”
He is also passionate about immigration, driven by the 2012 surge of unaccompanied minors to the United States from Central America and the subsequent migrant crisis.
“I organized a group of folks and got really engaged with that, connected it to Jewish history, the congregation’s history, and started to work deeply with other organizations,” Roos said. “We would weave [these learning opportunities] into our Torah study or other ritual moments in our worship services.”
Noticing local migrants’ and asylum seekers’ need for legal representation, Roos tapped a couple dozen lawyers from Temple Sinai: “Let me use my position in the pulpit to connect those two groups together, … and it made a huge difference in the lives of a couple of those folks.”
He is most proud of his role in building Temple Sinai’s current staff team, including the hiring of Rabbi Hannah Goldstein. Over Roos’ 16 years as senior rabbi, every senior staff member at the shul has either retired or left, mainly the former. He’s seen the congregation through those transitions and hired new clergy and staff members to create a consistent vision for the team.
“What makes [Temple] Sinai so great are the people who are here,” he added. “If I can say I’m the proudest of anything, it’s been my ability to shape the culture of this place and the people who lead it.”
Roos looks forward to keeping the same positive energy and Jewish engagement within the “thriving” Temple Sinai community as the synagogue approaches its 75th anniversary next year.
“Professionally, I hope to help ensure that the culture here stays and that we’ve got the financial resources to move ahead,” Roos said.
His personal aspirations include possibly welcoming grandchildren down the line, as one son is newlywed and the other is engaged.
“I want to be able to be present and supportive and to see my family into that next chapter of our lives, and to continue to grow personally and Jewishly in my learning and my commitment to the Jewish people,” Roos said.
