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August 29, 2003/Elul 1 5763, Vol. 55, No. 53
Local rabbi receives national honor
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
While Rabbi William Berk of Temple Chai is well known locally for his adult education programs, his work is now gaining national attention.
In February, Berk will be presented with the Covenant Award, an award for outstanding Jewish educators in North America, presented by the Covenant Foundation. He is one of three recipients.
Judith Ginsberg, executive director of the Covenant Foundation said she is pleased to honor Berk this year.
"Rabbi Berk is a dynamic and inspiring teacher who has, for decades, brought congregants of all ages together to learn, teach and dialogue about a wide range of Jewish texts. His openness, sincerity, passion and eye for innovation have made him a role model for Jewish educators nationwide and makes him a perfect choice for recipient for Covenant Foundation's Educators Award," she said.
Berk is the second local rabbi to be honored with the award. Rabbi Elana Kanter also received the Covenant Award in 1998 for her work in Birmingham, Ala.
The Covenant Foundation was created in 1990 by the Crown Family Foundation and the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA). Its mission is to "strengthen endeavors in education which perpetuate the identity and heritage of the Jewish people through awards to outstanding Jewish educators and grants for innovative programs in Jewish Education."
Berk is the founder of the Advanced Studies and Beit Midrash Chai programs at Temple Chai. These programs are intensive adult education programs that include twice-a-month classes, extensive reading, journaling, participation in discussion groups, attending a weekend retreat and, at the end, traveling to Israel on a 10-day study trip. Classes are taught by Berk, as well as by world-renowned scholars and teachers.
Additionally, Temple Chai offers extensive retreat programming, including 13 re-treats a year for everyone from schoolchildren to women to doctors.
Berk said he is in the "transformation business" and the retreats offer an opportunity for his congregants to have life-changing experiences.
"You pluck somebody up out of their city life with all of the ... worries, everything going on, and you put them under the pine trees, a different dynamic, (and) you get them to slow down, open them up to God, to oneness, to beauty, to each other, to love and to the majesty of Torah ... and the depth of their own inner Torah - their own inner-life experience. When you do that, amazing things happen," he explained.
Berk recalled a retreat for doctors in which one physician changed careers and another completely changed the way his practice functioned.
The retreats are part of Temple Chai's success, Berk believes.
"We've created a lot of unity. People hang out together under the pine trees and they get to know each other," he said.
Berk also devotes time to teaching the teachers in Temple Chai's religious school, and working with local day school students at Pardes Jewish Day School and Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School.
At the high school he founded a program called Tikun Ha'midot, or ethical refinement. For 40 minutes a week, Berk and the student body "would take real ethical issues that would come up in the day-to-day trenches of the high school and we would process those issues and I'd bring Jewish wisdom of all the centuries to bear on those issues," recalled Berk.
Issues they explored included pluralism, gossip, modesty and respect of elders.
In the coming year, Berk plans to create a new advanced learning program specializing in the area of Jewish healing. Projects will include a small group who will visit patients on their deathbeds, as well as the creation of "healing teams" comprised of doctors, therapists, health educators, rabbis and other professionals, to work on a holistic approach to healing with their patients.
Berk said he feels honored that his work is being recognized.
"I'm very grateful to the people who support me - my wife and the people here at Temple Chai," he said.
In addition to the re-cognition, recipients of the Covenant Award receive a $25,000 cash prize, as well as a $5,000 award to their institution. The foundation is also flying the winners and their families to Florida in February for the presentation of the award.
When Kanter received the Covenant Award, she said she was pleased not only with the award, but to be connected with the Covenant Foundation.
"They do amazing work in Jewish education and they are really at the forefront of meeting the Jewish educational needs of where we are at this moment in history," she explained.
Kanter's work in Birmingham included the founding of a leadership institute along with the president of Birmingham's Jewish federation. They created a two-year program, in which local leaders studied Jewish text to assist in making leadership decisions.
"(They) were able to bring more Judaism into their speaking and into their decision making," said Kanter.
Additionally, she served as the associate rabbi for education at a Conservative synagogue in Birmingham.
Kanter said she's pleased that Berk is the most recent recipient.
"I'm so happy for Rabbi Berk. I think they made a fantastic choice. We can all be proud that he's an Arizonan," Kanter said.
Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com.
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