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April 16, 2004/Nisan 25 5764, Vol. 56, No. 30
Herrings leave legacy of love
JENNIFER GOLDBERG
Staff Writer
Rabbi B. Charles and Barbara Herring have served Phoenix congregations for 36 years. The Herrings are retiring from service at Temple Kol Ami on June 30.
Photo courtesy of Temple Kol Ami
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The glory of my life has been working with kids," says Rabbi B. Charles Herring of Temple Kol Ami in Scottsdale.
On June 30, Herring and his wife Barbara will retire; Herring from active service as a rabbi, Barbara from her position as director of education for Temple Kol Ami's religious school and preschool.
The couple, who will remain Temple Kol Ami congregants, leaves a legacy of decades of service to Valley youth. In honor of their contribution to the lives of so many children, the temple religious school will be renamed in their honor.
Herring's career in the rabbinate began after an adolescent discovery of faith. After growing up in a secular home, Herring became interested in Judaism in his teens. His involvement with children began shortly thereafter, when he became a camp counselor.
"I was so overwhelmed by (Judaism) that I wanted to share it," he says. "And the easiest way to share it with the greatest number of people is through the rabbinate."
Herring attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and served pulpits in Florida, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Tokyo (during his time in the Air Force) before arriving in Phoenix at Temple Beth Israel in 1968.
It was during Herring's time at Temple Beth Israel that he took part in founding Mitzvah Corp, a nonprofit organization that aids economically disadvantaged Valley children. Herring is currently president of Mitzvah Corp.
"Mitzvah Corp is a way to teach and a way to allow the Reform Jewish community to involve itself in repairing the world.
"It is a two-prong institution. It serves two clienteles, one of which is economically disadvantaged kids, and the other is Jewish teens and to some extent adults, who are looking for ways to exercise their social activism, their prophetic Judaism," he says. "Prophetic Judaism demands that you better and change the world. It's a Jewish imperative. This is a way of fulfilling that demand."
Herring says that the Mitzvah Corp program "doesn't preach but teaches to avoid drug involvement and abuse. It teaches the opportunities that you can have in your life if you apply yourself and work for those." Mitzvah Corp does year-round activities for the children, including carnivals, sports outings, cultural enrichment, tutoring and more. It is also the parent organization of two camps for disadvantaged youth: Camp SWIFT in Prescott and the new Camp CHUCK, a summer day camp in Phoenix that has been named after Herring (Chuck is his nickname). He estimates that 8,000 underprivileged youth and 3,000-4,000 Jewish teens and adults have participated in Mitzvah Corp.
Herring served as assistant rabbi to Temple Beth Israel's then-rabbi Albert Plotkin until 1988, when differences arose between Herring and the temple. The Herrings were preparing to take a position in another state when a group of Temple Beth Israel families chose to form a new congregation, Temple Kol Ami, and asked Herring to become its rabbi.
Current Kol Ami president Lee Weiss, who with his wife Jill was a founding family of the temple, says it was Herring's sermons that led him to Kol Ami.
"While we were at the other temple, it seemed that whenever we had the choice of the traditional or the contemporary service, we always found ourselves at the Herring contemporary service. That was the one we enjoyed," he says. "When I was informed that (some members) were thinking of leaving and forming their own temple, I was asked if I and my family might be interested in going with them. So we decided that's the service we enjoyed, we ought to continue being at those services."
Barbara Rothman, another founding member whose husband Mel is a former Kol Ami president, says it was the Herrings' attention to and love for their children that influenced their decision to attend Kol Ami.
"We just loved the way he was with the kids," she recalls. "He gave very bright, thoughtful sermons that we liked, and he was wonderful with our children."
Temple Kol Ami was founded in 1989. According to Herring, the early days of the temple were full of financial challenges that the congregants overcame together.
"We just had to figure out how to do things. For example, we didn't have the money to buy a religious school curriculum, so we created our own. We didn't have the money for prayer books for the High Holy Days, so we wrote our own. We had no space for bar and bat mitzvah receptions. We had to build an ark. We had to find a Torah, which we had a family donate. We had to set up and tear down our pulpit every single week, because we were meeting in the fellowship hall of (Christ the King Lutheran Church)," he remembers. However, the members banded together to accomplish their goals. "The congregation was close anyhow because it had gone through an annealing process. It was a very intimate and together group of people."
The Herrings announced their retirement in fall 2002 in order to give the temple ample time to find a new rabbi.
"We knew (Rabbi Herring's retirement) would be coming one day, but we didn't expect it," Weiss says. "Initially, I felt empty. I felt loss facing our family. I would say now that I don't feel bad about them leaving, because I don't consider them leaving. They're going to remain as congregants. He'll just be sitting in a different place during the services."
Herring takes a pragmatic approach to the issue of retirement.
"This, to me, is something that has to happen," he says. "It's not going to impact me negatively. I will be of any help that is wanted of me by this community. I want the new rabbi to be my rabbi. This is still my temple." The board of directors will also name Herring rabbi emeritus upon retirement.
As Herring looks back on his career, it is his interaction with and service to children that he is most proud of. He says the two most important awards he's received are the Samuel Cook Award, a lifetime service award in youth work from the Central Conference of American Rabbis; and his designation as a life member of the National Federation of Temple Youth.
He is also honored by the temple board of directors' decision to rename the religious school in honor of him and his wife: "It was probably the nicest thing that anybody ever did in this congregation. Some people have sanctuaries named after them, some people have social halls, but the religious school is the center of my joy, and my wife's as well, because this has been a co-partnership. She's been with me in this venture since the beginning. She's really taken the educational processes and made them as superb as they are. She's fabulous."
A gala to honor the Herrings will take place May 1 at the Fairmont Princess Resort in Scottsdale. The celebration will include cocktails, dinner, dancing, silent auction and the presentation of a special Celebration Book to pay tribute to the couple.
At the end of 15 years of service at Temple Kol Ami, Herring says, "It has been a fabulous partnership with people in this congregation. Our interest was to provide the most valuable and meaningful Jewish experience for people across the board - the things that we have struggled for and achieved. Our youth groups are the joy of my life, the retreats for the kids are the joys of my life. Kol Ami is like dying and going to heaven if you're a rabbi."
Contact the writer at jennifer_goldberg@jewishaz.com.
Details
- What: Gala tribute to Rabbi B. Charles and Barbara Herring
- When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 1
- Where: Fairmont Princess Resort, 7575 E. Princess Drive, Scottsdale
- Cost: $175
- Call: 480-951-9660
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