Growing into the job
Bell has seen many changes in his 20 years as Solel's rabbi
RANDI BAROCAS
Staff Writer
Rabbi Maynard Bell prepares to remove a Torah scroll from the ark inside Temple Solel's sanctuary. Bell is celebrating 20 years as the Reform synagogue's spiritual leader. He says the life-cycle milestones of congregants make for his favorite part of the job.
|
When Rabbi Maynard Bell came to Paradise Valley 20 years ago to serve as spiritual leader of Reform Temple Solel, he had no idea he would stay as long as he has. Most rabbis, after all, don't stick around very long anymore, he says.
That's usually because it's such a difficult job - lots of people to please and lots of politics to play, Bell admits. Yet despite some of the trials of the profession, Bell says his work is filled with wonderful rewards.
"Nothing pleases me more than to be part of the different life-cycle milestones," Bell says with a smile. "I'm now doing weddings for men and women I bar-mitzvahed.
"A young woman pushing a baby carriage in a grocery store will stop me, and I'll realize I officiated at her bat mitzvah 17 or 18 years ago," he continues. "That gives me a real kick. I've watched a whole generation grow up."
Bell has not only seen Temple Solel members grow and change, but the congregation itself morph into a larger, self-contained Jewish community.
When Bell, a Boston native, first came to the Valley back in 1977, Temple Solel had a membership cap of 200 families. The congregants, about 160 families at the time, did not even have a facility to call their own. They rented space from what is now the Palo Christi Presbyterian Church on Lincoln Drive, where Ruach Hamidbar-Spirit of the Desert holds its services today.
Bell, being the "visionary" that many of his co-workers credit him as, worked hard to get those membership limits removed from the temple's bylaws. And before the end of his second year at the temple, the congregation had purchased the land and existing buildings at its present location, 6805 E. McDonald Drive.
"When I first came, I had an open mind about no building," Bell says. "But what convinced me in my decision (to get a building) was observing the religious school. The kids didn't have anything to identify with - no sense of what Temple Solel was."
At Bell's urging, many members began to see the value of investing in the congregation's future by buying a physical structure. Within two years of his accepting the job, "two fundamental principles of the congregation's founding - no building and no more than 200 families - had changed. By then, we were growing," Bell says. "We have about 900 families now."
In addition to the growth in numbers, Temple Solel has grown in physical size as well. The congregation's major building expansion in 1986 tripled its physical space. And it recently built the William Bruce Silverman Educational Center, a new facility that provides additional classroom space.
'Return a blessing'
Aside from leading Temple Solel successfully into the future, Bell has contributed to several of his co-workers' and congregants' lives, both personally and professionally, they say.
Rabbi Serge Lippe, who served as associate rabbi of Temple Solel from 1991 to 1997 before leaving to head his own congregation, Brooklyn Heights Synagogue in New York, says he was tremendously affected by his time spent working with Bell - so much so, in fact, that Lippe is returning to the Valley March 27-30 to attend Bell's 20th anniversary celebration. Lippe will be the keynote speaker at the main event, set for Saturday night, March 28.
"For me, it's actually an honor, privilege and absolute pleasure (to be coming back). Rabbi Bell was my mentor, senior colleague and friend for the six years I was associate rabbi at Temple Solel," says Lippe. (Speaking at Bell's testimonial dinner) "is an opportunity to return a blessing on some level - in some small manner - and to ... be able to share the benefits I derived under Rabbi Bell's tutelage."
And those benefits have been many, Lippe stresses.
"Part of the reason I was able to come on board (at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue) and that the congregation was interested in me was because of the incredible responsibility Rabbi Bell was willing to give me as an associate. He extended to me a level of trust to take care of his congregation as a young, new rabbi that I think is atypical," Lippe says. "I try to return the favor (by being) responsible to the style of management and worship that he had established (at Temple Solel)."
Despite the glowing praise his co-workers shower on him, it's unfortunate that most of the congregants and other members of the Jewish community "don't know about the depth of his intellect and soul," says Bonnie Morris, Temple Solel's director of education.
"He is one of the most compassionate, menschlich (kind) people I have ever had the privilege of working with," Morris says. "During the times in life when you may need counseling, this is the guy you want there for you."
Merle Weiner, a past president and longtime volunteer, says Bell has an "insight ... most people don't get to appreciate or work with. There is so much you can learn from him because he is so knowledgeable.
"He has taught (our congregation) that we can still be large and still be heimish (homey) and still be a community," Weiner continues. "His insight and his ability to see through human nature are things that have helped the temple grow."
It's that same insight that has led Bell to serve on the governing board of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Through his involvement in that organization, Bell was instrumental in the 1989 founding of Congregation Hineini in Moscow, the first Reform synagogue in the then-Soviet Union, he says.
Bell plans to return to the region April 5-15, to lead a Passover seder for Jews at Congregation Simcha in Minsk, Belarus, after which he will travel to surrounding communities to lead model seders and teach about the holiday.
When not fulfilling rabbinical responsibilities or volunteering for the many community organizations he has gotten involved with over the years, Bell likes to spend time with his wife, Dr. Jean Schulman, and two sons, Michael and Jared.
Temple Solel will celebrate Bell's 20 years at the congregation with family and congregant testimonials during Friday night services on March 27, and again during a dinner dance, beginning with a silent auction, at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 28.
The band Coast to Coast and Bell's sons will perform. Rabbi Alan Berlin and his wife, Cantor Julie Berlin, will lead the Havdallah ceremony.
Tickets to the dinner event cost $65 per person. Reservations will be accepted until Monday, March 23.
For more information, call Merle Weiner at 991-7414.
|
