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Slice of Life
Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter's spacious office has a mahogany feel. It is comfortably furnished and filled wall- to-wall with books.
Located on the 8th floor of the 12-story building on Manhattan's West 86th Street - the heart of the fashionable Upper West Side of New York - Schacter explains that his congregation has, over the past decade, expanded from a prominent synagogue into an establishment that more fully reflects its famous name, the Jewish Center.
Though the rabbi smiles at me with familiar pleasantness (I was a five-year member of his congregation), he cannot hide the intensity in his eyes no more than he can deny that he was the primary force behind the Jewish Center's leading role in the expanding Judaism of one of the wealthiest and most influential (and growing) communities in the US. He also cannot deny that his decision to leave for Boston at the end of next year caused a seismic sigh and left many wondering who would fill his enormous shoes.
Rabbi Schacter has his reasons for the change. "There is an opportunity to spearhead an effort to raise the level of professionalism in the Orthodox community," he explains. "We would like to bring young teachers and rabbis to Boston for at least a summer, if not an entire year, to expose them to intensive Jewish learning and to enhance their professional skills." This, Rabbi Schacter added, is a stepping-stone to developing uniform standards for Jewish Orthodox education systems all across the US.
As always, Rabbi...