Saturday, February 21, 1998

Student rabbi becomes a frequent flier to serve congregation

By Jeffrey Weiss / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS -- Todd Thalblum, spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Ami in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound, spent a few minutes before services last week talking to parents interested in giving their children Hebrew names.

After explaining the simple ceremony, he told them to call him at home if they had further questions. At home, that is, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Thalblum is a rabbi-in-training, a student at Hebrew Union College -- Jewish Institute of Religion. Like all student rabbis, he is required to spend time serving a congregation. But the college, the only Reform seminary in the United States, has campuses only in Cincinnati, New York City and Los Angeles. So in order for each student to serve a synagogue, some of them end up accumulating significant frequent-flier miles.

They also accumulate significant experience, the kind not available in classrooms.

"They throw you into pulpit life," Thalblum said.

He has been working with Kol Ami for almost two years. While he gains experience, Kol Ami gets a part-time rabbi for about half the cost of a full-time position. The congregation pays air fare for Thalblum's twice-monthly travel, room and board while he's here -- three days at a time, on average -- and makes a contribution to the school.

It's a bargain, said Judy Feldman, whose living room was the first home for what became Kol Ami. "It's worked out better than we expected," she said.

Hebrew Union College sent students to more than 70 pulpits last year, in locations as far-flung as Billings, Mont., and Fargo, N.D.

Thalblum is the second student to serve at Kol Ami. More than three years ago, the 20-year-old congregation still had neither a rabbi nor its own building. Members of the congregation decided it was time for a change.

"We were able to do the rudimentary things," said Helena Shapp-Dossey, who chairs the ritual committee. "Especially for the adults, we wanted more."

What they didn't want -- yet -- was an established rabbi to come in and impose an identity on a still-evolving congregation. Nor could they afford a full-time rabbi. A student rabbi, who could teach even as he learned how to work from a pulpit, seemed the perfect solution.

So they contacted Hebrew Union College, which entered Kol Ami on a list of available congregations. At the same time, the congregation made plans for a new permanent home, which it moved into more than a year ago.

The arrangement has been successful, Shapp-Dossey said. "Depending on which year they were in for their training, we saw them grow," she said.

Thalblum, 29, came to the rabbinate by a circuitous route. As an undergraduate, he passed through five majors before settling on counseling. After school, he took time off.

"I waited tables, I tended bar, I skied," he said.

But he was drawn to the rabbinate because it combined his interest in helping people with his spiritual yearnings. "Judaism has always been a very important part of my life," he said.

Like all Hebrew Union College students, he spent his first year in Jerusalem. When he returned, he had the chance to come to Kol Ami.

"I liked Flower Mound because it was large for a student pulpit," he said. Kol Ami has 106 families. "And it has a young population."

That's not true of all the student-led pulpits, he said.

"This is a growing congregation, one that's on the upswing," he said. "Unfortunately, a lot of student pulpits are the opposite."

In either case, congregation and student rabbi face the challenge of spiritual leadership via long distance.

"It's difficult, especially in times of trouble," Thalblum said.

For example, recently the father of one of his congregants died.

"If I lived in the area, even if I wouldn't have officiated the funeral, I would have been able to attend and feel I was there for support," he said.

And then there's the travel, a potentially grueling grind. Twice a month, he leaves his wife and young son behind and flies to Dallas. But this is a welcome break from classroom studies, Thalblum said.

"When I go to the pulpit, it energizes me," he said.

Recently, he led about 50 people in welcoming the Sabbath. Larger congregations often have a cantor, a trained singer, to lead the chanting and songs. Thalblum served both roles; many congregants sang along.

For his sermon on that week's Torah portion, Thalblum made reference to Elvis, the Beatles, Rabbi Akiba, a couple of obscure Talmudic scholars, baseball, Shakespeare and several biblical passages.

His congregation listened attentively.

"It's certainly odd to be labeled a rabbi while still in school," Thalblum said. "There's a level of respect that goes there that I'm not sure I've earned yet."

He has earned the respect of this congregation. More than a year ago, they asked him to serve a second year. In a week, the temple is likely to ask him to return for his final student year, Feldman said.

And a year from now, when the congregation may be ready for a full-time rabbi, Thalblum will probably be a favorite candidate, she said.

"He appeals to the young kids and the adults," she said. "He appeals to just about everybody."

(c) 1998, The Dallas Morning News.

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