TBI associate rabbi to ‘go outside the box’
CONGREGANTS of Temple Beth Israel (TBI) officially welcomed Rabbi Kim Ettlinger as the new associate rabbi at an induction service last Shabbat.
CONGREGANTS of Temple Beth Israel (TBI) officially welcomed Rabbi Kim Ettlinger  as the new associate rabbi at an induction service last Shabbat.
Born in South Africa and raised in Perth, she joined TBI after five years as associate rabbi of Peninsula Temple Sholom, a large Reform congregation in San Francisco.
Rabbinical colleagues from the Victorian Union for Progressive Judaism moetzah (rabbinical committee), and guests, including government representatives and her parents from Western Australia, joined the congregation to witness Rabbi Fred Morgan, TBI’s senior rabbi, welcoming the young rabbi to the community.
Rabbi Ettlinger, 34, spoke of historical Jewish figures she would like to invite into her communal succah — Moses and Miriam for their leadership, Rambam for his principles of social justice, and 20th century theologian Rabbi Avraham Joshua Heschel for his discourses on the concept of time within Judaism.
Adding to her list today’s Melbourne Jewish youth — a group that forms a key element of her outreach agenda at TBI — she spoke of a figurative succah “already bursting at the seams”.
Rabbi Ettlinger committed herself to serving not just TBI and the Union for Progressive Judaism’s congregations throughout the region, but contributing to the broader Australian Jewish community in a range of areas, including children, youth, women and Israel.
Pledging an “outside the box” rabbinate dedicated to all congregants from the very youngest, she predicted: “You might see me sitting on the floor in jeans playing with playdough”.
PETER KOHN
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