Rabbi glad to be coming home to serve

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/09/2018 (2951 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last time Rabbi Kliel Rose led Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year, services in Winnipeg, he was a visiting rabbinical student. At that time, Rose was assisting his parents, Rabbi Neal and Carol Rose, who have led popular alternative Rosh Hashanah services in the basement of the Etz Chayim synagogue for almost 40 years.

On Sept. 10, 16 years after his last High Holiday appearance in Winnipeg, Rose will be back at the Etz Chayim to lead Rosh Hashanah services, but this time, he will be doing it in the congregation’s main sanctuary and as the congregation’s senior rabbi.

In August, Rabbi Kliel returned to Winnipeg to assume the pulpit at the conservative Matheson Avenue synagogue. After living away from Winnipeg for more than 25 years, he is now working about four blocks from where he grew up.

“I am really excited and feel very fortunate to be in a position to come back home and be in the community where I grew up,” Rose says. “I have very wonderful, positive memories of Winnipeg.”

After leaving Winnipeg, Rose was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary and served as a spiritual leader in several congregations in the United States and overseas. Most recently, he was spiritual leader at Beth Shalom Synagogue in Edmonton.

“Having been living in a smaller Jewish community like Edmonton, there was a real draw to be back in a bigger community that had a Jewish day school and a Jewish community centre, and so many opportunities for Jewish expression in so many diverse ways,” Rose says.

But it was the familiarity of Etz Chayim itself, and the opportunity it promised to really engage with congregants, that was the primary draw.

“I really want to try to connect with as many members as possible and really become a face for the congregation and, extending that, to the Jewish community and the greater community,” Rose says. “I also want to infuse the place with energy. I’m a person with a lot of energy and enthusiasm for Jewish life.”

Rose plans to direct much of that energy to engaging teenagers and young adults in social action, interfaith dialogue and what he refers to as “traditional progressive” Judaism.

“Some people might think it’s an oxymoron,” he says, “but that’s really the ethos of the conservative movement — having a foot in each of those realms, in the tradition and in modernity, and trying to fuse those two realms together.”

Ideally, the rabbi’s commitment to fusing those two realms will help the synagogue attract and retain a younger demographic to help ensure its continued viability.

“Although traditional in so many ways, Rose will be bringing a more modern and dynamic approach,” congregation president Marvin Samphir says.

The new rabbi, Samphir says, is a progressive thinker with a highly inclusive approach to Judaism and an appreciation for the changes needed to revitalize Etz Chayim and make it more relevant to its congregants and community.

Congregants and the community will be able to witness those attributes in action during the High Holiday season, which includes two days of Rosh Hashanah and the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

That experience, no doubt, will be as rewarding for them as it will be for Rose himself, a Winnipegger thrilled with the opportunity he has been given to return home to lead.

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