Temple Beth El has a new strategy and a change in leadership. The temple is focusing on a sacred and caring community, which is the vision of Rabbi Harold F. Caminker, the new, openly gay leader of the temple.
Caminker previously served in Riverside, Calif., and spent the past four years in Fort Lauderdale at the Congregation Etz Chaim, the state’s only gay and lesbian temple. Caminker had been married for 20 years and has three children. He recently announced that he is gay.
But that’s not the focus of Caminker’s leadership. He emphasizes the importance of community outreach as the congregation reinvents itself.
“That’s what Temple Beth El is and that’s what we need it to be if we’re going to be the synagogue of Bradenton, and that means people really reaching out and caring for one another,” says Caminker.
The synagogue has a difficult task ahead of it. The Rabbi Larry Mahrer only served part time for the past 30 months, and prior to that, the synagogue lost about 80 families under Rabbi Barbara Aiello.
Neil Clark, the former temple president who conducted the search for a new rabbi, says Caminker’s sexual orientation played no role in its decision to hire Caminker.
“That didn’t enter into it with us,” Clark told the Herald Tribune. “He’s going to be full-time and one of his mandates is to bring people in.”
The temple hopes most of those new people are from a younger generation. According to Jerry Shames, another past president, Caminker’s conversational style and rapport with children will help accomplish that.
“He to me represents something I haven’t seen for a good number of years in Judaism,” Shames says. “Rabbi Harold represents some of the kind of rabbinical presence that I find very comfortable interacting with, more so than any other rabbi I’ve been involved with since I’ve been here.”
