| Ex-Dallas rabbi to lead travel program Zimmerman, suspended from duties, is eager to work with college students 04/10/2001 By Jeffrey Weiss / The Dallas Morning News Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, whose presidency of Reform Judaism's central seminary ended in scandal, has a new job.
The former leader of Temple Emanu-el in Dallas is the new director of a program that provides free trips to Israel for American Jewish college students.
Rabbi Zimmerman, 59, resigned in December from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.
He will become the executive vice president of birthright israel on June 1.
Some Jewish leaders welcomed the appointment; others questioned whether the rabbi deserved such a high-profile job.
Last year, the rabbinical arm of Reform Judaism suspended Rabbi Zimmerman for two years following revelations that he had inappropriate "personal relationships." He had led the seminary since leaving Dallas in 1996.
Without disclosing the details of what had happened, Rabbi Zimmerman said that the inappropriate behavior had taken place before he came to Dallas more than 15 years ago.
"For me it [the new job] was a chance to come back to the future and hopefully add something that I can add to the destiny of the Jewish people," he said Monday.
Since the suspension, he said, he had received more than 700 letters, 200 e-mails and hundreds of phone calls. More than half were from people in Dallas.
"I just want to tell the people in Dallas how grateful I am for their love and understanding," he said.
Birthright israel is in the second year of a five-year program designed to send tens of thousands of American students to Israel. Supporters believe that a visit offers powerful reinforcement for young adults who are searching for their spiritual identities.
Rabbi Zimmerman, who was well-known and widely admired during his time in the pulpit and while leading the seminary, hopes to raise the profile of the program, he said.
He said he hoped to use his contacts across the major Jewish movements and in the Jewish academic world to build support for a program that serves a population largely ignored by organized Judaism.
"We all know the college campuses, aside from some of the great work of Hillel, are a wasteland," he said.
An 11th-generation family rabbi, Rabbi Zimmerman served as senior rabbi at New York's Central Synagogue and, for 11 years, Temple Emanu-el in Dallas. He also served as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the same body that ultimately suspended him.
Michael Steinhardt, who co-founded birthright israel and has known Rabbi Zimmerman for 40 years, said the scandal that cost the rabbi his last job would not overshadow the task of his new employers.
"I don't feel that in any sense birthright will be diminished by his joining," Mr. Steinhardt said. "He will only add luster."
Religion News Service contributed to this report.
|
