For Anne Pettit, who has been a rabbinic intern at Congregation Brothers of Israel in Newtown for the past year and will conclude her tenure there at the end of June, there is an easy answer to her favorite part of the past 12 months.
“The kids. Without a doubt, it’s been working with the kids at their bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies,” she said. “They’re a lot of fun. Some of their parents are a lot of fun, too.”
Pettit has led the congregation for the past year, but she’s now in a unique position: She will officially become an ordained rabbi next week. Pettit has an atypical path to becoming a Jewish spiritual leader. It is her second career. But it is definitely not her second choice.
She said her upcoming ordination will be a full-circle moment.
“It will feel like I have finally achieved a dream I started on in 2007,” she said, adding one word to sum it all up: “Joy.”
Eighteen years ago, Pettit realized she wasn’t enjoying her life as an attorney. So instead, she decided to go to the Jewish Theological Seminary to become a rabbi. When the financial crisis hit a year later, her financial aid “dried up,” she said, and she was faced with the tough choice of quitting her dream or pushing forward. She chose the latter.
She then pursued the Beit Midrash and Scholar Circle programs at the Drisha Institute in New York.
“It was the first institution to have any kind of structured program to teach Talmud to women in the Orthodox world,” she said.
After five years there, she had a certificate but not formal ordination. Not long after, she and her husband moved from Jersey City, New Jersey, to Buckingham Township, seeking a bit of a refuge from city life. They belonged to another synagogue first, but they joined Congregation Brothers of Israel because it offered Shabbat morning services. Years later, she found herself putting the skills she learned at the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Drisha Institute into practice.
“So after five years or so at Brothers of Israel, Rabbi (Aaron) Gaber left to take a long-term deployment with the National Guard as a chaplain abroad, and they needed somebody to fill in,” Pettit said. “They asked me because I had the skills and knowledge, and I agreed to do it, and I’ve been doing that for the past year.”
Prior to this, Pettit had filled in for short periods when the previous rabbi had been on vacation or unable to lead the congregation, but this was her first time truly leading a synagogue.
“It was pretty intimidating at first. I have colleagues that I can always call on for help and advice, but it’s you and over 100 families and the various things that can happen,” she said. “It’s a little intimidating the first time you’re facing that as the person in charge.”
Pettit said that, to conquer the nerves, she relied on her CBOI community and Cantor Jeff Warschauer.
“One day at a time, and one thing at a time — and it’s always helpful to have somebody right there,” she said.
Pettit said that, ultimately, seeing an interest in Judaism spark in the eyes of children is something she will remember from her tenure as spiritual leader. She said that the job of a rabbi and the Jewish educators at a given congregation is to help these young students realize the true meaning of a bar or bat mitzvah, which is to commit to a life of Jewish values.
“You can make it something that could be full of exploration and adventure, or you can make it a complete drag,” she said. “We want to make sure that they really feel like they’ve accomplished something.”
She said that the education team at CBOI is “marvelous” in its ability to spark a love for Judaism in students. There was one bat mitzvah girl in particular who thanked Pettit in a way she still remembers.
“At the end of the Shabbat morning service at which she became bat mitzvah, she threw her arms around me and was kind of sobbing into my ear that she couldn’t have done it without me,” Pettit said. “I’m not exactly sure how I affected her, but clearly it meant something to her, and I’m so happy about that.”
While Pettit’s tenure will end on June 30, she is looking at a few other potential opportunities to continue her career. Regardless of what comes of those, though, she is glad she made the switch.
“It is more rewarding because [being an attorney] is all about what you could put on paper, or if a case goes to trial or what you can get into the record as testimony. You aren’t free to explore the larger issues in people’s lives,” she said. “It’s not a spiritual occupation. While it’s fun from the point of view of legal analysis and coming up with legal answers to legal questions, it’s one small slice of life, and there’s just so much more to life than that.”