Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer

As director of engagement and communications at Mishkan Shalom, Daniel Ricken works so hard to help congregants live their Jewish lives that sometimes his own is hard to keep up.

“As much as I genuinely love my job, there is a cost,” he said. “My job is creating Jewish spiritual experiences for other people — where does mine fall in? That’s something that I still struggle with. This was the first year that I didn’t get a High Holy Days because I was making High Holy Days happen. I haven’t found the answer yet.”

Ricken has been with Mishkan Shalom since March 2024, when he decided to enter the Jewish professional space after working in the world of theater since before and after graduating with a master of arts in theater in 2013 and a Ph.D. in theater in 2022.

“I have a weird path. I worked in professional theater in New York and London and around the country for about 15 years, and toward the end of my Ph.D., I found myself working in admissions at a film school in New York,” he said. “I realized that I wanted to switch, and that my Jewish identity and doing management and administration for Jewish spaces was important to me.”

That shift included applications to synagogues in a variety of areas. Ricken was attracted to the opportunity in Philadelphia in part because it isn’t far from New York. His brother has also lived in this area for years. However, what really made his decision an easy one was the community at Mishkan Shalom.

“It’s a community of people that deeply care on many levels about many things. It’s a community that’s really open to ideas, to perspectives, and really genuinely wants to do good in the world and make the world a better place than [what] they found,” Ricken said.

“It was something that I was struck by from the interview on. I think there is a deep authenticity to everyone here. It’s refreshing.”

The Roxborough resident enjoyed being in New York, but he has found that Philadelphia offers its own appeal.

“I think the New York Jewish community can sometimes be a little status focused. And I think where Philadelphia really thrives, for me, has been coming as you are and being who you are,” he said. “It’s a type of environment [that is] welcoming [to] everyone, and everyone kind of has a niche.”

At Mishkan Shalom, Ricken has been able to grab hold of his own ideas and those of others and turn them into reality. He started an initiative to give every congregant a call three times a year. He helped create a young adult group for the synagogue. Mishkan Shalom is also forming a group focused on interfaith and multifaith families.

“I think the reality is, a lot of people in my generation find themselves in partnerships with people who are not Jewish or not the same type of Jewish that they are,” Ricken said.

“There are conversations of how you support a Jewish partner right now, how you understand a Jewish partner right now, even the logistics of what you do in December or what you do with food in your home, what it’s like to raise a child into a multifaith home, what it’s like to be a non-Jewish parent raising a Jewish child.”

Ricken said the board and clergy at Mishkan Shalom have given him leniency to try his ideas, and that he is happy to help them by handling those parts of synagogue administration.

“I think being able to do all the logistics and take ideas from congregants and from clergy and turn them into reality has been really rewarding,” he said.

In his search for his own Jewish identity, Ricken laughed as he said that he has befriended many more rabbis than he had previously. They have experience balancing the Jewish lives of their congregants and their own, and they have offered insights that have helped him. For example, he davens Shaharit privately every morning.

At Mishkan Shalom, Ricken has found a home. It’s different in many ways from his decade and a half in theater, but it’s also similar.

“Building community and working in partnership with people, that’s my theater background,” he said. “That’s what I do, and that’s something that has found a really beautiful home in this Jewish community.”

aguckes@midatlanticmedia.com