On July 1, Kehilat HaNahar will welcome a new rabbi, Janine Jankovitz, to its community.
Jankovitz will replace Rabbi Diana Miller, who served the New Hope synagogue for 13 years, according to a news release. The new spiritual leader graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2020 and spent the past four years at Congregation Beth El-Ner Tamid in Broomall.
Miller is moving to Boston to be closer to family. Two years ago, the congregation celebrated her 10th anniversary. (It was technically her 11th year, but COVID delayed the party.)
Jankovitz will become just the third rabbi in the 135-household synagogue’s three-decade history. Kehilat HaNahar congregants call their community “The Little Shul by the River,” as it sits on Mechanic Street along the Delaware. The community bought that property in 1996.
Lynne Goldman, synagogue president, and Andy Kaufman, chair of the search committee, said they liked that Jankovitz helped grow the religious school at Beth El-Ner Tamid. They also knew her from her time as an intern at Kehilat HaNahar in 2017 and ’18. Miller took a sabbatical over one of those summers, and Jankovitz filled in during Torah study sessions, funerals and other events.
“People liked how she handled that experience,” Kaufman said.
Goldman found out in November 2022 that Miller would be leaving. They told the board in February 2023.
“We weren’t happy about it. We adored her,” Goldman said.
But “once we knew that Rabbi Diana was leaving, we talked to the congregation,” Kaufman added. They held meetings and surveys about what they wanted in a new rabbi. Then they sent a job application based on the results to Rabbi Elliot Skiddell, the director of rabbinic placement at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, who sent back seven resumes.
The search committee interviewed them all and narrowed their choices to three. Those candidates visited the synagogue on separate weekends. Each got the chance to lead services and mingle with congregants. Then congregants got to rank their choices.
“They basically selected Rabbi Janine,” Kaufman said.
During Jankovitz’s interview with the committee, her experience stood out, according to Goldman. Beth El-Ner Tamid is bigger than Kehilat HaNahar. Plus, increasing the size of the religious school was a goal for the New Hope synagogue based on survey responses from congregants.
Kehilat HaNahar’s members come from New Hope, Lambertville across the bridge and other towns in Bucks and Hunterdon counties. Many are empty nesters. Yet they want to attract younger families to keep the synagogue going, according to Kaufman.
“We know that there are more younger families,” Goldman said of the area. “And we want to attract them.”
During Jankovitz’s visit, congregants remembered her.
“The Torah study group loved her,” Goldman recalled.
As an intern, she also handled a series of funerals in a way that members appreciated.
“Her personality showed through,” Goldman said.
“Her warmth, her knowledge of Judaism and Torah, her leadership,” the president added. “There’s a certain presence. And her way of involving everyone.”
Congregants were reminded of those qualities during Jankovitz’s visit. She met with religious school parents and connected a lesson from a book called “Even God Has Bad Parenting Days” to the weekly parshah.
“And they started discussing and talking. There was real discussion,” Goldman said.
Parents approached Goldman after and said, “She’s amazing.”
“It was a hard decision,” said Kaufman. “But the experience of Rabbi Janine sort of carried it in that direction.”
In 2022, Rabbi Miller told the Jewish Exponent that she inherited a haimishe place from her predecessor, Rabbi Sandy Roth. It was her job to keep it that way. She did, according to Kaufman.
“The only reason I was president at this congregation was that it’s a nice place to be. If you ask somebody to help you, you don’t even have to ask. They offer,” he said. “People clean up after an Oneg. People are nice to each other. They always ask how you’re doing.”
At the last Shabbat in June, Kehilat HaNahar will hold a goodbye service and potluck for Miller. Then, it will be Jankovitz’s turn to inherit this haimishe place, this “Little Shul by the River,” this synagogue that, like so many others, is looking to its new rabbi to help attract younger families.
