Racine synagogue’s ‘new rabbi’ has been its spiritual leader since 2000

As a young man, Martyn Adelberg decided not to enroll in rabbinical school after college.

But this past June 8, more than 30 years after that decision, he was officially ordained as a rabbi following nearly three years of study.

Adelberg began leading services at Racine’s Beth Israel Sinai Congregation in October 2000, performing the duties of a rabbi in every way except in name for the 45-family synagogue.

When congregants read an article in Moment Magazine about the American Board of Rabbis’ distance learning opportunities leading to smicha (rabbinical ordination), they approached Adelberg and asked him to consider working toward ordination.

“They put no pressure on me,” he said. He enrolled in June 2003 and “set a self-imposed deadline of three years.”

“I made it a month short of that [deadline],” he said, in an interview with the Chronicle. “It was something I’d always had the desire to complete.”

Dr. Joshua Bloom, the synagogue’s president, said that the congregation is “very happy about Rabbi Adelberg’s accomplishment.”

“He’s always been an excellent teacher and spiritual leader,” Bloom said. “He now has the official credentials as a testament to his formal education. We view his accomplishment as a means by which to increase our membership and maintain the vitality of our synagogue.”

Serving as Beth Israel Sinai Congregation’s rabbi part-time, Adelberg also works as a marketing executive for Electronic Merchant Systems in the Chicago-area.

He spends holidays, Thursdays and Shabbats in Racine with his congregation. He lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago with his wife, Marcia, who is an employment recruitment specialist, finding jobs for young people with disabilities. They have four adult children — three daughters and a son.

‘Open to all’

He spoke proudly about his congregation saying, “I think we’re part of a new trend of people who want to be open to all who seek to embrace and understand Judaism.”

Beth Israel Sinai Congregation stresses Jewish unity, according to Adelberg. “We try not to be labeled,” he said.

His congregants are “great people,” he said. “We’re a very open congregation, unaffiliated intentionally.”

He said that he is proud that all of the synagogue’s bar and bat mitzvah candidates can read from the Torah and lead services.

Each Saturday morning, Adelberg leads Shabbat services and then holds a Torah class. The synagogue also offers Hebrew classes, and holds a Friday night Shabbat dinner and service once a month.

Being the rabbi of a small congregation is “fun,” according to Adelberg. “You get to know everyone personally,” he said. “It’s like one big family.”

Adelberg said that he was always interested in leading a congregation. He said that he “taught himself High Holy Day services off an old LP” when he was 18 years old, and he interviewed at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative movement’s rabbinical school, after he received his bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University.

“It wasn’t appropriate for me at that time,” he said. Instead, he got a master’s degree in African studies and then moved to South Africa to study Afrikaans-Jewish relations on a scholarship from the South African government. He lived there for seven years.

He returned to the United States in 1986, moved to Skokie, and enrolled his children at the Chicago Solomon Schechter Jewish day school affiliated with the Conservative movement. He started an educational supply business.

Almost 20 years later, in 1997, he heard about Beth Israel Sinai Congregation in Racine, when the synagogue’s rabbi was supposedly leaving. The rabbi stayed for a few more years.

But Adelberg was hooked. “I got very, very involved with [the synagogue.]”
When Beth Israel Sinai Congregation’s rabbi left in 2000, Adelberg became the synagogue’s primary clergy person as its cantor. He closed his business to afford him more time to devote to the congregation.

He hopes that, in the near future, the synagogue will attract more Jewish families from the southern part of Wisconsin, as well as some from northern Illinois.

“We have a solid base,” he said, “and we need more young families. We’d like to attract anybody.”