Months before beginning her term as president of Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha in June, Ann Meyers was already addressing her top priority.
In winter, Rabbi Steve Adams, who had served the congregation for 16 years, informed the congregation that he had accepted a full-time position at the Jewish Home & Care Center in Milwaukee and would be leaving at the end of his contract on June 30.
“The biggest thing for me as incoming president was that we would have a seamless transition,” she said.
The 85-member congregation, which draws members from Waukesha, Walworth, Jefferson and Milwaukee counties, has had part-time rabbis since its inception in 1939.
Because its cantorial soloist had moved from the area years before, Adams regularly invited cantors and cantorial soloists to share the bimah with him.
One of those, Cantor Deborah Martin of Temple Beth El in Madison, had just found out that her full-time role at Beth El was going to half-time at the end of her current contract.
At the same time, Meyers and fellow board members scheduled a series of listening sessions.
With the help of the national Reform Movement, with which the congregation is affiliated, and a congregant familiar with strategic planning in corporate settings, the board sought to identify the top three qualities members wanted to see in its new leader.
“There was a lot of uniformity,” Meyers said, “So we were easily able to decide on the kind of leader we were looking for.
“We wanted someone who was organized, empathetic, a strong teacher who communicates easily with people from varying age groups and someone who could help us with future development.”
Moreover, “Because we have a high number of intermarried families, we wanted someone who was very comfortable working with families in which one partner is not Jewish and very often, there are children being raised Jewish,” she said.
Additionally, the congregation was very clear in its desire for a leader who would officiate at weddings in which one partner was not Jewish.
“We know that the demographic of the Jewish community has changed,” Meyers said, “and according to the recent Pew study, when intermarried families let their children choose, they choose nothing but most tend to raise their children Jewish and those children tend to identify as Jewish later, so [welcoming those families is] important to the survival of the Jewish community.”
Then, at one of Adams’ final services, Martin was scheduled to deliver the sermon.
“The service was very well attended,” Meyers said, “and she gave a beautiful D’var Torah about leadership. The feeling in the room was warmth that was amazing. It was palpable, almost. I looked around the room and saw receptive faces and body language that was very positive. It was everything I hoped I would see from people receptive to this woman teaching.”
Martin’s journey to the cantorate began when she moved to Cincinnati and met Bonia Shur, then director of liturgical arts at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Martin, who had a master’s degree in vocal performance from Boston Conservatory, was an opera singer. Liturgical music wasn’t part of her repertoire.
“I grew up in a Conservative shul with horrible music or no music, and he turned me onto Jewish music and gave me my first cantorial jobs,” she said.
She began working at Temple Beth El in the early 1990s, and soon decided more training was in order. HUC had a distance education program, and Martin spent the next five years studying with Cantor Ron Eichaker, then at Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun. She was ordained in 1997.
Martin served as spiritual leader of Beth El when its rabbi took a five-month sabbatical.
At the congregation’s annual meeting in June, Meyers was able to announce that they had a letter of intent from Martin. The main hurdle was coordinating schedules to meet the needs of both congregations.
It quickly became obvious that her main role at Beth El, which was primarily educational, would mesh well with those of Emanu-El. There, she’s the spiritual leader, doing lifecycle events, conducting holiday and Shabbat services and working to train the congregation’s two or three b’nai mitzvah students per year.
Martin began her tenure on July 1.
“I’m so blessed to have such a diverse job where I can do so many things, and I’m so lucky to have a job I’m passionate about,” Martin said. “I love to teach, I love singing, I love being around people and getting them excited about their Jewish heritage and I love children and people of all ages.”
Amy Waldman is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer, retention alert coordinators at the Milwaukee Area Technical College and winner of a 2013 Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism.
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