SARATOGA SPRINGS –Temple Sinai has welcomed Rabbi David Katz to lead the congregation as its interim rabbi beginning in July 2023.

Rabbi DAVID KATZ

Katz, a Rochester, N.Y. native, comes to the position after the December 2022 retirement of co-Rabbis Jonathan Rubenstein and Linda Motzkin after they served 36 years as spiritual leaders. Hebrew Union College rabbinical student Jesse Epstein, a Skidmore College graduate, helped lead the congregation as a rabbinic intern with the support of volunteer lay leaders from January until May.

Katz was ordained in 1981 and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College in 2006. He has served in rabbinical and academic roles for more 40 years, the last 12 as an interim rabbi, most recently at Temple Concord in Syracuse and with the B’nai Sholom Reform Congregation in Albany.

Temple Sinai will be his 10th interim posting.

He has written numerous articles and is the co-author of “Reading Between the Lines: New Stories from the Bible.” He served on committees that developed Mishkan T’filah, the newest Reform Judaism prayer book, published in 2007 and used widely throughout North America.

“Each pulpit has given me a different way of seeing Jewish life,” he said. “Each leadership role has made me a better rabbi,” said Katz.

While some interim rabbis are hired for congregations in crisis, that’s not the case at Temple Sinai, explained Jerry Silverman, president of the Temple Sinai Board of Trustees. “We specifically decided to hire an interim rabbi who specializes in helping congregations ease the transition from long-time, beloved rabbis to a new spiritual leader.”

Silverman said that a Temple Sinai Search Committee will conduct a nationwide search for a permanent rabbi.

Katz, who spent a weekend with the congregation during the selection process, was impressed with the congregation, he said in his introductory remarks upon his selection.

“In February, when I spent the weekend with the congregation, I was taken with the openness, the kindness and the generosity of spirit of everyone I met. Temple Sinai is a special place,” he said.

A rabbinical change spurs a “mix of emotions, including a sense of loss, a sense of curiosity, and inevitably some tension about the future,” Katz said.

After serving large and small congregations, he said, “I know how hard it is to make transitions. But it is also exciting because there’s an opportunity for the congregation to reimagine itself, to ask ‘what have we been and what should we become?’ The primary role of the interim rabbi is to be a non-anxious presence, see the best in every person, and help the congregation envision its future.”

Katz will work with Temple Sinai’s religious school program. 

“I have a special love of children and am sensitive to the needs of interfaith families,” Katz said, adding that he believes his theatre arts background —degrees in theatre from Northwestern University —helps make him an effective communicator and empathetic teacher.

Katz and his wife, Nancy Modlin Katz, an artist, will live in Saratoga Springs.

The Temple Sinai office at [email protected] can provide details about the congregation and its new rabbi.