Rabbi Encourages Young People to Be Leaders

• Name: Rabbi Mark Finkel, 58, has been a rabbi for over 30 years. For four years he has served the congregation at the Pine Brook Jewish Center. Finkel and his wife have been married for 13 years. They have three children, a daughter, 11, and twins, a boy and a girl, who are 5.
• Career: “My choice of professions was always going to be, ‘a rabbi or X,’ or, ‘a rabbi or Y,’ but the ‘rabbi’ was the constant in that,” Finkel explained. “And, eventually I became a rabbi.” According to Finkel, his spiritual path was a confluence of three things. Growing up, his grandparents lived with his family. They told him many stories and gave him a respect for tradition. Additionally, when he was 2, his congregation became large enough to have a full-time rabbi. The rabbi was “a bit of a celebrity,” he said. Because Finkel’s mother was very active in the congregation, and due to the fact that congregants often met in people’s homes, Finkel was very aware of the celebrity, and enjoyed the community that the rabbi helped to nurture. Finally, in religious school, there was an educational director who encouraged the students and their parents to become more active in the synagogue both, “religiously as well as organizationally.”
• Initiatives: The inclusion of the young people in the services is very important to Finkel. “Making them more visible in the community,” he said. Finkel encourages youth to become leaders, and by including them in the services, it “brings a more joyous welcoming spirit to the service,” Finkel explained. Finkel also encourages parents to read from the Torah during Mitzvah celebrations. “The Torah scroll is written in an older form of Hebrew that has only consonants and spaces. No vowels, no punctuation marks, which I realize can sometimes be a daunting task,” he said. “In addition it’s supposed to be sung, so there is a musical line to memorize.” But Finkel feels that exploring that process with one’s children, enhances the spiritual celebration for the entire community and the family.
• Most Meaningful Part of His Job: “To be able to strengthen the bonds between an individual and the community or the synagogue. Or bring a family a little closer into the center of the community; that the synagogue or Judaism is a little less mysterious when I have brought them into the mainstream. And that gives me a good deal of satisfaction.”
• Time: Finkel has a mental checklist that he reviews late on Fridays, as the Sabbath approaches. Each week he realizes that the job requires “more time than I have,” he said, “and that is sometimes the frustrating part.” But, he also reviews what he has accomplished each week, and he affirms that next week, “If God gives me more time; I’ll try to do more.”
• Current Activities: With just under 500 families, Finkel oversees a variety of weekly activities. Many segments of his week are planned, and many are not. “I never know on any particular week how the week will go,” Finkel explained. “I try to remain accessible and flexible. And hope for the best, and I figure, if I put myself in God’s hands, most of the time I will hopefully be doing what I am supposed to be doing.” In addition to regular Sabbath services, holiday celebrations, and the needs of those getting married, or families who have suffered a loss, The Pine Brook Jewish Center also has a pre-school program for over 70 students, and a supplemental religious education school that serves over 250 students. Through it all, Finkel acts as teacher and guide for all members of the congregation. He is particularly pleased that many of the students of the supplemental religious education classes have asked to remain beyond the 10th grade, “because they have a social connection to the synagogue and to each other,” he said.
• Other Activities: By this time next year, Finkel hopes to have in place an adult Bat and Bar Mitzvah class. “I have had students as old as their late 70’s, who, for whatever reason, did not have a Bat, or to a lesser extent, a Bar Mitzvah,” he said. Many adults who have not had that experience find they want that experience as adults, particularly when they have children preparing for a Mitzvah. Additionally, Finkel hopes to continue to spend more time growing roots in the community. “I find the time I spend with my interfaith colleagues to be a comforting time. I would enjoy more time spent with my interfaith colleagues,” Finkel said. “I would also like to become more deeply rooted in the community.” He is often asked to speak at events or gatherings. Going forward, he hopes to have more of those opportunities, “to make a stronger impact in the community.”
• Favorite Thing About Montville: “It’s the beauty here,” Finkel said. “Especially now in the spring time, although I do have some spring allergies, being able to just take a walk looking at the trees and the plants. I know when I sit on my deck and I look out and I see the deer that start running through my backyard, that in some ways I feel that I must be a lot further away from city life than it would indicate.” Finkel is also grateful for the many families who have made his family feel so welcome in Montville. “It’s what makes Montville feel like a good fit,” he said.
• Something He Would Change: “There’s a part of me that likes the somewhat slower pace of New England, as opposed to the metro NY area, but I realize that is part of people living a certain lifestyle,” said Finkel. “I think there are so many things that are right, but, a slightly slower pace would make it just a little easier.”
• Part of Town: “The seed for coming to Montville was planted probably about six years before I came here,” said Finkel. Originally from Boston, Finkel did his undergraduate and masters degree work at NYU. He then served as an assistant rabbi in a synagogue outside Philadelphia, moving on to become the senior rabbi in two synagogues in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. During that time, at a Bat Mitzvah for a family that had moved from Morris County to New England, a guest from the Montville area approached Finkel. The Pine Brook Jewish Center’s rabbi was retiring and was in need of a new rabbi. The guest told Finkel that “he enjoyed the service and felt I had a good report with, particularly the young people, but, also with the families as a whole,” Finkel said. The guest asked Finkel if he would be interested in a move to New Jersey. While Finkel has family in New Jersey, and has always thought of it as “a place that we went to with excitement,” he still had work to accomplish in New England. From that moment, however, Finkel thought about The Pine Brook Jewish Center every so often for six years. When the pulpit opened up again, his wife said, “If you’re curious, pursue it.”  Finkel applied and was selected to be the rabbi of the congregation. “The chemistry was, indeed, good,” said Finkel.
• Hobbies: While he enjoys a stamp collection, which his father began and passed along to him, Finkel has little time for hobbies.  “Whatever time I have that isn’t required in terms of the congregation, I try to direct towards family activities,” he said. “And, I’d say probably, more than any hobby, it gives me a feeling of fulfillment and connectedness in the family. So…maybe someday I’ll get back to my hobbies, but, for right now I would say, synagogue and family, not necessarily in that order, have been my priorities.”
• Philosophy: “We have a limited time here on earth to make the most of it. Let it be a time that we learn from older generations and that we teach younger generations. We have a concept, in Judaism, a concept of Tikkun olam, that each of us is supposed to do some repair work on the world, making it a better place when we leave it than when we received it.”  

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