Dan's Papers - September 14, 2007 - The North Fork Gets A New And Sparkling Student Rabbi

Four months ago, Rachel Larkin became the North Fork's newest lottery winner. Her prize? Not a million-dollar paycheck, not a new car, not a free Coke at the local gas station. Rachel's reward was the student rabbi position at the North Fork Reform Synagogue.

"I'm really looking forward to planting my rabbinical roots on the Island," says Larkin, 25, who chose NFRS with the first pick in Hebrew Union College's student rabbi assignment process. "I'm going there to see what the congregation's spiritual and educational needs are, but it will also be a learning experience for me."

On September 7, Larkin will officially take the rabbinical reins at NFRS. The congregation - founded in 1992 with a newspaper ad and the plea "I don't know any other Jews out here!" - has grown to include 30 families and 19 individual members. Lacking the resources to build its own synagogue or hire a full-time rabbi, NFRS shares space with the Cutchogue Presbyterian Church and relies on student rabbis like Larkin for spiritual leadership. Larkin will become the eighth such student to occupy the NFRS pulpit.

"Each new student rabbi brings us a fresh point of view that enriches our experience as we pray, celebrate and study together," says NFRS President Ellen Zimmerman. "Rachel visited us this spring to get acquainted and we were impressed by her warmth and enthusiasm."

Larkin grew up in Milford, CT, and became fond of Long Island during her undergraduate years at Hofstra, where she majored in Jewish Studies and served as the Vice President of the University's Hillel. Larkin cites the warmth of the NFRS congregation and her own love for the laid-back lifestyle of "beach people" as the two main reasons she chose to start her rabbinical career on the North Fork.

But life as a student rabbi is no day at the beach. On the first and third Sabbath of every month, Larkin will schlep from her Lynwood apartment all the way out to Cutchogue to perform her duties at NFRS. She will lead services on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, teach adult torah study and youth Hebrew lessons Saturday afternoons, and figure out a time to complete schoolwork for Monday classes back at Hebrew Union in between. Larkin is especially looking forward to addressing some of the existential questions of Judaism with her congregants.

"I want to focus on the question of 'Why am I a reform Jew?' and deal with a different aspect every week," Larkin says. "I'm excited to learn with them because it's such a learning process on both ends and this congregation is so full of life."

Larkin will lead services with the help of a very special Torah. Also known as Scroll 627, the testament was rescued from the shtetl of Tabor in the Czech Republic during World War II, part of a collection of 1,564 Torah scrolls preserved by the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust in London. NFRS acquired the hallowed Torah in 1994.

Around the same time, just across the whipping whitecaps of Long Island Sound, 12-year-old Larkin decided she wanted to become a rabbi. Whether this was the result of an uncanny coincidence or a connection between operator and instrument reminiscent of Harry Potter and his phoenix-feather wand is unclear. But Larkin realized that she wanted to do something to make the world a better place. Over the years, Larkin has honed her focus to a handful of causes and places: race relations and socioeconomic justice, Israel and New Orleans.

"It's not something I work on as a hobby," Larkin says. "It's my job to make the world a better place through a Jewish vein - not just for Jews, but for everyone - just Jewishly."

Like all Hebrew Union students, Larkin will be required to stay at her assigned congregation for a minimum of one year. If her enthusiasm about the North Fork is any indication, she may elect to stay longer. But either way, it seems that the congregants of NFRS have won a lottery of their own.

"It has been the privilege of our congregation to help shape the next generation of rabbis," says Sylvia Pafenyk, a founding member of NFRS. "We've had wonderful relations with the student rabbis and it's really been an education for students and congregants alike."