Welcome Back, Rabbi G. Zauzmer!

We are excited to announce that Rabbi Shayna Golkow Zauzmer, who served the congregation as our Rabbinic Intern 2017–2019, will be returning to PAS as our Assistant Rabbi this July. Rabbi Zauzmer was recommended to the Board of Trustees following a thorough search process. The search, which commenced in November, concluded with the Board of Trustees approving the recommendation last evening.    

Over the past few months, the search committee conducted a thorough and competitive review of candidates through the organized hiring process of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism/Rabbinical Assembly. The committee was pleased with the quality and passion of the applicants, both those soon to graduate from a seminary and those with a few years of experience in the field. 

We are thrilled to be re-welcoming Rabbi Zauzmer back into our community this summer. Since her ordination in 2019, Rabbi Zauzmer has been serving as Assistant Rabbi at Temple Aliyah in Southern California with a key focus on building a 20s and 30s community, adult education, teen engagement, pulpit, lifecycle, and pastoral responsibilities. She was born and raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania. She was ordained by the Jewish Theological Seminary in 2019, where she was awarded the Rabbi Albert Pappenheim Prize in Professional Skills, the Rabbi Arnold Turetsky Prize in Homiletics, the Israel H. Levinthal Prize in Homiletics, and the Crown Scholarship, which is granted annually to the top two entering rabbinical students. Rabbi Zauzmer is excited to return to the East Coast with her fiancé, Ben.   

Rabbi Zauzmer was selected from among a group of candidates due to her engaging manner, the passion that she brings to her rabbinate, her comfort with working in a large team environment, her desire to both contribute to and learn from her colleagues, and her ease and familiarity with our clergy and community. In her new role, Rabbi Zauzmer will share pulpit, lifecycle, and pastoral duties with Rabbis Cosgrove and Zuckerman, take on certain teaching responsibilities, and will serve as the primary clergy liaison to young families, our Penn Family Early Childhood Center community, youth and teens, college students, young adults, and our 20s and 30s community. 

We want to extend our appreciation to the search committee, led by Melissa Raskin and Andrew Siegel, along with their fellow committee members, Natalie Barth, Rabbi Cosgrove, Zawnia Dehaney, Erica Friedman, Paula Gendel, Mark Hirsch, Lauren Klein, Rabbi Koffman, Valerie Russo, and Rabbi Zuckerman. We would also like to thank the many of you who took the time to participate in the Zoom interview, minyan, and learning sessions with Rabbi Zauzmer. We appreciate all of you that provided your invaluable feedback throughout the process.   

Of course, this transition is a bittersweet one, as our community will also be saying l’hitraot (goodbye for now, see you soon) to Rabbi Ethan Witkovsky and his family, who will be moving to Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, this summer where Rabbi Witkovsky will begin the role of Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El. We wish Rabbi Witkovsky and his family mazal tov on this new position knowing he will go from strength to strength, leading and inspiring the Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El community. We will have much more to say and celebrate about our beloved Rabbi Witkovsky before he departs for his new pulpit and community.