Temple Beth-El community benefits as Rabbi Helbraun becomes Hartman Institute Senior Fellow

Rabbi Sidney M. Helbraun, Temple Beth-El, Northbrook, has recently completed a prestigious three-year program of study to become a Senior Fellow of the Hartman Institute.

Founded in 1971, the Shalom Hartman Institute (SHI) is a center of transformative thinking and teaching that addresses the major challenges facing the Jewish people and elevates the quality of Jewish life in Israel and around the world. A leading institution in sophisticated, ideas-based Jewish education for community leaders and change agents, SHI is committed to the significance of Jewish ideas, the power of applied scholarship, and the conviction that great teaching contributes to the growth and continual revitalization of the Jewish people.

“The time I spent at the Hartman Institute enabled me to learn from texts and scholars who enriched my perspective on creating a vibrant, vital Judaism that relates to the struggles and strivings, the complexities and needs of our 21st Century Jewish community,” said Rabbi Helbraun.  “I look forward to sharing this knowledge with my community and beyond, for there is a great need in our world for the wisdom that Judaism has to offer.”

Rabbi Helbraun completed the Rabbinic Leadership Initiative program, which immerses an elite cadre of North American rabbis in the highest levels of Jewish study, equipping them to meet contemporary challenges with ever-greater intellectual and moral sophistication. The program meets for one month each summer, one week each winter, plus weekly study sessions throughout the year. The pluralistic framework of the program creates a community of rabbis uniquely able to transform the lives of Jews in North America.

In 2006, Temple Beth-El surveyed its membership and determined that its needs were changing. In addition to traditional family units, the Beth-El community included a growing number of single-parent families, seniors and young couples. This reflected the changes in the Temple community that had taken place since the congregation moved to the North Shore from Rogers Park in 1989.

Recognizing the importance of these changes to his community, Rabbi Helbraun sought to learn from the best and brightest in the Jewish world, to help him meet the needs and challenges of his diverse 600 family congregation.

“Each time Rabbi Helbraun comes back from his study program he has brought new initiatives which have increased the engagement of our members,” said Bruce Werner, Chairman of the Board, Temple Beth-El.  “Rabbi Helbraun has applied what he has learned, and what fellow Hartman Scholars have shared to enrich our community. Now that he has concluded this program we are looking forward to reaping the full benefits that his three years of efforts have brought.”

The Temple Beth-El community applauds Rabbi Helbraun’s graduation and is planning a celebration after the High Holidays.

For more information on Temple Beth-El, please contact Janice Hadesman at 847-205-9982 or jhadesman@templebeth-el.org.