Meet Rabbi Melman of Congregation Beth Shalom

During the month of June, Patch will be chatting with religious leaders throughout Northbrook. This week, we talked to Rabbi Aaron Melman at . Originally from Toronto, Melman studied at the Jewith Theological Seminary in New York before joining Congregation Beth Shalom 10 years ago. Melman made headlines earlier this month when he , but now he's back from Washington and talking about his love for Northbrook and some of the latest iniaitives at the synagogue.

Patch: Can you tell me about the history of Congregation Beth Shalom?

Melman: Congregation Beth Shalom has always been in this location. It is relatively young; we’ve been here for about 40 years. The senior Rabbi, Carl Wolkin, has been the Rabbi here for 33 years. I’ve been here for 10, the Cantor of the synagogue has been here for 25 years. There’s a lot of continuity, great longevity among the staff and there’s been a lot of nice history as this congregation has grown.

Patch: What should the larger community of Northbrook know about Congregation Beth Shalom?

Melman: We’re a Conservative synagogue, as one of the major streams in Judaism. We’re fully egalitarian, meaning men and women participate equally in the synagogue. We’re also what’s know as Keruv-friendly, which is an outreach initiative to be open and welcoming to interfaith families. We want to be here to those who have a Jew and a non-Jew in a relationship, and certainly be here if the couple wants to be part of the synagogue. That’s been very important to us over the last few years.

Patch: What's some of the biggest news at the temple these days?

Melman: , probably. As the summer kicks in, life slows down a little bit, but we always have a lot going on in the synagogue - whether it’s services, whether it’s adult education, whether it’s other programming - there is always something going and we like to think there’s something for everybody here at Beth Shalom.

Patch: What events are coming up at the temple? 

Melman: There is an event that we started a couple years ago, our next one is June 27, called Spirits and Spirituality. It takes place at the Ram Brewery on Milwaukee in Wheeling. It’s not ‘a come drink with the rabbi.’ It’s a very specific program where people come and shmooz for about a half an hour, then we sit and we study some piece of Jewish text. Last month’s theme was The Torah: Still Relevant After Thousands of Years? This next one coming up on the 27th is Kabbalah: What’s With the Red String? which is really a nice way to examine what Kabbalah is really all about.

Patch: From the perspective of a faith leader, what are some of the biggest issues facing the community right now?

Melman: I think some of the biggest issues, for us, are attracting young people to the congregation. One of our major initiatives is to make the synagogue attractive to young people. Throughout the North Shore in general, we’re not seeing the surge in younger people, year after year.  So it’s not just a challenge for us, I know it’s a challenge for all synagogues. I can’t speak to other faiths, but I imagine it’s equally challenging for them as well.

Patch: What are you doing to attract young people? 

Melman: We have discounts on our dues for young families. Some of the programming that we offer is aimed at young people. Every other month we have something called Storybook Shabbat, which is a Friday evening, usually starts with dinner, and then a kid-friendly service with a story at the end of it. 

We also have a family service every other week that’s geared towards younger kids and parents or grandparents, which is nice to get the whole family into the synagogue on a Saturday morning. Almost once a month we have a service enhanced with musical instruments, which we call ShabbaTONE then the next month we have something called ShabbaTONED-DOWN. The ShabbaTONE is a little more upbeat music to the prayers, and ShabbaTONED-DOWN is a little more low-key.

Patch: What do you think makes Northbrook special?

Melman: I think it’s a great place to raise kids. I think people are friendly – I think it’s part of living in the Midwest, but I find people in Northbrook to be very friendly. To me the epitome of this community is the 4th of July. Days before the parade, people put their chairs down to reserve their spot, which I just love. It’s like the whole village comes out and it’s awesome, it’s something that I didn’t grow up with.

Forget about growing up in a different country, but just that real sense of community, that small town feel but not feeling like a small town, and I love it. I love taking my kids to the pools in Northbrook and seeing people from the neighborhood or from the synagogue. Those are great things about living in this community. 

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