“Here I Am”: Students Step into Service Across the Country During the High Holy Days

As the High Holy Days began this year, students stepped into communities across the country, putting their training into practice as emerging Jewish leaders. For many, it was their first time leading during Judaism's holiest days, an experience that brought both excitement and vulnerability. Across the country, they balanced study with real-world experience, leading services, teaching, listening, and learning what it means to serves a Jewish community. Their reflections reveal the humility, purpose, and growing confidence that come with leading Jewish communities at this meaningful time of year.

Honey Amado
Second-Year Rabbinical Student, Virtual Pathway
Congregation Beit Chaverim of Greater Zion, St. George, Utah

In St. George, Utah, Honey Amado discovered how a quiet sanctuary can hold enormous meaning, and how a Jewish leader can touch a life without ever knowing what someone is carrying.

"It was a privilege and an honor to stand before the congregants of Congregation Beit Chaverim of Greater Zion and lead them through services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The fullness of that responsibility was felt when I read Hin'ni on Erev Rosh Hashanah. I chose to read this prayer in English, my mother tongue, so I understood every word as I said, 'Here I am,' and acknowledged fear, apprehension, and responsibility to Adonai, God of my people, my ancestors, and my parents. This reading was personally very moving. I believe it was a moving moment for the congregation as well, as the people sat completely silent and attentive.

Perhaps most moving was the man visiting from out of state on Yom Kippur. He was in St. George on business, and his mother had died the previous week. Work demands required that he be in St. George, and he was uncertain what he would find here. He found the synagogue. He said that my services had touched him and were what he needed. We Jewish leaders-rabbis and student rabbis, cantors and student cantors, educators, and communal leaders-impact people in ways we cannot anticipate. This experience of leading services in the small congregation was essential to my growth as a rabbi. It helped me see that I can be a rabbi and that this path is correct for me."

Lis Cardy
Second-Year Rabbinical Student, Virtual Pathway
Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Juneau, Alaska

For Lis Cardy, a moment of vulnerability became a powerful reminder that Jewish leadership is not about standing apart from a community but standing within it.

"I got sick right before Yom Kippur, so for most of the Kol Nidre service I felt like I was just holding on for dear life, trying to make sure I could say the right things with some semblance of dignity. Then when everyone began the words of Aleinu, all of that concern and self-consciousness fell away. The way that sanctuary is set up, when we all faced the ark, I felt more like I was standing alongside everyone than in front of them. Hearing their voices as strongly as my own as we brought the service to a close was tremendously sweet, and it centered me for the whole of the day that followed.

The community of Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Juneau, Alaska, taught me about the mutuality of care in the congregation-rabbi relationship. I had spent the month leading up to the High Holy Days thinking about how I was going to hold them through the experience; I was deeply touched to experience all the ways that they held me. This has reinforced for me that a rabbi is only one part of the leadership of any given community. Getting to practice how to "be a rabbi" to a congregation that has only known you in that role, while learning how to meet a different combination of needs and wants, has made this an incredible learning experience."

Amy Fine
Master of Jewish Nonprofit Management 2027
Membership and Engagement Manager, Temple Beth El, Charlotte, North Carolina

For Amy Fine, Rosh Hashanah offered a close-up look at the courage and responsibility that come with leading a large, growing Jewish community, and at the power of modeling the values we hope others will embrace.

"As Membership and Engagement Manager at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, North Carolina, I have the privilege of welcoming more than 50 new-member households who joined between May 1 and Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah morning, our Head Rabbi, Asher Knight '07, delivered a sermon about the effect that expressing opinions about Israel has on one's sense of belonging. He shared his personal stance on the conflict while recognizing the responsibility he has as a leader serving 'a community carrying many kinds of pain and many viewpoints.' The conclusion of his remarks was met with a roaring round of applause.

In the days following, I told him I thought it was brave for him to share his personal feelings so publicly, knowing the kind of criticism they could be met with. He told me he wanted to be a model, and it occurred to me then that the High Holy Day season contains a million little moments for us as Jewish leaders to model the kind of community we want to see. This Rosh Hashanah reminded me that being a Jewish communal leader isn't just about facilitating engagement, but modeling what that engagement looks like."

Emma Mair
Master of Science, Organizational Leadership and Innovation, 2027
Beth Israel Synagogue, Waterville, Maine
Rabbinic Apprentice, Center for Small Town Jewish Life

For Emma Mair, bringing Jewish and Christian children together around the Torah on Simchat Torah became a lesson in how radical hospitality can build meaningful relationships and reshape what Jewish leadership can look like.

"This experience shaped how I think about Jewish leadership. In a time of rising antisemitism, the instinct to guard the doors is understandable, but Rabbi Isaacs leads from confidence instead of fear. She trusts that our traditions are strong enough to be shared, and she opens the doors wider. What I saw in that room is that this openness is itself a form of protection. Neighbors who have danced with us on Simchat Torah, and whose children have stood beside ours at the Torah scroll, know us as friends, not strangers. I now see building those relationships as a core responsibility of Jewish leadership, as essential to a community's security as any physical measure. In a time of so much division, pain, and anxiety, really knowing your neighbors matters. This is the innovative leadership we need which I'm proud to be working towards as a Zelikow School student."

Alisha Sawyer
EMA in Jewish Education, expected 2027
Mount Zion Temple, Saint Paul, Minnesota

At Mount Zion Temple in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Alisha Sawyer turned a centuries-old folktale into a lesson for a new generation, finding a way to connect Jewish tradition with the everyday choices that shape a Jewish life.

"'What does it mean to live a Jewish life?' That is the question I posed to the congregation during the family service on Rosh Hashanah morning. I followed this question by telling the classic Jewish folktale Even Higher, in which the children of a town believe their rabbi disappears each year on the day before Rosh Hashanah to ascend to heaven and speak to God on the community's behalf. When one child follows the rabbi, they see that the rabbi actually dresses up as a woodcutter and brings wood to a bed-bound widow on the outskirts of town. Later, when the other children ask whether the rabbi truly went to heaven, the child replies, "Even higher."

I chose this story because I wanted to convey to our families what I try regularly to convey to the students in our Religious School: that being Jewish is about how we treat other people first and foremost. Speaking it from the bimah through a story where I could see people leaning in and get a satisfying "ahhh" at the final line gave me a way to reach a broader audience that, as a non-clergy educator, I don't always get. Being able to reinforce the idea and hear it repeated back to me by students in a smaller, educational setting provides hope that the work I am doing is meaningful.

Spencer Szwalbenest
Fifth-Year Rabbinical Student
Jewish Federation of Oxford Mississippi

Serving a Jewish community far from the centers of Jewish life pushed Spencer Szwalbenest to look beyond the synagogue walls and find meaning in the places his community already called home. Now in his fourth year serving as the community's student rabbi, he developed a deeper appreciation for the ways Jewish life flourishes beyond traditional institutions.

"On the afternoon of the first day, we decided to visit an Ole Miss football game. Of course, this was an activity that broke the rules of observing the festival, but I felt it to be important because of how central football culture is to the community. The experience of the game and observing the tailgaters in their natural habitat was both exhilarating and anthropologically interesting. But what was most important was the conversations that this helped facilitate. The fact that I was open to the game invited community members to open up to me about their experiences in Oxford and let me know more about why they love living where they do. I take from this an important lesson about leading a Reform community. While it is important to set boundaries with our Jewish observance, it is also important to meet community members where they are at, and to be willing to join experiences that they find meaningful."