Some defend, others decry Rabbi Rentals

startribune.com

Some defend, others decry Rabbi Rentals http://rabbirentals.com/
Lani Perlman
Columbia News Service
Published June 2, 2005

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Fifty years ago, Rabbi Rentals would be the opening line for a Mel Brooks joke, but now it is a website where almost 150 Jews a year turn to, literally, rent a rabbi. Religious leaders say it bespeaks a schism between Jews and Judaism, a byproduct of the transient world of modern America. While Rabbi Rentals does make ceremonial matches between Jews and rabbis, more conservative religious leaders warn that ventures such as Rabbi Rentals take Judaism out of context, destroying the essential community component of the religion. A religious rite, they say, should not be an isolated event, but part of an ongoing religious commitment.

Up side, down side

Rabbi Rentals is a double-edged sword, they fear, because while it allows Jews to have religious ceremonies it also allows them to pick and choose a rabbi for nearly any ceremony, including interfaith weddings, which are not recognized by Orthodox Jews and dimly viewed by other Jewish groups.

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But the site's defenders say some Judaism is better than none. By making it easier for Jews to find rabbis, they argue, more people are inclined to follow the rituals, while website rabbis themselves are reaching out to unaffiliated Jews.

Traditionally, the synagogue rabbi would be the one to perform weddings, baby namings and bar mitzvahs. But as Jewish children grow into Jewish adults and leave their parents' community, they often fail to join a synagogue in their new home.

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So Segal found a modern solution to satisfy his problem with Jewish tradition -- a website. A friend from Jewish camp built the site and by the end of 2001 Rabbi Rentals was up and running.

Segal said the site generates about 1,000 hits a month, which results in about 12 requests for a ceremony and $15,000 to $20,000 a year in revenue, most of which he donates to Jewish charities. The site includes a stable of 68 rabbis, at least one in every state, one in Israel and a few in the United Kingdom. Rabbis are chosen by location, with prices listed for each ceremony. The online service PayPal is accepted for payments, which range from $1,087 for a wedding performed by a prominent Reform rabbi in New York to $652 for a wedding in Lexington, Ky., performed by a rabbi who went to a nondenominational seminary. Segal, who works in information technology, said about 30 percent of the wedding requests are for interfaith ceremonies.

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http://www.startribune.com/stories/389/5434487.html

"Traveling Rabbi's" ahve been around forever. Ever wonder why some rabbi's charge 5 grand for a wedding and some $500 (or even less)?

Jewish Times here in Baltimore. It is becoming more popular these days.

I know a family that actually stopped belonging to their synogogue 6-8 months before their son's Bar Mitzvah. Instead, they've hired a tutor for their son and a rent-a-Rabbi and they're having their son's Bar Mitzvah on a Saturday night at a hotel instead of at a synogogue. They say that their synogogue just wasn't giving them what they needed from it.

I find that very sad. I cannot imagine having my son's Bar Mitzvah (Feb 2006) that way. What kind of bond can a child form with his/her Rabbi, the synogogue, the Jewish religion as a whole, when he/she is not attending services, religious school, etc. My kids have made so many friends through religious school and they've learned so much about their religion and themselves. You can't do that with a rent-a-Rabbi in my opinion.

I can semi-understand doing it if you live in an area where there aren't other Jews, there is a lack of Jewish support, there are few synogogues, etc. But, otherwise, I don't get it.

Debbi

Two of my great grand fathers were "Rent-A-Rabbis" in Europe. They went from Shtetl to Shtetl for the Holidays and Weddings - one lived in Vilna, the other in Lodz.

My grand father was an itinerant, rent-a-rabbi in Europe till he came to the US. But my aunt says that was a cover for his revolutionary activities.

BTW - my parents' Rabbi (from my Bar Mitzvah, Confirmation, and Wedding) became a "Rent-A-Rabbi". He retired from their Temple in the snow and ice and sleet and freezing rain country, and started doing the resort hotel and cruise ship scene.