This year, Rabbi Randy Fleisher and Central Reform Congregation are marking a trio of 25-year milestones. Today, May 1, Fleisher will receive an honorary Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa, from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. The award, part of HUC’s 125th anniversary celebrations, recognizes rabbis ordained in 2000 who have dedicated 25 years to Jewish leadership, learning and community-building.
“It wasn’t totally on my radar,” Fleisher said of the HUC honor. “Even though my kids would dispute that. I knew it happened but I kind of forgot about it until fairly recently. It’s just sort of a ritual. Every ordination class, when they hit their 25-year mark, is called back to reunite and receive these doctorates.”
The ceremony will bring together classmates from all three HUC campuses. For Fleisher and his wife Amy, it’s a reunion decades in the making.
“There’s a lot of my classmates I haven’t seen since 2000—people I really enjoy and respect,” he said. “Amy’s excited too. Even though she wasn’t a student, she spent five years with many of them. We both feel a lot of warmth.”
This year also marks 25 years since CRC opened the doors to its synagogue on Waterman Boulevard—and since Fleisher began his rabbinic journey in St. Louis.
From counselor to rabbi
When I first met Fleisher—known to many today as “Rabbi Randy”—he wasn’t a rabbi yet. The year was 1981, and he was my 17-year-old camp counselor at Camp Thunderbird in Bemidji, Minn., nicknamed “Dylan,” with a cool, tassel jacket, a guitar and a head full of curls that made him look like Bob Dylan.
Thunderbird wasn’t a Jewish camp but Fleisher and camp director Allen Sigoloff made sure I went to “the lodge” every day to study for my bar mitzvah. Like Rabbi Alvin Rubin back home, Fleisher made sure I took it seriously and by October, I was ready. That same summer, around the campfire, he introduced me to Bob Dylan’s music, books like “Catcher in the Rye” and the idea of showing up for what matters.
Looking back, I like to think that summer quietly marked the beginning of his rabbinic journey.
Seventeen years after that first summer, he stood by me again—this time officiating part of my wedding in March 1998 to Leigh Eisen, a fellow camper I’d fallen for years earlier. At the time, Fleisher was still in rabbinical school. His path was already clear.
A rabbi grows with his congregation
Through the mid-1990s, Fleisher, a Chicago native, continued working at Camp Thunderbird as associate director while living in St. Louis. He was ordained in 2000. That same year, Fleisher returned to St. Louis as director of Camp Sabra while also serving part-time at CRC, which had just moved into its permanent home on Waterman.
“We weren’t yet at the place where we could have two full-time rabbis,” he explained. “So I did the Camp Sabra gig and part-time I would fill in at CRC—some services, life-cycle ceremonies. That was the fall of 2000.”
In 2001, CRC made it official — hiring him as a full-time associate rabbi. That night turned out to be memorable for another reason too. Fleisher’s son, Gabe, was born the very same night the CRC board voted to hire him.
“Amy went into labor the same exact night the board was meeting for the vote on the position,” Fleisher recalled. “After Gabe was born, I called Susan [Talve] and right away she said, ‘Randy, I’m not supposed to talk to you yet… but mazel tov. We chose you.’ I said to her, ‘That’s great but I called to tell you something even better—we have a son!’”
Fleisher’s hiring reflected Talve’s vision for CRC—a community built on relationships that grow over decades, not just years.
“She wanted the next rabbi to grow up with congregants the way she did,” Fleisher said. “Not just train and move on but stay long-term. Luckily, it worked out.”
That approach has allowed for deep relationships that have lasted generations.
“By now, I’ve known many CRC young people since they were babies. I’ve officiated their b’nai mitzvahs. Some of those kids are getting married now, and I have started to officiate their weddings too.”
A life rooted in relationships
Reflecting on 25 years in the rabbinate, Fleisher doesn’t hesitate to name what matters most.
“Relationships. That’s the heart of it,” he said. “There’s a rabbinic role I play but none of that works without a personal connection—without knowing people on a human level.
“Whether I’m with congregants at the funeral of a loved one, a wedding, a protest, a board meeting or a bar mitzvah, I’m there not just as a rabbi but as someone who’s walked with them through time. That’s what makes it holy.”
As for CRC doing anything to mark the 25-year milestone, he’s not expecting anything formal—and he’s more than fine with that.
“We’re not the story,” Fleisher said. “The congregation is the story. The people are the story.”
Still, as someone who’s known him since before the rabbinic journey officially began, I can’t help but see the story.
All these years later, that summer at Camp Thunderbird still echoes. The relationships that began around a campfire—with songs, study and shared moments—have grown into something lasting. A life of meaning, filled with give and take. And for both of us, it’s clear: the roots of connection often take hold long before we realize just how far they’ll reach.
