Shaare Emeth is adding a new rabbi at a moment of leadership change.
Rabbi Morgan Tobey will join the congregation as assistant rabbi beginning July 1, President Dana DeBlasi announced this week, as the synagogue prepares for a senior rabbi transition.
“We are delighted to share that Rabbi Tobey will be joining our congregation,” DeBlasi wrote, noting that a cross-generational rabbinic search committee was “impressed with Rabbi Tobey’s warmth, humility, authenticity, scholarship and kindness.”
The committee included board members, past presidents and congregants ranging in age from 15 to 81.
A hire in a tight rabbinic market
DeBlasi acknowledged a broader reality facing congregations nationwide.
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“Given the shortage of rabbis, with far fewer candidates seeking congregational positions than there are congregations hoping to hire, we feel fortunate to have found someone as qualified as Rabbi Tobey,” she wrote.
In that climate, landing a candidate with leadership credentials and strong congregational experience represents a significant addition for the Reform synagogue.
Training and leadership background
Tobey will be ordained in May at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, where she earned a Master of Arts in Hebrew Literature and completed a Certificate in Jewish Organizational Leadership.
She received the Burton Lehman Prize in Jewish Leadership, the Sylvia Levenstein Prize in Human Relations and the Gavi Klonsky Award for “Amitz Lev” for spirit, character and strength of heart. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Southern California.
During rabbinical school, she interned at Community Synagogue of Rye, N.Y. and Cornell University Hillel, teaching, leading worship, providing pastoral care and shaping holiday and Shabbat programming.
“From the very first Zoom call, you felt like home”
In her message to congregants, Tobey described an immediate connection.
“I am overwhelmed with joy and excitement to be joining the Shaare Emeth community on July 1,” she wrote. “From the very first Zoom call, you felt like home.”
During a January visit, she said she “giggled with preschoolers,” listened as teenagers explained what keeps them engaged and met adults who spoke about how the congregation sustained them “through thick and thin.”
Born and raised in Dallas, Tobey said her Jewish journey began at Hillel at USC, where rabbinical students “shattered all of the stereotypes and invited me into Judaism, exactly as I was.”
“I cannot wait to join you in St. Louis in July and to begin getting to know each and every one of you,” she wrote.
Shaare Emeth plans to formally welcome Tobey through special events later this spring and summer.
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