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St. Bede's parishioners are invited to the above festivities.
Dearest Michal, with love and prayers, Reverend Jennifer and the parishioners of St. Bede's wish you much success, happiness and fulfillment as you embark on your next endeavor. You are truly beloved by your Ahavat Torah congregation and they will miss you terribly. We love you and will sincerely miss you as well !!!
Below is an article about the next leg of Rabbi Michal's journey.
Excerpted from the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent
By jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com
Rabbi Michal Morris Kamil is moving to Broomall, Pennsylvania, from Los Angeles this summer. Marc Belitsky, the president of the Congregation Beth El - Ner Tamid (CBENT), said he was delighted to find a synagogue leader like Kamil, with her 30-plus years of educational experience along with her warm demeanor. The 61-year-old rabbi was ordained in 2022 by the Academy for Jewish Religion-California.
Kamil, for her part, said she only got to work with the older generation during her rabbinical school rabbinate at Ahavat Torah in LA. She wanted a chance to work with multiple Jewish generations. She also said she appreciated that CBENT, a Conservative synagogue, was trying to appeal to diverse groups of Jews. “She’s very interested in individuals, what their needs are, what their wants are, how to reach them spiritually,” Belitsky said of Kamil.
“I missed working with multi-generations, especially in those communities that have such a great awareness of wanting to respond to the challenge of being a religious and cultural community in the 21st century,” said Kamil of the synagogue. “CBENT is a wonderful community that is doing just that.”
“We’re growing. The energy’s awesome. People are involved. We’re fiscally stable. We see ourselves as the center of the Jewish community in Delaware County,” Belitsky said.
And into that future walked Kamil.
In the spring, she visited the synagogue for her weekend-long interview. She attended Shabbat services, stayed for lunch and talked with preschool and Hebrew school parents. “And there was an overwhelming excitement about her coming to our program. They just felt that they could really connect to her,” Belitsky said.
Ellen Glassman, the synagogue’s educational director, added that, “She really listened. She listened to what they said, and then she reflected back to them in a way that acknowledged what they said and questioned them further.” That connection was important, according to Glassman.
Kamil worked for more than 30 years in curriculum and development for educational organizations. She worked for schools, synagogues and even Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance organization in Jerusalem.
But she became a rabbi to dig deeper into the spiritual.
“There is such a need today within our communities to provide both the personal and collective support needed in times of change, transition, threat, sorrow,” she said.
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