From Janet Brain & Abe Clott

SAJ honors Rabbi Lauren’s 10 years of leadership since 2015.

Rabbi Lauren has created welcoming spaces for us to struggle, learn, act, and experience enormous joy together as a Jewish community each Shabbat and in between. Her energy and vision, her pastoral care and outreach, and her words of Torah have drawn us closer to Judaism and to each other across cohorts while inspiring new members to join.

In partnership with the co-clergy and staff, Rabbi Lauren has increased education and learning around B*Mitzvah and built pre-K and teen programs, enabling SAJ to be a home for families with children of all ages, including the many (most!) teens who stay engaged post B’mitzvah. Today, the SAJ sanctuary is full on Shabbat: not only with old-time regulars, but with parents, teens, and kids. We have an increasing range of adult and intergenerational opportunities for learning, social and cultural programming, and social action.

Through her words and actions, Rabbi Lauren has helped decrease stigma on mental health, increased awareness on racial and immigrant justice, and made SAJ an inviting home for interfaith families, LGBTQ+ individuals, and many, many more. She is a model for social justice engagement, and in particular stood up for the dignity of the homeless men housed at the Lucerne during the pandemic, one of the actions that earned her recognition by T’ruah in 2023 as a recipient of their prestigious Human Rights Heroes Award.

She has taught us how to strengthen our sense of community and connection through the highs and lows of life this past decade, whether through the COVID pandemic, during SAJ’s 100 Years celebration and international commemoration of Judith Kaplan’s Bat Mitzvah, or through the incredibly challenging times since October 7th. Thank you for joining us to honor and celebrate Rabbi Lauren as a community!”

In 2015, Janet Brain was the chair of the Rabbinic Search Committee, and Abe Clott was the Chair of the Board during the search process.

From Ruth Messinger

It is my honor and a privilege to salute Rabbi Lauren on her 10th anniversary at SAJ.

Rabbi Lauren is our role model, an exemplar of moral courage. From her first “Hate Has No Home Here” meeting of local leaders after Charlottesville, to traveling to the border to give witness, to standing for and spending time with the men at the Lucerne during Covid.

It is like watching a ballet to see Rabbi Lauren with the Cantor at a typical Shabbat service. She is ever alert to the congregant who suffered a loss or had a great victory, smoothly stepping in that person’s direction: a moment for a special hug or a kind whisper.

Amidst far too much disaster, what an astonishing track record. Rabbi Lauren saw us through Covid from the perch of her MacBook. Every day, she helps us process and respond thoughtfully to war in the Middle East, endless immigration crises, headlines from George Floyd to Alex Pretti, and the obvious challenges to our democracy. All with humility, generosity, and grace.

Our Rabbi brings us together across SAJ to build a vibrant community. She has made space for different points of view across our wonderful congregation. She worked with our congregants during our centennial year to inspire international participation in Bat Mitzvah history and a huge fundraising campaign to support our old building and new programs for children and adults alike.

She has been there for us when congregants and our families faced moments of intense personal need. She has bravely shared some of her own challenges and, in the process, engaged many of us more deeply in support for trans and neurodivergent individuals. And, of course, she has been there for our SAJ teens, giving them the tools and motivation to work for the ongoing repair of the world.

We owe a debt to the committee that selected Rabbi Lauren. We owe a larger debt to her for taking that leap of faith and leaving Philadelphia — and the great community that she had built — for the joys and endless drama of New York City’s West Side.

Thank you, Rabbi Lauren.

Ruth W. Messinger has been a proud SAJ member since 1970 and serves American Jewish World Service’s and Global Ambassador.