Citing a budget deficit that is eating away at its endowment, the board of Temple Sholom in Springfield informed Rabbi Janice Garfunkel in November that the congregation won’t renew her contract when it expires July 31.

“It’s very sad,” said Temple Sholom President Laurie Leventhal. “Sad for us, sad for her.”
Garfunkel, who was raised in Dayton, said this is the second year in a row the congregation has faced a deficit.

Due to budget cuts, Springfield’s Temple Sholom won’t renew Rabbi Janice Garfunkel’s contract when it expires in July

“I am looking and I am very open-minded and really not sure where I’m going to end up yet,” the full-time rabbi said. She has served as Temple Sholom’s rabbi since 2004.
Leventhal said the congregation’s budget woes stem from an aging, shrinking Jewish community and the overall economic climate gripping Springfield.

“A lot of our members are older and are moving away to be closer to their children so that they can be taken care of as they get older,” Leventhal said. “Because there’s no industry and we’re losing businesses in Springfield, there are no young couples coming here.”

Established in 1866, Temple Sholom reached its peak membership in the 1950s with approximately 140 units. Currently, Leventhal said, Temple Sholom has 60 local membership units. Another 20 membership units live out of the region.

“The younger people today have a lot more financial obligations than the temple,” Leventhal said. “They’re more interfaith. In our Sunday school, we have one family where both parents are Jewish. It’s a totally different kind of population.”

Temple Sholom has 18 students in its religious school. Leventhal said that over the next year and a half, the temple will celebrate five Bar or Bat Mitzvahs. Currently, Garfunkel is a teacher with the religious school and is the temple’s Hebrew instructor.

Though Leventhal said the temple can’t afford the services of a full-time rabbi, she knows the board must come up with a way to meet the needs of its congregants. The board has established transition and long-range strategic planning committees.

“I’m hoping by April we’ll have some idea,” Leventhal said.

One possibility would be to hire a rabbi on a part-time basis; another would be to employ rabbinic interns from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.

“Without a rabbi, they don’t have a deficit,” Garfunkel said. “In that respect, they could certainly afford to have a student or some sort of part-time arrangement. It’s hard to know what’s going to happen. It just depends on demographics and what happens to Springfield in general, and whether or not we can get the few people we have to be a little bit more involved.”

During the 40 years Leventhal has lived in Springfield, she said Temple Sholom has always had a full-time rabbi, with rabbinic interns bridging the gaps during searches.

“Without a rabbi or without something, we’ll fall apart,” Leventhal said. “We do not want to lose the Jewish community. And we have a strong sense of Jewish community here.”