John Harris, an ordained American Baptist minister and the head chaplain at Miami Valley Hospital, has been attending Temple Israel’s annual day-long clergy institute for years.

The session he remembers most fondly was two years ago, when Rabbi Michael Cook of Hebrew Union College discussed early Christianity and the movie The Passion of the Christ.

“Things he talked about were new to me,” Harris said. Cook’s lectures, Harris says, made him think about how and why the Gospels were written.

“It’s an outreach to non-Jewish clergy,” Rabbi David Sofian of Temple Israel said of the institute, now in its 64th year, “to foster goodwill and provide education. It’s part of our mission as a synagogue to interface with the outside community.”

To that end, according to Sofian, “We try to invite everyone we can find.”

Invitations are mailed. The number of participants varies, from the usual 35 to 40 to more than 120 for the Passion of the Christ session.

The day, including lunch, is free to any participant, thanks to a 1980s underwriting bequest from Mel and Ruth Lehman.

Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish clergy attend; this year, a Baha’i representative also participated.

The 2007 institute was held on Friday, Feb. 23, from 10 a.m. into the afternoon. The presenter was an old friend of Sofian’s: Rabbi Jeffrey Summit, executive director of Tufts University Hillel Foundation and a Tufts professor.

Summit holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and is an expert on the music of the Jews of Uganda.

At the morning session, Summit spoke about music and its importance in defining communities. He talked about balancing performance and participation in worship services, and the meaning people attach to familiar melodies.

After lunch, the participants broke into small groups to discuss readings that Summit provided, including a Talmudic text about heartfelt feeling in prayer.

“It’s very effective,” Summit said, “to have four people across denominational lines sitting down and grappling with texts.”

After a group discussion about the readings, Summit spoke to the group about the role of the leader in prayer. Is he or she a high priest? A tour guide? A teacher?

“This was one of the better ones,” said the Rev. Bob Skipper about this year’s institute. Skipper, a Lutheran pastor, has attended the institute off and on since 1980.

“(Rabbi Summit) integrated worship, prayer, and song,” Skipper said.

“However our theology varies, organizationally we all face the same issues,” noted Alan Halpern, Temple Israel’s executive director and sh’liach tzibbur (cantorial soloist). “A wonderful exchange happens when you bring people together.”

“You know what I really enjoy?” said Harris. “It’s not so much what I learn, but being in that building. I told David Sofian, ‘I really feel welcomed here.’”

Harris is especially impressed with the women who register participants and cook and serve the lunch. He laughs fondly as he admits that they remind him of the backbone of many Christian organizations: the church ladies.

In a twist of interfaith fate, this year’s lead cook was a church lady, Kay Cohen, of Belmont United Methodist.

Her husband of 19 years, Norman, died in December. He was a member of Temple Israel. “He respected my religion and I respected his,” she said. She cooks for the lunch in his honor.

Cohen gives her own history of the institute, rattling off not discussion topics but old menus and names of former head cooks.

“The wheels have been turning for 50 years,” she said. “We always made the brisket. That was something different for the clergy.”

At some point, a vegetarian entrée slipped in, and in more recent years the lunch was catered.

Cohen credited Elaine Bettman, Temple Israel’s current president, with returning things to the way they should be.

“Mrs. Bettman said, ‘I think it’s time we started cooking for the clergy again.’”

This year’s menu for meat-eaters featured brisket, noodle kugel, green beans with carrots and roasted almonds, and a green salad. The vegetarians had potato-spinach au gratin, green beans, and a fruit cup. Everyone had angel food cake with strawberries for dessert.

Cohen cooked batches of brisket at home and brought them to the synagogue kitchen to freeze.

“My passion is for cooking, and I had such a good group of willing workers,” she said.

“It was a great way to end the week, for me,” Harris said.

“Just having conversations over lunch…” Skipper mused. “You don’t get clergy together often anymore.”

He said he appreciates Temple Israel’s “gracious hospitality,” that feels especially welcome in “this time of international religious squabbling.”

He also praised the brisket, and the volunteers who wouldn’t let his coffee cup go empty.

© 2007 The Dayton Jewish Observer