August 6, 2026
In July, Ma’avar Committee Member, Dick Axelrod, interviewed Rabbi Immerman. Their wide-ranging discussion explored themes from first impressions to hopes for the future.
What excites you about being at Beth Emet?
I was drawn to Beth Emet because it is a bastion of social justice, a place that deeply engages with our tradition, and takes learning very seriously. I’ve learned that so much of what happens at Beth Emet is in partnership with the rabbi and Cantor Young, and the incredible professional team members that we have here. People want so much to be a part and to participate in their community; there’s some magic happening, some specialness about this community waiting to be unlocked.
You’ve been here a few weeks. What has stood out for you?
The first thing is pride. I think people are really proud to call Beth Emet their spiritual home. People have been so excited to tell me about that, and that they love Beth Emet. And as I mentioned before, deep learning, participatory Judaism, Beit Sefer, and the religious school.
It’s also that people continue to refer to this place as their home. There are so many different touch points and entry points. Everybody has different entry points. For some people, it’s the soup kitchen. For some people, it’s Friday night. For some, it’s going and engaging outside of our community with their Beth Emet community. Other people come for the learning and stay for the Oneg. Other people come for the Oneg and stay for the service. Everybody is welcome. Another thing that I love is the celebration of diversity; everybody gets to come and be who they are. I was talking with one of our board members earlier today, who mentioned the fact that this is a place that people just get to come to and be who they are and explore Judaism on their own terms, whatever way that means to them.
How have you tried to strike a balance between, you know, what’s already been established here and what’s here already?
Change will come simply because I am not Rabbi London, and I’m not Rabbi Knobel z”l, and I’m not Rabbi Polish. And so, we, everybody who has been blessed to be a leader in this community brings change simply because of who we are and how we interact with each other. What aspects of Judaism are we most excited about that we cannot wait to share with our community, and what aspects of Judaism do we uncover along our own journey? Each one of them, and I expect to do the same, grow within this position. And I’m really excited to grow along with the congregation and continue to become the best Rabbi Brian Immerman that I can be, as everybody’s trying to be the best of who they can be as well.
When you think about yourself as a rabbi, what are the things that give you energy?
I can reflect on my day-to-day; I spent maybe 45 minutes behind the computer screen. And the entire rest of my day was spent meeting with people. This interview, a few one-on-one meetings, and working with the Klei Kodesh programming team. I met with a congregant, the One Congregation Many Voices group, and various board members.
I love meeting people. I love building relationships. Right now, I’m in the beginning of building relationships that will develop into deep relationships. I love the fact that people are trusting me to visit them in the hospital and to show up and be there when one of their loved ones dies. The one thing that gives me the most energy is when I get to teach. I love teaching about Judaism. One of the reasons is that I always engage in supporting first. There’s a phrase, from rabbi Ben Bag Bag, if you flip it and flip it again, you’ll find that everything is in it. And that’s certainly been my experience of Torah, and all of the other sacred texts.
So, what about teaching gives you energy?
I get to inspire people and help them find some meaning and purpose in today’s world. And that can bring them comfort and help make sense of the craziness that we’re experiencing. That’s wonderful if it just helps them be more at peace with who they are and where they are on their own personal journeys. That’s wonderful as well. And sometimes if it’s something that helps them connect more to the worship or to some aspect of our faith, that’s also wonderful. There are so many different ways to engage in Jewish teaching and learning. And usually everybody walks away with a different nugget that they hopefully want to share with others.
You talked about Beth Emet being home. What’s your sense of what home means?
For me, and I think for most people, home is a place where people feel safe, where people feel as though they both know and are known by others, where they’re not just an anonymous presence. It’s a place where people feel very comfortable. I think people feel a sense of ownership in our physical space, so that when they walk in, they know where to put their coats, and they want to show other people where to put their coats. They know where to find various things, whether it’s a ritual, object, or how to turn on the sound system. It makes them feel very engaged here. My kids came for Kahal, this past Shabbat, and immediately Maggie said, I know where to go, and she wandered around the building, trying to find what she was looking for, and found it. She felt safe and comfortable.
You know, when you talk about home, the very first time I walked into Beth Emet I felt that sense of home. There’s a deep sense of Yiddishkeit. Everywhere you look, Hebrew on the walls, with explanations about what those Hebrew phrases are, in case you don’t know. There are quotes from the Talmud and the Torah. There are quotes from modern sages. There are quotes from poets, Solomon Secemsky, who grew up here, and others who have come through these doors. And I’m really excited that this is my community, that this is a place where I’m going to raise my two kids, Maggie and Aiden. I know it’s a place that Jenny already is calling her community proudly, and is so happy that we are here. It fits with a lot of who we are as a family, and I’m excited that Maggie and Aiden get to grow up with the influence of this incredible community focused on Chesed, of loving kindness, of joy, of Judaism.
I’m really looking forward to creating sacred partnerships with the lay leaders. I already have a wonderful relationship with our current president, Nisan Chavkin. The transition committee has been working tirelessly to ensure that I have a successful transition into our community, and the community is able to do that as well. Rabbi London spent hours and hours and hours preparing various materials for me, even though she’s in Israel right now, she’s been answering my constant WhatsApp questions, whether I’m looking for a particular book that I think might be on her bookshelf or to answer some questions as I have been engaging in pastoral care. She’s been quick to respond, and she’s even, I know, reached out to some congregants as well. And we also have the most wonderful professional team. I’m excited to partner with Allan Bogan, our executive director, and the rest of the team with Cantor Young, Lauren Reeves, Emmie Weprin, Debbie Siegel-Acevedo, and the rest of the team are just really incredible, and they all work very hard every day for everybody.
From your perspective, what is a thriving community? What does it look like?
When I think of a thriving community, it really looks like what I saw at the Oneg on Friday night, July 9th, my first big welcome service, where the lobby was packed with people, where everybody walked in, and immediately, I would see faces light up. Not so much in seeing me, but in seeing other people that they knew. And that goes back to the sense of why Beth Emet is home. They see people who they know, and they are excited to connect and reconnect. I hear people say, I haven’t seen you in so long. I heard people say, it was great having coffee with you this morning. So, however long it’s been, this is a place that people can meet and gather, have some really delicious food.
I think the second thing that makes Beth Emet a really thriving community is this sense of ownership, of participatory Judaism, where people can take ownership of their congregation. Then there is the board working on examining our core values, which is something that is an ongoing process that we really never stop in order to make sure that we are who we think we are and to ensure that our priorities are fully aligned with what we set out to be.
Some other aspects of a thriving congregation are that it’s a congregation that shows up for people in need. If you’ve been here on a Friday night, you’ve seen the Gift of Challah. Cantor Young puts the Challah (baked by a congregant) into a little bag, and then people were aching to deliver Challah to someone in our community. It was almost a pick me, pick me moment, which is incredible to see. In a place that’s overflowing with chesed, with loving kindness, and love for other people.
If you have one message for the congregation, what would that be?
My message today is to celebrate Jewish joy. There are so many forces that are asking us to separate from one another and telling us we shouldn’t gather with people with whom we disagree. Forces are telling us that organized religion is bad and causes evil. But I know so many people in our community know that Judaism can be an incredible source of joy. It’s not the only source of joy, and we’re lucky to be engaged in many multi-faith partnerships, but it can be an essential source of joy for those who choose. Instead of beginning one’s Jewish journey or spending so much time thinking about what we disagree with, we need to make sure we’re spending most of our time finding the commonalities. Our love for Shabbat, our love for our ancient worship that Cantor Young has reinvigorated through incredible new music and modalities of Shir Shabbat, Soul Spark Shabbat, Kolot Shabbat, and helping guide us to find people who like their spirituality. And I think the more that we can find commonality and celebrate the joy that we get from being together, from celebrating our shared values the richer our lives will be. And, the easier it will be to then engage in the conversations that we don’t always agree upon, because we know that we trust each other, and we know that we have commonalities that can extend beyond those conversations.
How do we connect across differences within the community?
Sometimes I think it’s really hard to celebrate diversity of thought right now. It can be hard to celebrate any sort of diversity. I think we, as Beth Emet, do an incredible job of celebrating many types of diversity of race, of background, of sexual orientation, of gender, et cetera.
The celebration of thought is the challenge in our world right now, and especially in the United States. People don’t necessarily jump at the idea of celebrating diversity of thought. They often want to agree with the person they’re talking to and affirm that what their emet is, what their truth is.
I know one of the things that inspired me about Beth Emet is how intentional Rabbi London’s leadership was, well before October 7th, really trying to celebrate diversity of thought and bringing in thought leaders from around the world who both echo a lot of the opinions that many people have at Beth Emet, but also challenge some of those.
In the Talmud and the Torah, we never just hear one opinion and say, great, that’s the way it should be. We challenge ourselves constantly. And one of the nuggets from the Talmud that has always resonated with me, that’s become an essential part of our tradition, is that we always record minority opinion. So even though we follow the majority opinion, we always report the minority opinion, and our sages say, why would we bother doing this? Because if we ever change our mind and the majority adopts the minority opinion, we should have a record that that was once thought of as an idea. And, I think that that’s beautiful.
And one little nugget, I’ve been doing some research into Beth Emet’s history. And I learned, according to an article I read, that Rabbi David Polish was told he would not find employment because he was a Zionist, but he was ordained in the 30s. And our current head of HUC last month said he doesn’t think an anti-Zionist would find employment. And just, those two dissonant ideas come together to show that we grow, and we change as a people, as a community, and we need to constantly be asking, why do we hold certain beliefs, and what can we be doing to both challenge and solidify to find that right path forward?
How would you bring your own flavor into what’s established?
Ah, there is Rav Kook, who was the first chief rabbi in Israel. He said in a famous D’var torah Ha-yashan yithadesh, ve-he-hadash yitkadesh, that the old will become new, and the new will become holy. We, as a people, are always looking back on our 2500- 3000-year-old history to chart our path forward. And the same goes for my tenure at Beth Emet. I am constantly looking back at the formation of Beth Emet, Rabbi Polish, Rabbi Knobel z”l, and Rabbi London’s years, to guide us as we continue to move in the future. I’m really inspired by the fact that they were incredible teachers and prolific students of Torah. I hope to embody that, embrace that, and get to learn from everybody who is a part of our community.
And finally, a couple of rapid fire questions.
Are you a morning person or an evening person? I used to be a night owl, and I’m definitely now a morning person.
Coffee or tea? Coffee.
Applesauce or sour cream? Always apple sauce.
What is your favorite Jewish food? This is a very controversial question. I really love gefilte fish.
Catch Rabbi Immerman at an upcoming Shabbat service, his Torah class, or an upcoming community event. He looks forward to getting to know you!
