Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 15, 2024

VENICE Marci Reznick Vitkus, who has been the cantor for the Jewish Congregation of Venice since 2001, will be named rabbi June 22.

She will keep her role as cantor, as well.

She will graduate June 19 as a rabbi in an online ceremony of the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute in Manhattan.

Serving as both cantor and rabbi presents a challenge.

With a lot of support, she said.

She acknowledged that female rabbis have not been common in the past.

Actually, it is becoming more and more common, she said.

There are six (women) in our class entirely online . It has been more effective than I imagined. We had teachers from all over the U.S. and one from abroad.

One of her best friends, Debra Jacobs of Sarasota, was in the same class.

Its good to have someone I know, Vitkus said.

Many of her fellow female cantors are also studying to become rabbis. Rarely, however, do they take on both roles, as Vitkus is doing.

The Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute was founded in 2013 by Rabbi Steven Blane, who also was first a cantor, beginning in 1991 at Congregation Beth Israel in Biloxi, Mississippi.

JSLI graduates both cantors and rabbis, offering two classes per year. The students must have significant knowledge of the Jewish religion and are interviewed extensively before their admission.

Vitkus father, Hyman Reznick, was a cantor in Chicago, one of what is thought to be 17 generations of cantors, she said.

Of course, he is very proud, she said. His legacy lives on, first as a cantor and now to go further.

As a cantor, she has already officiated at bar mitzvahs and weddings. Because her husband, Andy Reznick, is not Jewish, she is supportive of couples who are not of the same faith.

Vitkus became the JCV cantor four years before the congregation had its first resident rabbi Rabbi Anne White. White had been raised a Catholic, converted to Judaism and then studied to be a rabbi.

White was succeeded by Rabbi Dan Krimsky, who was trained in the Orthodox movement but considered himself a conservative Jew. He served from July 2010 to June 2015, and was succeeded by Rabbi Harold Caminker, a Reform Jew, in August of that year.

When Caminker left to be closer to family in 2019, he was succeeded by Rabbi Ben Shull on July 1. Shull and his wife departed in 2023 to Wilmington, North Carolina, also to be closer to family.

Since then, Rabbi Jennifer Singer has served as interim rabbi following her retirement from a congregation in Sarasota.

As the support person for all those previous rabbis, Vitkus first conferred with the temples Rabbinical Search Committee. Knowing her background at the JCV, they encouraged her.

She said that she believes that the JCV needs someone who is invested in our community.

To that end, she said she will focus inward during her first year, with a commitment to meeting her synagogues needs and being the best rabbi for the JCV.

Vitkus and her husband have a son, Max, 25, who lives in Orlando, and a daughter, Sadie, 23, who recently graduated from New College.

Sadie will be going to Milan, Italy, as an au pair for a year in order to become fluent in Italian, and will miss her mothers official installation as the JCV rabbi, Nov. 8-9, but not her ordination, which is occurring online on Wednesday, June 19.

The official JCV installation will be held Saturday, June 22, followed by a luncheon, and that evening, a concert at the temple.

The new rabbi will preside over sabbath services from July 2024 onward, leading the congregation in both prayer and song.

She realizes she has chosen to do a lot at age 58.

You never stop learning and you never stop growing, she said.

Continue reading here:

Marci Reznick Vitkus to be named JCV's new rabbi - Longview News-Journal

Category: Rabbi
Tags: