Rabbi Barry Diamond Joins Temple Adat Elohim to Lead Congregation

 

Diamond returns to Thousand Oaks Synagogue

Thousand Oaks, California – June 1, 2018 – After a three-year absence, Rabbi Diamond returns to lead Temple Adat Elohim (TAE), the largest Reform Jewish congregation in the Conejo Valley.

With a wealth of experience as both a rabbi and a teacher, Rabbi Diamond possesses a contagious passion for inspiring each congregant’s connection with the Jewish community. Rabbi Diamond will continue to strengthen TAE’s rich traditions and dynamic programs, particularly its outstanding reputation in youth education and adult life-long learning, as well as its strong commitment to social action initiatives.

“We are thrilled to have Rabbi Diamond and his wife, Sandy, back to TAE and we welcome them with open arms,” said temple president Sandy Greenstein. “He is well known here for his warmth, humor, and inspiring sermons that interpret the Torah through a contemporary lens. Rabbi Diamond made a tremendous impact on our community when he was here before, creating novel programs that encouraged members of all ages to form tighter connections to Adat Elohim, and inspiring greater participation in social action including the homeless shelter that we host weekly during the winter months.”

“We are honored to return to Temple Adat Elohim, this time for the long term,” said Rabbi Diamond. “It is my mission to create circles of community that are the setting for exploring our sense of responsibility to each other and the world. It is through caring connections around shared interests that we gain insight into God and feel called upon to repair our fractured world.”

Rabbi Diamond joins TAE from Beth Haverim Shir Shalom in Mahwah, New Jersey, where he served as interim rabbi for the last two years. Rabbi Diamond was ordained at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. In 2016, he was awarded a doctor of divinity honoris causa from Hebrew Union College. He has a psychology degree from California State University in Fullerton.

Welcoming Rabbi Diamond

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Dear Members of TAE,

We are about to welcome Rabbi Barry Diamond as our settled rabbi as of July 1st and want to begin the process of creating or re-establishing our relationships with Rabbi Diamond. While many of us have had opportunities to get to know Rabbi Diamond over his previous two years serving as our interim rabbi, he has requested to meet congregants and ECC families in a small, intimate setting so that he can get to know us, connect again, and hear our expectations for TAE and our clergy.

We are looking for congregants and ECC families that would be willing to host the Rabbi for either a lunch date, (for maybe no more than 8 people) on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon or a gathering for dinner or dessert (for maybe no more than 12 people), on a Tuesday or Thursday evening. We are envisioning that these gatherings can be anything from a light lunch, “nosh,” dessert, or a full sit-down dinner -your choice. If finances are prohibiting you from participating, please feel free to reach out to Sandy Greenstein @ 818-648-3247 or myself @ 805-796-6308.

We will be starting with dates in July and August for the summer and if the need arises to add more days we can see about extending the dates.

If you, your havurah, or anyone you may know, would like to host the Rabbi, please contact Doreen at daustad@adatelohim.com to secure a date. Your date will be selected based on availability.

If you would like to join a gathering that is already arranged, please go to https://adatelohim.shulcloud.com/form/meetingrabbidiamondsignup to find available locations, dates, and times of gatherings you can join.

These will be the first of many formal and informal opportunities to get to know Rabbi Diamond and for him to get to know us.

Juli Rycus

Transition Chair

TAE Shows Its Pride

This summer the members of Temple Adat Elohim are sharing their #TAEpride with each other and with friends and family via social media.

Here are just a few of the reasons why our congregants told us they are proud to be a part of this vibrant synagogue.

Temple member Marcia Stefanon Benjamin is proud of Cantor David, who is in her words “the heart and soul of Temple Adat Elohim.”

The ECC is proud of summer campers showing TAE pride!

Cantor David is proud of teen “warriors” learning self-defense techniques with krav maga expert Jason Flame as they prepare to go to college.  

Temple member and religious school teacher Gigi Dictor is proud and grateful for the friends she’s made over the years at TAE.

We are proud to share havdallah with the large group of congregants who will be visiting Israel together in 2019.

We are proud that so many of our members are involved in helping to make our community and world a better place through social action. Here a group “prays with its feet” at a Thousand Oaks rally to end family separation at the U.S. border.

TAE Receives Flame of Hope Award for Social Action

On June 30, Temple Adat Elohim and Ascension Lutheran Church were honored with the Flame of Hope Award, given by Unity of the Oaks, for their work earlier in 2018 to bring the “This is Hunger” exhibit to the Conejo Valley.

“This Is Hunger” was a high-impact, experiential installation on wheels sponsored by Mazon, a Jewish nonprofit group trying to end hunger among all faiths and backgrounds in the United States and Israel. The exhibit stopped in the Conejo Valley in February as part of a nationwide tour to more than 40 cities to educate visitors about the stark reality of hunger in America. More than 42 million Americans do not have enough nutritious food to eat, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

About 500 people in the Conejo Valley toured the exhibit while it was here, including religious school students from Temple Adat Elohim.  After viewing the exhibit, the Conejo Valley Interfaith Association established a Hunger Task Force that is looking at ways to eliminate hunger in our area.

Pictured from left to right are Scott and Kaylee Searway who accepted the award for Ascension Lutheran Church, and Marcia and Harold Gordon, co-chairs of the Social Action Committee at Temple Adat Elohim, who accepted the award on behalf of TAE.

Lunch or Dinner/Dessert with Rabbi Diamond

Dear Members of TAE,

We are about to welcome Rabbi Barry Diamond as our settled rabbi as of July 1st and want to begin the process of creating or re-establishing our relationships with Rabbi Diamond. While many of us have had opportunities to get to know Rabbi Diamond over his previous two years serving as our interim rabbi, he has requested to meet congregants in a small, intimate setting so that he can get to know us, connect again, and hear our expectations for TAE and our clergy.

We are looking for congregants that would be willing to host the Rabbi for either a lunch date, (for maybe no more than 8 people) on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon or a gathering for dinner or dessert (for maybe no more than 12 people), on a Tuesday or Thursday evening. We are envisioning that these gatherings can be anything from a light lunch, “nosh,” dessert, or a full sit-down dinner -your choice. If finances are prohibiting you from participating, please feel free to reach out to Sandy Greenstein @ 818-648-3247 or myself @ 805-796-6308.

We will be starting with dates in July and August for the summer and if the need arises to add more days we can see about extending the dates.

If you, your havurah, or anyone you may know, would like to host the Rabbi, please contact Doreen at daustad@adatelohim.com to secure a date. Your date will be selected based on availability.

Once we have our hosts in place, if the groups are very small we would ask you to invite more people. We would be happy to work with you to pick the right people for your event.

These will be the first of many formal and informal opportunities to get to know Rabbi Diamond and for him to get to know us.

Juli Rycus

Transition Chair