Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams is changing in several ways. One of them is that it has a new spiritual leader — Rabbi Jeffrey W. Goldwasser.
    He started at Congregation Beth Israel in North Adams on July 10. He was ordained not long before this at Hebrew Union College in New York.
    “I’m ordained from the Reform movement, and the congregation is now affiliated with the Reform movement. But the congregation is in transition. It was a Conservative congregation as recently as six years ago,†he said in an interview last week. “And a lot of the liturgy in the congregation is still kind of a mix between Conservative and Reform, and that’s really just fine with me. I don’t think of myself as a Reform rabbi or even as a Reform Jew. I’m a Jew and I’m a rabbi and I serve Jews from all backgrounds.
    “And that’s how I hope this congregation will be,†he said. “We’re affiliated with the Reform movement and we’re very proud of that, but that doesn’t lock us in to one way of doing things.â€
    Goldwasser, 37, grew up in New York City and in its suburbs, but he’s spent most of his adult life in the Boston area.
    “So coming back to Massachusetts is a bit of a homecoming for me,†he said.
    Before entering rabbinic school, he worked nine years as a political activist in the environmental movement and in the labor movement in Massachusetts. He was a theater major at Oberlin College.
    While he was studying to be a rabbi, he served as student rabbi at a congregation in Franklin, Mass. Last year he served as a chaplain at a hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. His wife, Jonquil Wolfson, is a Williams College alumna. Their daughter, Talia, will be two years old next month.
    A very good impression
    Goldwasser first became acquainted with Congregation Beth Israel about five years ago. He had just come back to the U.S. from his first year in rabbinic school in Jerusalem. He and his wife visited the area so she could attend a class reunion at Williams.
    “It was over a weekend, and so I looked through a phone book to try and find where I was going to go for services on Friday night and Saturday morning, and I found this congregation,†he said. “I called them and they gave me directions and I came here and I had a really lovely time.â€
    He and his wife still remember that right after the visit he was talking about how the congregation had just hired a new rabbi and how he would have liked to fill the position himself.
    “And sure enough I found out last year as I was preparing for the end of my rabbinic studies I found out that my predecessor, Rabbi [Pamela] Wax, was leaving after her five years here and that there was an opening — and so we jumped on it,†he said. “I wrote a letter to the congregation, and they eventually ended up hiring me. So we couldn’t be more pleased.â€
    On the move
    Part of the transition the congregation is going through includes constructing a new home on the west side of North Adams. The synagogue building at 265 Church St. no longer fits the congregation’s needs and nearby Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has acquired it.
    The congregation’s services, and Goldwasser’s office, will remain in the building while the new home is built and while the college figures out what it will do with the facility.
    “I’ve been asked to look over blueprints once or twice, which is not really part of rabbinic training. I’m not an engineer,†he said with a smile. “But the plans for the new building look gorgeous. It looks like it’s going to be a building much more in keeping with trends in American Judaism in that it’s not so much going to be what we have here, which is a huge proscenium opening and a congregation which looks like an audience, almost like a movie theater setup.
    “It’s going to be a much more intimate setup, which I think is much more appropriate to what most American Jews are looking for today, a place where they can experience a sense of community,†he said. “The congregation sitting around a central bimah [raised area] where everyone will be able to see one another and feel included and feel like they’re part of the community together. It’s a very exciting looking space, and we should be moving into a new building we hope within the next year.â€
    Young spiritual seekers
    Goldwasser spoke of a trend nationally within the last five years, not just in Judaism, but in religion in general of many “younger people, people just starting up families, who are moving back towards involvement in spiritual communities in greater numbers than their parents’ generation.
    “And I think that’s because there’s a generation of young people today who are spiritual seekers, who are looking for meaning in their lives beyond American materialist culture. And I think that has spurred a lot of the growth in Reform Judaism in the last 10 years,†he said. “And with large numbers of young people looking like they’re going to be moving into the North Adams area in the upcoming years because of the growth that this area is experiencing, we hope that some of those spiritual seekers will find their way to our door as well.â€
    Goldwasser highlighted priorities he spoke about when interviewing for his new post.
    “One big area for development is worship, going right along with what I was just talking about ... there being kind of a generation of spiritual seekers — creating an environment in the worship service which is more spiritual, which is more about discovery — spiritual discovery, self-discovery — and about even ecstasy in finding God through worship, which isn’t just formulaic but which really brings meaning to people’s lives,†he said.
    Another area he wants to focus on is education, both for children and adults.
    “The congregation had had a religious school. Right now we have a joint religious school with the congregation in Bennington, Vt.,†he said. “But we’re hoping to relaunch our own education program for young people, which will be something different from what has traditionally been considered Jewish religious education, something that will be much more family-oriented, which will get parents learning about Jewish tradition alongside of their children, that will be less classroom-oriented and more hands-on, more experientially oriented.
    “This is a trend in Jewish education which has been developing over the last several years, and I think it’s one that’s very exciting, one that will engage children a lot more, and one that will get adults learning at the same time as their children are learning,†he said. “At the same time we also want to do more adult education programs geared specifically to adults.â€
    Adult education would emphasize that Jewish learning is a lifelong process and getting adults involved in studying traditional texts and Jewish tradition, he said.
    He also wants to help build more of a sense of community in the congregation.
    How would he describe the congregation?
    “It’s a real mix. This congregation was an Orthodox congregation not more than 30 years ago, and we still have a lot of members who come from that Orthodox background,†he said. “And we also have young people who were particularly attracted to this congregation because it is today a Reform congregation.â€
    The congregation has a large older population and will continue to meet the needs of older members, but at the same time will be reaching out to young people. He noted that there is just starting to be an influx of young people into the congregation now.
    “It’s a congregation which [is] really — and this may be the most important reason why I decided to take the job — a congregation that’s ready for change, a congregation that sees that the way they’ve done things before and what they have in place needs to take another step to be ready to meet the future,†he said. “And they’ve already done a lot of that. They’ve changed their affiliation to the Reform movement, they’ve hired a new rabbi, and they’re building a new building, which is going to really be very different from this building and really be aimed towards serving that new population.
    “So I see it very much as a congregation that right now is bursting with energy and bursting with a desire to change and to create something brand new.â€
    Goldwasser said Shabbat evening services are Fridays at 5 p.m. and Shabbat morning services are at Saturday at 9:30 a.m. and weekday Minyan is Monday and Thursday at 7:30 a.m. at 265 Church St. The congregation can be reached at 663-5830.
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North Adams Worked the Weekend Fixing Water Line Breaks
Staff Reports iBerkshires
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Water Department and Department of Public Works have been responding since Friday to multiple water line breaks throughout the city that are causing temporary loss of water in some areas.
"Everyone has water or very low pressure," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey, as of Sunday evening. "We're asking people to just conserve as much as they can. Once the system gets in balance, everything will come back, but we've got to fix them."
The first break occurred Friday in the field behind the water filtration plant, which was difficult to access. That repair was completed on Sunday morning.
"Then we started at 3:30 this morning on American Legion Drive," she said. "We dad to wait a few hours for Dig Safe, which slowed us down, and they're still over there, still trying to make the repair.
"Then about, probably, I would say, eight o'clock [Sunday morning]. We were called to Carr Hardware, where we had another bubble, another break. I don't know if we'll get to that break tonight. The guys are very tired, it's cold, it's unsafe."
Crews have been working in frigid temperatures trying to find where the lines are broken and fix them. The loss of the main line caused a drop in pressure, and the pressure changes are causing more breaks.
Commissioner of Public Services Timothy Lescarbeau was able to assess and get the first break fixed, she said, "but now it's regulating the system and that, coupled with the cold weather, is working against us tonight, but the team has been great.
The Water Department has been responding to multiple water line breaks throughout the city since Friday, causing temporary loss of water in some areas. click for more
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The new thrift and consignment shop on Marshall Street is a little bit "Punky" with an eclectic mix of shiny, vintage and eccentric curated items. click for more
Federal pandemic funds made available during the Biden administration were critical to ensuring the continuation of Berkshire East, a major employer in the hilltowns. click for more
