The rabbi who stayed
Temple Sinai’s Gibson to retire after 32 years of leadership and interfaith work
When Rabbi James Gibson arrived at Temple Sinai in 1988 at age 34, the Squirrel Hill congregation had seen a succession of rabbis come and go in short order.
“The betting money was not on me,” Rabbi Gibson recalled. But he soon made clear he was committed to staying and fulfilling basic commitments to teaching, pastoral work and community service.
After 32 years as not only Temple Sinai’s rabbi but also as one of the most prominent participants in building interfaith and interracial ties in Pittsburgh’s religious communities, Rabbi Gibson will bring that tenure to a close when he retires following this weekend’s Shabbat services. The congregation had planned big celebrations, including a dinner and concerts, but the pandemic changed all that.
Instead, he’ll be leading the final Friday night service via livestream from Temple Sinai and other activities via Zoom on Saturday. “I cannot imagine ending my career and not being in sacred space,” he said. On Sunday, members will hold an outdoor “drive-bye” farewell, he said.
“It has been a 32-year love affair,” he added. “There have certainly been challenges, but ... every time we confronted something difficult and acted on our best values, we have ended up where we were supposed to be.”
Rabbi Gibson, known to friends as Jamie, grew up mostly in northern New Jersey and Minnesota.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, “I spent three years doing every job under the sun,” he recalled.
At 24, he entered Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion — the rabbinical school for the liberal Reform Jewish movement. He studied at its programs in Cincinnati and Jerusalem and earned a master’s degree.
He then served a congregation in Wausau, Wis., for five years. “I was the only rabbi in around 100 miles in every direction,” he recalled, even traveling as far as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to conduct funerals.
A denominational official who had grown up at Temple Sinai put him in contact with current leaders.
Knowing it had gone through an unhappy succession of short-term rabbis, he told Rabbi Gibson: “Why don’t you go and make peace in Pittsburgh and be my mother’s rabbi?”
When he first met temple leaders at a conference, “he looked really, really young” but proved to be “mature beyond his years,” recalled Rhoda Dorfzaun, who was president of Temple Sinai at the time.
“He seemed to have the same philosophy that our temple had,” she added, which has included being welcoming to interfaith couples and LGBT people.
The congregation has seen net growth to about 740 families. And it has changed. Members now support the temple through pledges rather than the traditional dues. And where typical worship used to be led by organ and a professional vocal quartet, now he or others are more likely to be accompanying worship on guitar.
The goal is not to make worship casual, but to make it accessible. “All rituals are repeated behaviors intended to ground a value,” Rabbi Gibson said — in particular, love for God and neighbor. “We get inspired in the sanctuary to carry those values to the world, which desperately needs them.”
Longtime member John Schiller recalled how Rabbi Gibson presided over the baby-naming ceremony for his daughter Jessie, then later at her marriage and her own daughter’s babynaming ceremony. “He’s not just a spiritual leader, but he’s a friend.” he said. In prepandemic days, when Shabbat services were followed by a meal on Saturdays, Rabbi Gibson made sure to speak at least briefly to everyone there, he said.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Rabbi Gibson and others in the temple built on longstanding ties in the Muslim community to show them support when they faced a backlash. He and a Muslim friend, the late Farooq Hussaini, spoke at congregations “all over the region to try to demystify our religions to each other’s communities,” he said.
And such interfaith relationships bore fruit again, supporting Pittsburgh’s Jewish community after the deadly anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue building in 2018.
Rabbi Gibson has also led the congregation’s involvement in the social-justice organization Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN). And building on longstanding ties with African American pastors, he joined them as recently as this month, speaking at Freedom Corner in the Hill District at a rally of prayer and protest following the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
Rabbi Gibson and his wife, Barbara, an operating-room nurse at UPMC Shadyside, will remain in Pittsburgh. He will remain as rabbi emeritus and plans to teach on topics pertaining to Judaism at Saint Vincent College. The couple have three adult children and two grandchildren.
The temple plans to have an interim rabbi serve for the coming year before searching for a replacement.