Rabbi brings unique perspective
Former Baptist has chosen to be Jewish
Rabbi Stephen Slater believes that all Jews have to consciously choose to be Jewish.
Practicing the faith, attending services and being a part of a community are intentional decisions, said Slater, who decided as a young man to convert to Judaism from a devout Christian upbringing.
On Dec. 4, Slater, now 39, was installed as the rabbi of Congregation Agudas Achim, a Conservative synagogue in Bexley.
“Increasingly I don’t think I’m that unusual,” he said of his faith background. “Even Jews have to choose to be Jewish or else they just sort of drift.”
Slater was raised by Baptist missionaries in Africa and found Judaism first through an intellectual, philosophical interest in the beginnings of Christianity.
Slater has been a rabbi for three years and he and his family — which includes his wife, Bethany, and their two children, Anav, 6, and Emet, 3 — moved to Columbus over the summer after he was hired in July and found a welcoming Jewish community right outside the door of their Eastmoor home.
He’s nonchalant about his Baptist upbringing, though admits it took him years to explore Judaism, decide to convert and then, years after that, decide to become a rabbi.
Avi Allen, previously head of Agudas Achim’s rabbi search committee and now the synagogue’s executive director, wasn’t put off Slater’s background, and brought him in for an interview after an extensive search.
The synagogue had been without a permanent rabbi since November 2019 and the committee really took to Slater, Allen said.
“During his interview he came across as quite intelligent and knowledgeable and interested in education and engaging and people took to him,” said Allen.
Similarly, Slater was taken by the synagogue, which he liked in part because its leaders and members said they want change.
“The hardest thing in a synagogue is to bring any change,” said Slater, who led a synagogue in Alabama for three years before coming to Columbus.
“I like a synagogue that says,: ‘We actually want help,’” he said. “‘We actually want someone to lead us in a new direction.’”
Slater hopes to help the 140-year-old synagogue define its mission after changing denominations 20 years ago.
Agudas Achim was founded in 1881 as an Orthodox synagogue and left the denomination
in the early 2000s when its members refused to put a divider between its male and female worshippers, Slater said. It became Conservative and has been in search of a more-concrete identity since then, he said.
“Finding its feet and a real clear sense of ‘this is who we are’ is the shape of the challenge at Agudas Achim right now,” Slater said.
Julie Saar, the president of the synagogue board, agreed.
Slater, she said, has a way of bringing the congregants back to the basics of Judaism and talking about God. She hopes he will bring people together as the congregants determine their mission.
“It’s a fraught time for our country and I’m feeling and believe that this rabbi is a unifier,” Saar said. “The rabbi can get us back to basics and also will tease out the mission of who we are at Congregation Agudas Achim.”
Slater hopes to lead the synagogue in offering deeper teachings on the faith, train other leaders and expand the synagogue’s prayer experience.
He teaches two classes at the synagogue now, one on Jewish philosophy and another on a Jewish prayer book, and his wife hosts a class on learning more about Judaism.
“Ideally, Agudas is right in the middle of Judaism in Columbus,” he said. “I’d like to begin a conversation around Jewish identity.”
Since Slater worked to find his own
Jewish identity, he may be uniquely positioned to begin a conversation on the topic.
Allen said Slater is able to connect with others in a different way than other rabbis because of his past.
“It’s an advantage to have a background that’s not so traditional,” Allen said of Slater. “His approach to Judaism and his approach to people is different and that allows him to see things through a different lens, which is an advantage to our congregation.”
Slater was a devout Christian until he began questioning the faith, at first with a thirst for more knowledge about it from an intellectual, academic standpoint.
Judaism, unlike his experience with Christianity, had rituals and customs that made sense to him.
“I just needed to know more,” Slater said, and he wanted to find it out for himself, which meant learning Hebrew.
So he did, then he moved to Israel for a few years with his wife, and the two saw the holidays and customs of Judaism happening all around them in real life.
After a time soaking up Judaism through osmosis in Israel, as Slater explained it, he knew he wanted Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest that takes place each weekend, to be at the center of his life.
“(I wanted) for my family to have that time dedicated and set aside to have it be a holy day but also be really fun and
restorative,” Slater said of Shabbat.
He intends to work to enrich the Shabbat services at Agudas Achim.
“The synagogue looks at Shabbat as the central focus of the synagogue,” Allen said. “So we were looking for someone to help us elevate that Shabbat experience . ... Rabbi Slater has a vision to make our congregation unique, to really reinvigorate our services and our worship.”
To Saar, Slater is a relatable leader with a refreshing, curious style of teaching.
“He’s very inclusive,” she said. “All of us participate . ... It’s really a conversation. You don’t feel like you’re getting schooled in something even though you’re absorbing a lot.”
HIS installment as rabbi on Dec. 4, during Hanukkah, was a culmination of the work he’s done in Columbus already, and how he’s gotten to know the congregation, Saar said.
Both he and the synagogue are unique, she said.
“We believe there’s something special about what’s happening at our synagogue, something meaningful,” she said. “We’re going to be defining what that is. Not as a sales pitch, but as a means of bringing us all together ... There’s something about the rabbi’s personal story that is sort of accepting of everyone that wants to join in in the community.” dking@dispatch.com @Danaeking