good morning and welcome to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss and. i will be your host this morning. across our country clergy spent a lot of time thinking about peer support and peer education and the ways in which clergy themselves need to pay attention to their own health. we would like to invite you into the conversation with rabbi pam friedman who is the current president of the board of directors of the northern california board of rabbis. also herself a rabbi here in san francisco. welcome. >> thank you so much.

i'm so delighted to be here. >> we are so glad to have you. let's jump in and we will talk a little bit about congregation b'nai in a moment, but the northern california board of rabbis, can you talk a little bit about what the board of rabbis is and its function and perhaps even your vision for the future as our current president? >> oh, sure. the board of rabbis of northern california has a very wide geographic area. we spend, spend from the oregon border in the north to the eastern border of california and going over into nevada around reno and the lake tahoe area. and then south around salinas and monterey and then west over to the pacific ocean. we are open to ordained rabbis across the spectrum. conservative, orthodox, reconstructionist, renewal, secular humanists, and also rabbis that are not affiliated with a particular denomination, even though they may have been trained and ordained in one.

>> just to the advertising, i should say i myself am a member of the board of rabbis and a former president myself of the board of directors. i'm curious to know if you can talk a little bit about the ways in which the board of rabbis thinks of itself as a peer group, as a group in which rabbis themselves care for each other and get to know each other. >> yes. one of the wonderful things, as you know, is that we take turns walking in each other's footsteps. our board of directors, which we now call our executive committee, rotates over time. there are many colleagues who have served in the role of president and we have a few colleagues who have served in the role of executive director, although we don't have an executive director just now. by taking turns we continue as a unified organization, but our complexion changes slightly and

highlights different talents and capacities as we change leaders. one of the wonderful things about the board of rabbis is that we support each other as rabbis while serving in the greater community. both the jewish community and the interfaith community. >> i know it's a big question, but just on the face of it, why is it important in any community that faith leaders, rabbis, priests, ministers, pastors, actually come together unto themselves? why is that important both in our case as rabbi, clergy, and the community itself? in our case the jewish community. why should a community, let's say, care about that? >> i think it's incredibly important in the jewish community for reasons that also relate to other faiths and also for different reasons. so, for example, within judaism we have different streams or

denominations. the board of rabbis is a meeting ground and a common ground for rabbis who may be orthodox or reform, conservative or renewal constructionists or not affiliated with a movement. it gives us a chance to develop our friendships, to learn together, which allows us to learn from each other in addition to whatever might be at the front of the room at a given time. it also allows us to amplify our voice on issues that are important we don't take a lot of stands, but we have a newsletter every month that helps rabbis to inform each other about what's going on. and i think that's a particularly jewish specific set of reasons. in terms of faith in general, i think it's extremely important that we not only are strong within our own faith in supporting our congregants and constituents, but we are very clearly part of

the human family and the community of faith. our board of rabbis gives us a venue for connecting with others . i'm going to be going soon to a meeting of the san francisco foundation of faith in action initiative. i really look forward to being with like colleagues of other faiths. while i could come in as a loan rabbi been able to be there representing rabbis across the spectrum with my colleagues from other faiths representing their faith leaders across the spectrum creates possibility and a kind of warmth and support that is wonderful both in good times and in times of challenge. i want to say one more thing, at the time of the very tragic pittsburgh shooting in the aftermath i was at a gathering at congregation emmanuelle here in san francisco. there were,

depending on who was estimating , between 1200 and 1800 people. on the pulpit were religious leaders from diverse faiths. many of whom i knew and was friends with four years. just to be able, you know the shooting was on shabbat on saturday and here we are sitting in the middle of the day on sunday, the gathering of that kind of support happens because of the relationships that we build during good times. >> thank you so much. we are going to take a quick break and come back to mosaic in a moment.

good morning a welcome back to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss and. we are in the middle of a conversation with rabbi pam friedman, who is rabe at a rabbi here in san francisco and the current president of the board of directors of the northern california board of rabbis. welcome back. >> thank you so much. >> we were talking about the role of rabbis at large and within the context of representing northern california board of rabbis. one of the things that i think

is interesting that maybe people don't know about is that the northern california board of rabbis is very much noted for its, in part because it doesn't necessarily take official stance on issues that might actually cause internal friction among the members. rather, we make a decision to be, legal and support each other in other stances that we take in the committee, whether an issue around same-sex marriage or issues around conversion or issues around civic issues at large. i'm wondering if you can talk a little bit in that context about how it is that you as our current president and the board of rabbis does respond when something happens in the larger community, like, sadly, a shooting war, sadly, a political issue? how do you think as a president about the ways in which the board of rabbis has embodied politic

response to civil issues? >> i think that's a very important question. what we do is we express empathy . we express solidarity. without taking a stand. and a moment ago i was talking about being a congregation emmanuelle after the shooting in the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh and how colleagues across the faiths came out to support the jewish community. i and you and others of us have been at gatherings to support people of diverse faiths. both those who live in northern california and those who live elsewhere. particularly, thinking today about a monotheistic minority whose homeland is in northern iraq when they were experiencing a recent genocide that began in 2014 the board of rabbis stepped up together with interfaith counsel in our area

to raise consciousness about the plight of these cities and to raise some funds to help in certain ways without taking any stand for or against anyone. actually, as part of supporting these cities we also supported sunnis christians who were facing a particularly horrific time there where their situation was never defined as a genocide. but was really on that level. we supported both communities. >> we are seeing a lot in our community and also, sadly, the country that has to do with kind of rising anti-jewish, anti-somatic sentiment. whether it's something in social media or whether it's a publication, whether it's something that comes from an individual. what is the role of the faith community when there is a distinct group, in this

case jewish, marked in the way that has really been filled with prejudice? >> i think that is such a good question. i think there isn't one way to do it and that the most important part is the developing and evolving of relationships over time. so that we can be responsive to whatever is happening in a given moment. the relationships that we have with faith leaders across the spectrum. help us to become creative in the moment that it is needed. i am also very concerned about the amount of anti-semitism both in the united states and elsewhere in the world. and at the same time, i'm also concerned, and i know that you are as well, about the antitrust against so many other people. people of color and people of

certain gender preference. people who are perceived in a certain way. i have been reading some literature about, with comments about women. i was just reading a comment by a pungent who was decrying the fact that the country may soon be run by women. there was something about the way that it was worded that was so anti-women that it reminded me that in a group can be targeted at any time. so, being able to stand together with one another against anti-semitism and to stand with others when they are persecuted, that's one of our goals. >> we need to take a quick break, but that's an important point to develop when we come back from this break on mosaic.

>> reporter: welcome back to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weissman. i'm having a wonderful conversation with rabbi pam friedman here in san francisco and president of the northern telephone your board of rabbis. you know, when we talked in the last segment you were talking about ways in which there is a rise in what i think of as sort of mothering someone that is not like you.

and the particular role of the faith community in bringing a voice to what that is. i'm just wondering what your thoughts are when we talk about a faith community one of the core values, whether you are a christian or jewish or hindu or muslim or buddhist is that there is a way in which we recognize that any individual is uniquely created in the image of the divine. we might use different language to articulate that value, but that's the core understanding that every individual person represents something that is transcendent, something that is divine. when somebody makes another person somebody to be afraid of or somebody that is not like you , somebody not to be regarded in that same way how does a faith community take its values and articulate a different perspective? >> that's such a good question.

as you were saying, i serve congregation. we are in the process of celebrating our 70th anniversary. we were founded on hanukkah in 1949. the primary population among our founders were holocaust survivors from europe who survived by being in shanghai. and shanghai was an international city at the time and wildlife was extremely difficult there it was much better than what could have, god forbid, happened to these people if they had still be in europe in areas ofoccupation. our congregation continues to have holocaust survivors with us until this day, including as well as second and third generation survivors. we particularly focus on being warm and welcoming and inclusive. we do that, both because that's who we are and how we believe, but we also believe that it's a

response to that dehumanizing that happens when you are being persecuted. we welcome jewish. we have a saying that everyone is jewish enough. we welcome interfaith. we say and interfaith family is welcome. as a way of making that very point. >> a feeling of belonging is so crucial to any faith group and every rabbi and minister, priest, pastor, thanks a lot about how in their sphere of influence and their sphere of service the ways in which they lead by an example of belonging. i'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about how, in fact, even this experience in the history of holocaust survivors coming out of shanghai really speaks today to the ways in which the congregation has a sense that everybody belongs, you are jewish enough. it

creates that culture of belonging. >> you know, we are very blessed to have many totem scrolls on our public. when you open rr qc seven beautiful scrolls. in addition to those at seven there is one scroll that is not in the ark. it's in a kind of plexiglas holder instead. it is opened. even though our tradition is to keep the torah rolled and with a beautiful cover on it. that is one of the torah's from the czech republic that is a holocaust surviving torah. we find ways to deviate from the norm in order to honor the past, honor the suffering of the past, and celebrate the future. that holocaust torah represents a memory of something that very horribly happened. and then if you look just a little further on our pulpit you will see in the torah holder

a little stuffed torah. the children can come up and they can carry, take a torah and carry it in the procession. and then when we come back when we are putting the torah away they can take their stuffy and it can go right into the ark with the real torah. these are just ways that we find it to make room for everyone. we have and interfaith guest then we show them our torah and we teach them about our tradition without proselytizing or trying to convince them to be like us, just making sure that they know how much we appreciate them. >> thank you so much. we will come back to mosaic in just a moment.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with rabbi friedman. rabbi, congregation b'nai m-10 here in san francisco and president of the northern california association of rabbis. what is new at your congregation? >> you know, we are traditional conservative congregation. at the same time, we very much make use of the internet. at any given time you can go to the homepage of our

congregation and you will see the slideshow at the top with our newest and most important events. if anyone is interested in hearing from us regularly we have something called the b mail that we email out every week. our programming changes, although our worship continues on shabbat. it is always warm and friendly. >> do you have special events coming up for your anniversary celebration? >> we do. those are listed right on the website as you go on to the congregation site. you will see them all coming up during the beginning of hanukkah. >> can you talk a little bit about the fact that your congregation is a part of the conservative movement, not everybody understands the different movements in the jewish community. can you say in a short way the conservative movement in the jewish way of life and how the

congregation is a way of it? >> i would define conservative as part of conservatism. the conservative movement is kind of in the middle in this certain way between orthodox and reform. we are not looking at ourselves in the mirror to see where we are on the spectrum. we are more looking at the person walking through the door and saying how can we welcome you? how can we welcome you and define your path within judaism or in relation to judaism. >> as our current president of the northern california board of rabbis you yourself embody diversity. you serve in a pulpit at the congregation, part of the conservative movement in san francisco and you yourself are ordained for the renewal movement and you are a past national president of the renewal movement body. you yourself are representing the diversity in the country

and really the bay area. can you talk just a little bit about the renewal movement itself? >> the purpose of the renewal movement is to renew life into judaism. renewal movement does not see itself as a denomination. it's rabbis and its members both affiliate with and continue the religious practice on whatever level feels right to them. >> we just have actually, believe it or not, a minute or so left. i want to ask you a big question about vision, which is that you talk a lot about the value of relationship and how relationship matters when we come to points of challenge in our committee, both religiously and cynically. i myself think, and i know others do believe as well, that goes for relationship among clergy, so goes the community

and that we model relationship with one another as a way of modeling relationship in the community at large. i'm just wondering what ideas you have your vision for. what that relationship will do to the benefit of the community among rabbis into the future as the board of rabbis? >> i think one of the most important things we do as a board of rabbis in addition to connecting with each other as rabbis is being available to serve in the community. if someone contacts a board of rabbis and is looking for a rabbi for a particular purpose we always make a referral. in general, i think that the openness of rabbis to welcome whoever is sitting in front of them and to try to help that person wherever they're going is one of the most important things that we can do as rabbis , as jewish, and as members of the human community.

>> thank you so much for being with us as both representing congregation b'nai and manatt and the northern california board of rabbis. it has been a pleasure to have you with us out there in the community pay attention to your clergy person, your rabbi, priest, minister, and give them your support and encourage them to be among their peers. thank you so much for being with us here on mosaic.

the bay area is bracing today for strong wind and pg&e is warning thousands of his customers they could be without power through monday. storm at berkeley hills resident urged to leave before the high wind arrives and city officials warned to be ready to evacuate. the coronavirus crisis is showing no signs of slowing down and daily cases continue to rise at hospitals quickly fill up as the virus rages across the midwest.>> good morning it is socked sunday, october 25. >> good morning, the jenny is expected to cur