good morning and welcome to mosaic. i'm rabbi eric weiss and i'm honored to be your hostess money. across our country, clergy spent a lot of time taking 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 conversation with rabbi frydman, the current president of the board of directors of the northern california board of rabbis and herself a rabbi at congregation -- in san

francisco. welcome. >> thank you so much, i'm delighted to be with you today. >> let's just jump in and we will talk a little bit about your congregation in a moment. but the northern california board of rabbis. can you talk about what the board of rabbis is and its function and perhaps 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 spanned from the oregon border to the north to the eastern border of california and going over into nevada. around me know, and the lake tahoe area. and south, around salina's and monterey and west over to the pacific ocean. we are open to ordained rabbis across the spectrum.

informed, conservative, orthodox, reconstructionist, renewal, secular humanist and rabbis that are not affiliated with a particular denomination although they may have been trained and ordained in one. >> yes, as truth in advertising i should say, i, my myself am a member of the board of rabbis and former president 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 themselves and get to know each other. >> yes, and one of the wonderful things, as you know, we take turns in walking with each other's footsteps. our board of directors which we call our executive committee rotates over time and there are many colleagues who have served in the role of president. we have a few colleagues who have

served in the role of executive director, although we don't have an executive director just now. and by taking turns, we continue as a unified organization, but our complexion changes slightly. and highlights different talents and capacities, as we change leaders. and one of the wonderful things about the board of rabbis, is that we support each other as rabbis, while serving the greater community. both the jewish community and interfaith community. >> so i know it is a big question. on the face of it, why is it important in any community, that faith leaders, rabbis, priests, sisters, pastors, actually come together, and to themselves? why is that important both to in our case rabbis, clergy and the community itself? in our case, the jewish community. but why should the community, that should care about that?

>> i think it is incredibly important in the jewish community for a reason that relates to other faiths. and also for different reasons. for example, within judaism we have different streams or denominations. and the board of rabbis is a meeting ground and a common ground for rabbis who may be orthodox or reform, conservative, or renewal or reconstructionist or not affiliated with a movement. and it gives a chance to develop our friendships, to learn together, which allows us to learn from each other. in addition to whoever may be at the front of the room at any given time. and it also allows us to amplify our voice on issues that are important. we don't take a lot of stamps but we have a newsletter every month, that helps rabbis inform each other about what is going on. and i think it is a particularly jewish specific set of reasons, in terms of faith in general. i think it is extremely

important that we not only be strong within our own faith and support our congregants and constituents. but that we are very clearly part of the human family and the community of faith. and 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, faith in action initiatives. and i really look forward to being with my colleagues of other faiths. and while i could come in as a loan rabbi, being able to be there representing rabbis across the spec drum with my colleagues from other faiths, representing their faith leaders across the spectrum, it creates possibility and a kind of warmth and support that is wonderful both in good times and in times of challenge. and i want to say one more

thing. you know at the time, of the very tragic pittsburgh shooting, and after, in the aftermath, i was at a gathering at congregation emmanuelle. here in san francisco. and there were, depending on whose estimate you go with, between 1200 and 1800 people. and on the pulpit, were religious leaders from diverse faiths, many of whom i knew and was friends with for years. and just to be able -- the shooting was on shabbat, on saturday and here we were 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 the times. >> read mike friedman, thank you so much. we will take it would break and come back to mosaic in just a moment.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic, i'm rabbi eric weiss, i'm honored to be your house. we are in the middle of a conversation with rabbi pam frydman, the rabbi at congregation -- and current president of the board of directors of the northern california board of rabbis. combat, rabbi frydman. >> thank you so much rabbi

weiss. >> we were talking about the role of rabbis at large in the context of representing the northern california board of rabbis. one of the things that is interesting that people don't know about is the northern california board of rabbis is very much noted for its legality 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 collegial and support each other in stances that we take out in the community whether it is an issue around same-sex marriage or issues around conversion or issues around civic issues. so i am wondering, can you talk a little bit in that context, about how it is that you as our current president for the board of rabbis does respond when something happens in the larger community, like sadly, a shooting or sadly, a political issue.

how do you think, ours our president, about the ways in which the board of rabbis, as a body politic response to civic issues? >> i think that is a very important question. and what we do is, we expect embassy, we express solidarity and without taking a stand. and a moment ago i was talking about being at 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. and i, and you, and others of us have been at gatherings to support the people of diverse faiths. both those who live in northern california and those who live elsewhere. i'm particularly thinking today about -- a monotheistic minority , whose homeland is in northern iraq. and when they were experiencing the recent

genocide that began in 2014, the board of rabbis stepped up together, with interfaith councils in our area to raise consciousness about the plight of them and to raise funds to help in certain ways, without taking any stand for or against anyone. actually as part of supporting them, we supported a syrian christians, who are facing particularly a horrific time. their situation was never defined as a genocide, but was really on that level and we supported both communities. >> we are seeing a lot in our community, and also sadly, the country, that has to do with a kind of rising anti-jewish, anti-semitic sentiments. weather it is something in social media or whether it is a

publication, whether it is something that comes from an individual. what is the role of the faith community when there is a distinct group, in this case, jews, marked in a way that is really filled with prejudice? >> you know, i think it is such a good question and 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, to help us to be creative in the moment, that it is needed. and i am also very concerned about the amount of virulence anti-semitism, both in the united states, and elsewhere in the world. and at the same time, i am also

concerned, and i know that you are as well, about the anti- thrust against so many other people. people of color, people of certain gender preference. people who are perceived a certain way. i have been reading some literature about comments about women. just reading a comments by a pendant, who was decrying the fact that the country may soon be run by women. and there was something about the way that it was worded, that was so anti-women, that it reminded me, any group can be targeted at any time. and so being able to stand together with one another against anti-semitism and to stand with others, when they are persecuted, that is one of our roles. >> we need to take a quick

break. that is an important point to develop when we come back from this break, here on mosaic.

welcome back to mosaic, i'm rabbi eric weiss. we are in a wonderful conversation with rabbi pam frydman from here in san francisco and president of the northern california board of rabbis. when we ended the last segment, you were talking about the ways in which there is a rise in what i think of as sort of othering someone who's not like you. and the particular role of the community in bringing a voice to what that is. i'm just wondering what your thoughts are, when we talk out it community, one of the core values whether you're 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 is the core understanding that every individual person represents, something that is transcendent, something that is divine. so when somebody makes another person somebody to be afraid of, or somebody that is not like you, is someone not to be regarded in that same way -- how does the faith community take its values, and articulate a different perspective? >> that is such a good question. you know, as you were saying it, i served congregation -- and we are just in the process of celebrating our 70th anniversary. we were founded on hanukkah in 1949 and 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 while life was extremely difficult there, it was much better than what could have, god forbid happened to these people if they had still beenin occupation. we are holocaust survivors with us to this day as well as second and third generation survivors. and we particularly focused on being warm and welcoming and inclusive. and we do that both because that is who we are and how we believe, but we also believe that it is a response to that dehumanizing that happens when you are being persecuted. we welcome jews. we have a saying that everyone is jewish enough and we welcome interfaith. we say interfaith families are welcomed. as a way of making that very

point. >> a feeling of belonging, is so crucial to any faith group and every rabbi, minister, priest, pastor, thinks a lot about how in their sphere of influence, in their sphere of service, the ways in which they lead by an example of belonging. and 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 speaks today to the ways in which the congregation has a sense that everybody belongs. you are jewish enough and it creates a culture of belonging. >> you know, we are very blessed to have many torah scrolls on our pulpit. when you open our our qc seven beautiful scrolls and in addition to those seven, there is one scroll that is not in the ark. it is a kind of plexiglass

holder instead, and it is open, even though our tradition is to keep the torah rolled. and with a beautiful color dish cover on it. that is one of the tours 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 if you look just a little further on our pulpit, you will see in the torah holder, the stuffed torah s. the children can come up and take a torah and carry it in the procession. and when we come back, if we are putting the torah way, they can take their stuffy and it can go right into the ark with the real taurus. these are just ways that we

find to make room for everyone. and when we have an interfaith guest, we show them our torah and we teach them about our tradition. without proselytizing, without trying to convince them to be like us. but just making sure that they know how much we appreciate them. >> thank you so much, rabbi frydman. 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 frydman. congregation -- here in san francisco and president of the northern california board of rabbis. what is new at your congregation? >> you know, we are a traditional conservative congregation about the same time we very much make use of the internet. so at any given time you can go to the homepage and you will see the slideshow at the top, what our newest and most important events are. and if anyone is interested in hearing from us regularly, we have something called the b milk. our programming changes, although our worship continues on shabbat and it is always

warm and friendly. >> and you have special events coming up for your anniversary celebration? >> we do. those are listed right on the website. just as you go on, you will see them all coming up during the beginning of hanukkah. >> can you talk a little bit about the fact that you are part of the conservative movement. not everyone understands the different movements in the jewish community. so can you say in a short way, the conservative movement in jewish life, and how you are a member of it? >> conservative, i would define conservative in terms of conservation. we are part of the united synagogue of conservative judaism and the conservative movement is kind of in the middle, in a certain way. between orthodox and reform. e

we are more looking at the person walking through the door and saying, how can we welcome you? how can we help you to find your path within judaism, or in relation to judaism. >> as our current president of the northern california board of rabbis, you, yourself and body -- you serve in the pulpit as part of the conservative movement and you are ordained through the renewal movement and are a past national president of the renewal movement rabbinic body. you, yourself represent the actual diversity of rabbinic life in the country and really in the bay area. so can you talk just a little bit about the renewal movement itself? >> the purpose of the renewal movement is to breathe new life into judaism. renewal movement does not see itself as a denomination. and it welcomes both rabbinic students, it's rabbis and members to both affiliate with, and continue the religious practice on whatever level feels right to them.

>> we just have, believe it or not a minute or so and left. i want to ask you a big question about vision, which is that you talked a little bit about the value of relationships and how relationship matters when we come to points of challenge. in our community both religiously, and specifically.a ic rationshi goereon a go e mmwe lation e anheas a way thof community at-large. so i'm just wondering, what ideas you have your vision for, what that relationship will do to the benefit of the community among rabbis and to the future as part of 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. as someone contacts the board of rabbis and is looking for a rabbi for a particular service, we always make a referral. and 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 are going, is one of the most important things we can do as rabbis, as jews and members of the human family. >> thank you so much for being with us both representing your califoiarabbis usand ther thmmunity, payoclerg person, your rabbi, your priest, your minister. give them your support and encourage them to be among their peers. think you so much for being with us here on mosaic.

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life from the cbs bay area studios, this is a kpix 5 news. >> right now and streaming, gunfire reps. this morning, the police are stepping up and the neighbors are fed up. a dramatic helicopter crash in southern california, a miraculous outcome this morning. >> i am sorry for the lapse in judgment and i hope that you