Rabbi Julie Schwartz (right) speaks at Rabbi Jun’s installation, accompanied by Rabbi Gary Walter, Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp and Rabbi Jun (left)
By Julia Olson
Assistant Editor
Rabbi Ari Jun was installed as Senior Rabbi at Temple Sholom in a two day celebration that took place May 2nd and 3rd.
Jun, whose grandparents, Ida and Irv Schwartz, were charter members of Temple Sholom at its 1954 founding, has previously served as Assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth Or in Dayton as well as Director of the JCRC. Temple Sholom was founded by Rabbi Stanley Brav in 1954. Known as the “Singing Temple,” Sholom’s founding members sought to create a place of warmth and welcoming for all those seeking a synagogue. Social justice was a central feature of Rabbi Brav’s founding idea and it is a core value of the temple today.
At Jun’s installation, Rabbi Judy Chessin, founding rabbi of Dayton’s Temple Beth Or, spoke about Rabbi Jun and his future at Temple Sholom.
Jun’s installation had a Star Trek theme, and Chessin kept with this as she spoke at the Friday night installation service. Referring to the original Star Trek series, Chessin said “While we have progressed lightyears in racial and gender equality (and CGI imagery), we are still divided by war, racial and cultural prejudice, environmental catastrophes, xenophobia and fear of the other. Some say that Star Trek still remains an optimistic, idealistic franchise inspiring viewers to believe in progress, dream big, believe in teamwork, and work for world unity through progress, reason and compromise…While Roddenberry’s franchise became wildly successful, his vision of that idealistic, secular society without religion didn’t really bear fruit, did it? For Star Trek’s science fiction society often lacked the moral and communal depth that pluralistic, religious values may provide. Perhaps the finest mission statement ever is the ancient Jewish shema, which implies that we are better defined by one God, one morality and one liberty for all. Only with that fundamental can Jews live long and prosper. That is the mission of the Jewish enterprise, after all.”
Chessin also shared some personal words about Rabbi Jun before his installation took place. “[Rabbi Jun’s] unique skill set demonstrated that while rabbis all wear the same uniform, there is little uniformity among us. As you, Rabbi Jun, receive your time honored Jewish Star Fleet uniform, you will begin something entirely new and unique. You follow in the footsteps of your mom and me, and Rabbi Brav, Splansky, Walters and Terlinchamp. You’ve don that ancient uniform, but now you start a new voyage, to unexplored galaxies.”
During the installation, former Temple Sholom leaders, Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, Rabbi Gary Walter, as well as Jun’s mother, Rabbi Julie Schwartz, shared words of encouragement with Jun as they passed him the Torah.
Schwartz’s words were especially poignant as she prepared to pass the Torah to her son. “Ari, it’s a wonderful circle you have squared. You have brought us back to my roots, to your grandparents’ roots as charter members of Temple Sholom, the place where I and your aunts and your uncle grew up and learned to love going to services,” she said. Rabbi Schwartz included that it was her studies with Rabbi Splansky of Temple Sholom that inspired her to become a rabbi. “May it be God’s will that you will do that for so many more kids and adults in this congregation — that teaching Torah gives them life and brings new life to our people. I’m your mom, and I’m your colleague, and I’m so very proud to watch this beautiful transition take place.”
Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp included a brief history of the rabbis at Temple Sholom, stating that “each of these rabbis are very different people. But the core truth of us is the same. That is, a fervent desire to bring justice into the world. So, when Sholom chose you, well, that makes sense, because you carry that exact same seed. The other side of that seed of courage that is part of each of these rabbis is a community that leans into their courage every season of their life….May the courage of your people always spark the moral courage in you and lead us closer to tikkun, a healed world.”
Rabbi Jun remarked that “What Temple Sholom represents is something unusual. Not just in Cincinnati but in Judaism more broadly. We were founded not only just to be another synagogue, instead from our earliest days over 70 years ago, we were built to be a home for the disenfranchised and unaffiliated. We were a place, from our start, for humble warmth. A place for music and spiritual belonging. A place that over time added to its identity and became somewhere where voices engaged in advocacy and tikkun olam are heard in our halls at all times, morning, noon and night. Becoming the leader of a community like this is humbling in the extreme. I do not know today how I will measure up. I can’t imagine how Rabbi Brav or any of my other illustrious predecessors would or will judge me, my deeds or my beliefs. But I pray that the work that I, alongside my family and this beautiful community, will do will long outlast us and indelibly make Cincinnati and the Jewish world and the world more broadly richer for having been here.”
Rabbi Jun’s installation service ended with a champagne toast.
Jun led services the next morning at Temple Sholom. A Havdalah and celebration were held Saturday night at Esoteric Brewery, complete with Star Trek decorations and trays of Star Trek themed cookies.
