Did you hear that Rabbi Weil convened a special OU meeting/retreat last weekend in Los Angeles with six of the top rabbis in the country? What went on there?
A source says: "It was a rabbinic training event for nearly – and newly – ordained rabbis. Jonathan Rosenblatt, the rabbi from Riverdale was the guest presenter and Selwyn Gerber CPA presented a layman’s guide to the rabbinic challenges of our time. The rabbi from the Boca Raton Synagogue also presented."
Putting it all together, I don’t think Rabbi Weil was going into the rabbi-training business but instead assembling rabbis young and older who he saw as the best so that he could bring them close to him (ala Obama’s Playbook) and help out with his grand vision at the OU. There was Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn (Rabbi Weil’s choice to succeed him at Beth Jacob), Rabbi Steve Burg, and Rabbi Jon Gross, who Rabbi Weil picked a few years ago to be the intern rabbi.
Now that he’s preparing to leave town, I feel like, Rabbi Weil, we hardly knew ya!
Well, at least, I hardly knew ya because you booted me from your shul in 2001, but I’m excited to see what you will do at the Orthodox Union.
Rabbi Steven Weil has energy, drive, ambition, and a CEO-mindset. He knows how to run things. He knows how to delegate. He knows how to inspire. He knows how to get things done. He knows how to raise money. He’s a great speaker. He has a good eye for talent. He’s friendly. He loves people. He loves to schmooze. He’s good at bringing people in to Judaism. He knows how to talk to businessmen and the super-successful and how to enlist them in programs that build up the Jewish community.
I wonder how Beth Jacob will get along without him. Rabbi Weil was a master-fundraising. Beth Jacob is not an easy shul to run. There are a lot of powerful personalities there. Rabbi Weil knew how to run things. He made the trains run on time.
