The timing couldn't have been better for the congregation, or more demanding for its new leader.
In mid-July, after two years without a rabbi, the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas welcomed its new spiritual leader, Jay B. Heyman.
In mid-August, after more than a year of holding services in the nearby Lilienfeld House social hall while restoration work was under way at the synagogue, the congregation resumed services in the newly renovated and restored house of worship.
On Friday, Sept. 15, as part of the weekly Shabbat service, the synagogue will formally be designated a National Historic Landmark.
Even without that special occasion, Heyman says, "This is a busy time of year for rabbis." July and August are preparation times for the beginning of the religious year. Saturday morning Hebrew school starts along with the academic year. And the 10-day period known as the High Holy Days, from Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), begins on Friday night, Sept. 29.
"There's a great deal to do in terms of planning," Heyman says. "To be moving into a new community eight weeks before that takes a great deal of preparation for it to be integrated smoothly, and not to appear as if it's all haphazard."
Relaxed in a short-sleeved blue oxford-cloth shirt, bare toes poking out from pseudo-Birkenstocks, Heyman says his immediate projects are "hanging the art and the bookshelves" in his upstairs office at the synagogue. But he sees as a near-term goal "to build the congregation, to attract new members and to renew the involvement of people on the island who are inactive."
His resume summarizes his rabbinic philosophy: "While a comprehensive knowledge of and commitment to Judaism are essential. . . the manner in which a rabbi relates to others is equally important."
A native of Arkansas, Heyman is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union College seminary in Cincinnati, where he earned a doctor of divinity degree. Before accepting the call to the St. Thomas Synagogue of Blessing, Peace and Loving Deeds (in Hebrew, B'rachah V'shalom Ug'milut Chasadim), he served a congregation in Seattle.
He says he was attracted to St. Thomas partly because of the synagogue's historic significance as the second-oldest in the New World, founded in 1796 by Sephardic Jews fleeing Spanish persecution during the Inquisition.
But also, "I've always been very much influenced by the topography, flora and fauna of every place I've lived," he says. And it didn't hurt that his once and probably future leisure likings include sailing, swimming, hiking and photography – along with messing around on his Macintosh computer.
His wife, Kanit, is a nurse who has joined the Schneider Hospital staff. He has two grown children from a previous marriage and he and Kanit have two cats – his and hers from before they met. All four of them have settled comfortably into St. Thomas, he says, after a rather stressful leave-taking from the mainland.
Having shipped their household goods, their plan was to drive cross-country, cats and all, from Seattle to Florida, then ship their small Saturn to St. Thomas. The day before they were to set out, Kanit Heyman underwent an emergency appendectomy. "She was in the hospital for 14 hours, then stayed with family for two days," her husband relates. Faced with a deadline to get the car to the shipping point, they started off then, even though it was uncomfortable for her.
Actually, it was uncomfortable for both of them, because of all the personal items they had stowed in every nook and cranny of the car. "We got halfway across the country and mailed about half of it," he recalls.
All ended well, though. The car made it onto the ship, the household goods arrived about two weeks ago, and the Heymans are settled in at Mahogany Run, where the cats, de-clawed, indoor creatures, "are in gecko heaven on the deck."
The rabbi admits he is given to proselytizing – converting of those of other beliefs – not to Judiasm, but to vegetarianism.
A vegetarian "of various levels of commitment" since the 1970s, he says he and his wife "try to be vegans" – eating no eggs, cheese or dairy products, as well as meat, fish or poultry. "I try to win as many converts as I can," he says. "It's good for you, good for the climate and good ethically." In addition to cutting down on cholesterol, fats and foods linked to cancer, he notes, a vegan diet allows "many more people to be fed per acre of farmed land."
Heyman has seen his share of the world in his role as rabbi. He looked into enlisting in the military to serve as a chaplain at 40, attracted in part by the opportunity to live in diverse locales and knowing that, since there are relatively few Jewish people in the armed forces, rabbis are sent only to "very large installations in lovely coastal cities." However, he was told he was too old.
Seven years later, in a professional journal for rabbis, what should he see but an appeal for rabbis to serve all three branches of the U.S. military. In 1991, "I got commissioned as a lieutenant in the Navy at 47," he relates with a chuckle. Over the next seven years, he was assigned to Tokyo, San Diego and Pearl Harbor, mainly on land but occasionally for a week or two at sea.
Challenges included "endless moving," functioning with a rigid chain of command, and dealing largely with "a very young population."
Heyman says he is at what seems to be a normal stage in terms of personal orientation. "When I was first ordained, I had a greater affinity for youth education," he explains. "In my mid-30s, I trained in pastoral counseling, mainly with middle-age couples. At this stage, I see myself as more of a generalist, with greater empathy and able to relate to people who are older."
Although serving a synagogue that is both a historic structure and a tourist attraction is something new, Heyman says, he doesn't see himself in a role much different from what he has had elsewhere as a rabbi in civilian life. "I serve as the public image of the congregation," he says, with an approach combining "collaboration, openness and flexibility."
He has lived and worked in communities that are predominantly people of color, including Washington, D.C., and during his senior year of seminary "had a pulpit on the outskirts of Cincinnati where about 70 percent of the congregation was black." While some were from one of the Black Israelite groups in Cincinnati, he said, "others had been Jewish for generations."
At the Sept. 15 dedication service, Mark Barnes, southeast regional director of the Department of the Interior, will present a plaque designating the synagogue as a National Historic Landmark.
The restoration work on the synagogue structure, which dates from 1833, included replastering over the exposed brick walls, both inside and outside. The interior is now painted entirely in ivory and white, a striking difference from the old reddish-brown brick walls.
The Shabbat service starts at 7:30 p.m. The synagogue is located in downtown Charlotte Amalie on Synagogue Hill, two streets behind Main Street. The public is welcome. A reception will follow the service. For further information, call 774-4312.
Editor's note: For further information on the High Holy Days, click on www.holidays.net/highholydays.