Unequal Opportunity:Age Discriminationln The American Rabbinate

...I came to my present congregation in the late 1960s when I was close to forty...

...The older she gets, the more interested he becomes in her...

...This realization came several years ago...

...My day would come...

...When I came to my present congregation, the entire referral-interview-election process took only about a month...

...the future is bleak...

...The religious school had a population of about 300 children, and the rank and file membership was composed of men and women with good Jewish instincts...

...In the past decade, I have earned a Ph.D...

...Furthermore, I am in good health, can outhike my 24-year-old son (in distance, not speed), love my work and look forward to at least another 20 years of doing it as a full-time rabbi...

...My own view, to be sure, is biased...

...In one chapter of my search for a new pulpit, an entire year elapsed between the time of my request for a referral and my being informed that the congregation had decided to elect another rabbi...

...Information about the congregation is available in a questionnaire which the synagogue officials have filled out...

...The others apparently eliminated me during the early screening of resumes...

...It was the sort of place where a rabbi could sink roots and do his job...

...Would a young family choose to affiliate with a congregation headed by an "older" rabbi, when a mile away may be a synagogue led by a "younger" rabbi...

...Other rabbis, however, perhaps most, are men whose life outlook regards personal and professional development as a necessity...

...At times, a congregation will see several panels of candidates...

...As a community matures and its problems become more complex, the wisdom of the mature takes on greater import...

...Naively, perhaps, it did not occur to me that this sort of thing happens to rabbis as well...

...After requesting a referral to several desirable pulpits, I was informed that it would be a waste of time and energy to proceed with them...

...I was in my late forties...

...Even though these were so-called senior positions, the congregations had made it clear that they were seeking younger men...

...Those seeking suburban communities were attracted to other, newer residential areas...

...My assumption that age bias would not be a factor proved mere wishful thinking, and I realized that the rabbinate could not be expected to be immune to the common American infatuation with youth...

...With equal amounts of regret and anticipation, I let it be known that I was interested in a change of pulpit...

...When you pass the flight deck of an airliner, you do not see a 30-year-old at the controls, but rather a 50 or 55-year-old...

...The need, therefore, is for a freshening of esteem for rabbinic maturity, a fair chance for good rabbis who have been fortunate enough to spend a quarter-century or more in the most glorious of Jewish vocations and those skills deserve appreciative congregations...

...It can threaten to turn to other rabbinic placement services, or even to cut off funds to the denominational movement and central seminary...

...I have seen tired young men, and rigorous older men...

...The only consistent exception to this pattern is in retirement communities, which are willing to engage older rabbis, especially if they are close to retirement themselves and willing to accept a part-time position...

...I didn't hear from that congregation again...

...Simple arithmetic makes it clear that a 35 or 40-year-old rabbi has, potentially, more years of service to offer than an older man...

...Theoretically, the placement commission can insist that only certain candidates will be referred to a particular pulpit...

...The interviewing process can be lengthy and involved...

...Instead of 1520 new families moving in each year and becoming members of the synagogue—thus making up for those who left—only a few would join, while a dozen or more would leave...

...But in its third decade, as the children of the first generation grew up and their parents aged, the pattern changed...

...The Jewish community is not the corporate world...

...Having been a "younger" rabbi, I have learned that while there are exceptions,.age and experience do count...

...This sort of pressure, however, appears to be of limited value because the congregation has its own means of counter-influence...

...During that year, there were numerous and lengthy telephone conference calls, much correspondence—the search committee asked me to respond in writing to a number of complicated questions—and a full-day meeting with the committee...

...Rabbis over the age of 45 or 50 may be seasoned, but, if they are searching for a new pulpit, they are in the wrong season...

...All of this was disappointing to me...

...This is how the basic procedure works and, on the whole, it is a fair and equitable one for both rabbis and congregations...

...This has become an exceedingly painful problem because a number of able senior rabbis find themselves caught up in precisely the same predicament as mine: their communities are undergoing rapid demographic change and the rabbis find themselves serving congregations that are evaporating before their eyes...

...New families stopped moving in...

...I was, of course, aware of this bias in the general job market...

...In every instance, however, the pulpit was finally offered to another colleague, invariably a good man and a competent rabbi...

...From the viewpoint of the synagogue, the age factor has a certain validity...

...A major poet grows in art...

...By and large a good younger man is often regarded as innately superior to a good older man—other qualities notwithstanding...

...The question of a rabbi's age is rarely approached directly...

...Every month or so, the office distributes a list of open congregations to the member rabbis...

...in education and religious thought at a major university, attended a series of seminars in pastoral counseling, become a leader together with my wife in the Jewish Marriage Encounter movement, and built up my congregation to a point where we have, proportionally, far more regular worshippers today than we had ten years ago when the congregation was twice its present size...

...Ordinarily, a congregation is given a panel or list of four candidates to interview...

...If you cannot tell which one was written earlier and which later, he is a minor poet...

...Hence the often unspoken question that obsesses pulpit search committees: will this candidate appeal to younger people...

...I called the rabbinic placement services of other major Jewish denominations in order to ask whether or not they were faced with this problem...

...The personal history is simply the record of one 50-year-old rabbi's unsuccessful search for a pulpit appropriate to his experience and ability...

...Every congregation, large or small, constantly seeks to augment its membership with young families...

...Ronald Reagan turned 69 at the start of his primary campaign to win the Republican nomination...

...Usually, there are preliminary telephone interviews...

...The annual crop of children who became bar and bat mitzvah dwindled from several score to less than ten...

...I was referred to almost every pulpit to which I applied...

...But now that my day has arrived and I have joined the ranks of seasoned and senior rabbis, I have learned to my chagrin that I passed my peak six or seven years ago...

...On occasion, several members of the synagogue search committee will visit the rabbi's current congregation in order to hear him and observe his style in his own pulpit...

...The search for a new rabbi can consume a considerable amount of time, energy and money...

...The religious school population declined precipitously...

...Having served an apprenticeship in two smaller congregations, I was ready to settle down...

...There are rabbis, I suppose, who tend to change pulpits because they have observed that it is easier to change congregations than it is to write new sermons...

...What advantages are there to being senior and seasoned, aside Trom the accumulation of birthdays...

...often, the congregation is already familiar because its history and record with previous rabbis are part of the scuttlebutt of rabbinic conversation...

...If I feel under-utilized, I can look for other things to do...

...A rabbi who wants a new pulpit calls the placement director, discusses the various openings and specifies those which interest him...

...What follows is a bit of personal history together with a brief glimpse at the way rabbis and congregations meet, size up, and "marry" each other...

...It was, at the time, a well-established, thriving, middle-class, suburban community, numerically and financially viable, able to support a full staff of professionals and a fine program...

...I believe this last is due at least in part to my finally having mastered the art of preaching sermons that convey personal Jewish themes to a congregation that has learned how to be receptive to them...

...Therefore, (and despite Kohelet) the race for pulpits in the American Jewish community is usually won by those who have at least the appearance of speed and strength...

...Age is not stated in the resume, although it can be estimated easily enough by examining the candidate's professional and educational history...

...When the committee finally reaches its decision, there are further negotiations with the rabbi concerning matters such as salary and housing arrangements...

...My personal history is not atypical...

...After a few brief, introductory remarks back and forth, he asked: "By the way, rabbi, we were wondering how old you are...

...But, aside from one rabbi's personal decision, the issue is a public scandal and merits a public hearing...

...these may be followed by a meeting with the search committee...

...It became apparent that if I wanted to lead a viable congregation for the next twenty years, and to make a living for my family, I would have to begin looking elsewhere...

...so does a good rabbi...

...The community was, in a sense, rootless, as many suburbs are...

...Once a call came from a member of the pulpit committee of a large, mid-eastern synagogue...

...Plainly stated, my working hypothesis here is that rabbis over the age of 40-43 are regarded as being super-annuated by the American congregations they seek to lead and serve...

...This is generally true of all congregations, large or small, regardless of denomination...

...I believe I was the last of about a dozen candidates...

...The rabbi prepares a resume which the placement office sends to the congregation...

...The synagogue's pulpit search committee, often a large group with many divergent opinions as to the sort of rabbi needed, convenes in order to study the resumes and decide which applicants merit further consideration...

...Knowing and hoping that, in the normal course of events, I would reach my seniority one day, I accepted this explanation of temporary ineligibility...

...Young people went off to universities, married, and settled in other places...

...Our conversation continued for a few more moments...

...Two other reasons are less precise, but may well be more important...

...I was slow to take note of this transition...

...The criteria by which congregations elect rabbis sometimes seems whimsical and capricious, but I cannot escape the conclusion that in my case, at least, the age factor was most significant...

...The town is still attractive and well-kept, but it no longer has a sizeable Jewish population...

...As a "senior" rabbi, I assumed that I would have no difficulty in being recommended to the synagogues which interested me...

...Synagogues, it seems, especially the major ones which have many applicants for their pulpits, usually succeed in engaging the rabbi they want, or think they want...

...Second, and most important of all, is the pervasive and dominant inclination in our culture to prefer youth to age...

...On three occasions, I reached the upper strata of the interviewing process and enjoyed the status of being designated a "leading" candidate...

...I had been with the congregation for a little less than a decade...

...H. Even is, for obvious reasons, a pseudonym...

...The process is not always so prolonged...

...The decline continues...

...The rationale, of course, is that youth will appeal to youth...

...Perhaps the search committee and congregation had become weary of the whole matter and were eager to conclude it...

...If one has a seven year supply of good sermons, there is a certain logic to moving to a new congregation every Sabbatical year...

...Then, imperceptibly at first, the picture began to change...

...But soon the changes began to come so forcefully that I was compelled to take notice...

...I cannot speak with authority of other professions, but I know that the rabbinate consists of a body of men who regard lifelong study as a sine qua non...

...If the congregation insists upon an age criterion, eventually it will get the man it wants despite considerations of seniority and experience...

...As in the world of business and industry, congregations tend to regard younger rabbis as more malleable and less set in their ways and, therefore, more able to adjust to the needs and situation of the synagogue members...

...Personal friends and members of my congregation have had to face it from time to time and it was always an unpleasant and painful experience...

...In one interview which went well and culminated in an invitation to visit the congregation, the very last question dealt with my age...

...I love my work...

...The existence of an age bias was confirmed informally by the placement office...

...Age is an imperfect guide to competence, and our fetish with youth may, therefore, be the cause of great—and painful—waste...

...Only rarely does a significant synagogue accept an older man...

...Asked how she liked being married to an archaeologist, she replied "It's wonderful...

...Auden was once asked how a major poet can be distinguished from a minor one...

...Job discrimination because of age is not uncommon in the American labor market...

...It was this view which finally prevailed...

...And because, in rabbinic circles, "seniority" for placement purposes begins around age 40, the rabbi with more advanced seniority has to cope with built-in limitations...

...things are different in shul...

...My colleagues in seniority may appreciate the anecdote told about Agatha Christie, the late British mystery writer...

...I am a patient man...

...When the congregation finds the man who meets its requirements and expectations, it wants him to stay for a long time...

...During the past four years, since my search began, I have been referred to about a dozen congregations, and managed to secure at least a preliminary interview with six...

...In short, what had been a fine, viable Jewish community ten and fifteen years ago was changing radically...

...Their replies confirmed the phenomenon in very explicit terms...

...Read two poems written ten years apart," he replied...

...Here was a community that was interested in Judaism and Jewish affairs and would appreciate what I had to offer...

...A synagogue which is regarded as being especially desirable will have a long list of applicants and the placement commission has the complex responsibility of deciding who will be referred...

...When I was younger and expressed interest in a so-called "plum" congregation, I was told that referral to these was reserved for senior colleagues...

...There is, of course, useful work to be done even with declining congregations and my decision may be to remain in place and continue to lead the people I know and cherish...

...All the congregation has to do is keep turning down the applicants who do not meet its requirements...

...Congregations want young rabbis, preferably under the age of 42 or 43...

...The committee members, most of whom were older than I, pointed out that while they liked me, others in the congregation would probably favor a younger man, regardless of any other considerations...

...During much of this time, because I was considered to be a leading candidate for the position, I was ineligible to receive recommendations to other desirable pulpits...

...This somewhat cumbersome procedure can easily consume many months...

...My family had taken root in the town, the children were happy, my work was going well, and the congregation was developing in the way I had hoped it would...

...This was the community I had always wanted, our place for the long haul...

...I came along at the right time...

...He was also, in each case, at least a decade younger than I. Moreover, the congregations which eliminated me from consideration early on, and never called me, also elected younger men...

...every woman should be married to one...

...I like to teach and preach...

...It had sprung up in the post-World War II era and, for two decades, Jewish families gravitated to it for all the customary reasons...

...The request for a referral then comes before a joint commission of rabbis and laymen whose task it is to examine the applicant's credentials, the congregation's needs, and try to make a reasonable match...

...What is there to be said on the other side...

...Yet these rabbis, healthy, vigorous and talented, in their late 40s and 50s, are not acceptable to the congregations they seek: they are too old...

...The question, given our infatuation with youth and youthfulness, answers itself...

...This assumption proved to be correct...

...For the first five years things went along about as I thought they would...

...The older residents who had built the synagogue and were its mainstays died or retired to the sunbelt...

...How can one measure the intangible qualities of rabbinic maturity and experience...

...I replied that I was 48...

...The procedure is relatively straightforward...

...If this hurdle is passed, the candidate may be asked to visit and address the congregation during a Sabbath service...

...But a rabbi who has any thought of being elected to the pulpit of a major congregation is probably out of the running if he has passed his forty-fifth birthday...

...Only a few years separate a.rabbi of 52 from one who is 43, but in the eyes of a pulpit search committee, the difference may appear to be awesome and unbridgeable...

...The ancient witticism that one can have 25 years of experience and yet repeat the same experience 25 times is as true of the rabbinate as it is of other professions...

...One way is to consider the William Auden model...

...most likely I did not want to see it...

...Then the search committee's recommendation is brought for approval before the synagogue's board of directors and, after that, to the entire congregation...

...My rabbinic organization, one of the three major groups in the United States, has a central placement office where rabbis seeking positions and congregations seeking rabbis make their requests known...

...If Jimmy Carter is elected, he will be 57 at the start of his second term...

...Rabbinic wisdom and experience, moreover, possess a cumulative quality and rabbis, therefore, personify the popular saying: "You're not getting older, you're getting better...