West Temples Rabbi Lader to retire in June 2023 – Cleveland Jewish News

Rabbi Enid Lader has announced her retirement as spiritual leader of Beth Israel-The West Temple in Cleveland, effective mid-June 2023.

There comes a time when it is time to try new things and make room for new energies, Lader wrote in the temples combined June and July bulletin. I have been our congregations rabbi for the past ten years and as I begin my eleventh year, this is the final year of my contract. I have chosen not to renew, but to step on to a new path, and make room for the next generation of leaders to take their place in our congregation. I know our temple board will do all they can to make this transition a smooth one as will I. I look forward to the coming year and all the opportunities it will provide for us to celebrate and remember, learn and enjoy together.

Lader has been the congregational rabbi since 2012 and a member of the community for years in various capacities, including cantorial soloist, choir director and congregational educator.

She said as she is about to turn 70 this fall and felt there was an opportunity for a sabbatical decade.

Lader and her husband, Harry, initially lived in Lorain and relocated to Lakewood.

She first connected with the temple through a Realtor and on her first visit spotted the Confirmation photograph of Sally Priesand, who became North Americas first female rabbi.

When she decided to pursue the rabbinate in 2005, she was congregational educator of the temple and commuted from Cleveland to New York City to attend the Academy of Jewish Religion, where one of her Talmud teachers was Rabbi Eric Hoffman, who formerly led Beth Israel-The West Temple. She was ordained in 2010.

Lader shepherded the congregation through COVID-19 as well as following a fire. She said she was pleased that the temple received an Ohio Historical Marker for its work in resettlement of Soviet refugees.

She said she has enjoyed being on the bimah with two generations of bar mitzvah students and their parents, and to marry former students from the temples religious school.

I certainly have come to appreciate the lives that these people have had, and the wonderful aspects of being able to be a part of that life, Lader told the Cleveland Jewish News Sept. 9.

Born in upstate New York, Lader moved to Florida with her family as a child and grew up attending Temple Sinai of North Miami, Fla., and Temple Beth El in Hollywood, Fla. She studied music therapy and music education, earning both bachelors and masters degrees from Florida State University in Tallahasee.

The Laders have two daughters, Abby (David) Wald of Shaker Heights and Leah (Ananth Uggirala) Lader of Mountain View, Calif., and five grandchildren. She said she looks forward to spending more time with her family in retirement.

I felt tremendously blessed to have been able to do this amazing work, Lader said. Its a service of the heart.

Then temple, which is at 14308 Triskett Ave., has started a search to replace Lader.

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West Temples Rabbi Lader to retire in June 2023 - Cleveland Jewish News