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News: June 2007

Rabbi Julius returns to Israel after 10 years at Congregation Sinai

Rabbi Eitan and Ziva Julius

By Cecily Ruttenberg

      Next month, Rabbi Eitan Julius of Congregation Sinai will make good on a promise he and his wife Ziva made to each other when they were first married—they will return to Israel. While eager to make aliyah, the move is about more than returning to the Promised Land. Julius says it is about returning to a simpler life, removing the 24-hour-a-day demands of the pulpit and embracing the unfolding of something new.
     “I loved pastoral care and teaching, and pound-for-pound, Sinai is a great group of people,” said Julius. “But at what point do you trust you have the faculties and enough of a nest egg, and step into the unknown?”
      Julius said he is excited to live on a Harchava Kehillatit, community development, in Northern Israel adjacent to a kibbutz where he lived in his 20s. He plans to attend a certification program to become an educational tour guide, while his wife Ziva, will open a ceramics studio, possibly making Judaica items or alternately, launching a Petroglyph-type business. His children will enroll in the well regarded Kibbutz school program.
      “I’m excited about living on what my wife and I agree is one of the most beautiful spots on earth, the prestigious school district and living the dream of being in our homeland,” said Julius. “I have family there, and Ziva has so much family that the kids have more cousins than they know their names!”
      “I feel like I’m returning to a simpler time in my life.”
      Congregation Sinai hired Julius as rabbi in 1997, into a complicated design whereby the synagogue held simultaneous traditional and egalitarian services. Julius was successful at organizing and accommodating this unusual juggling act.
      “Right when I came to Sinai it was clear that it was a good fit,” said Julius. “It was a serious and educated community, lay led. People had a commitment to Hebrew prayer, and it was Hamish, and less formal. The traditional/egalitarian split was something I was comfortable with and understood.”
      Others remember Julius’ ease at handling this atypical arrangement. “I remember when he first came, his respect for all aspects, for everyone in the congregation, no matter what their leanings were,” said longtime Sinai member Rita Jacobson.
      In his tenure, the synagogue grew from 76 families to almost 200 today. The congregation ran a successful capital campaign, broke ground and erected a new sanctuary in just over a year. “Finally seeing the place packed to the rafters in 2005 was an indescribable sense of achievement and pride,” Julius said.
      Julius said he delighted in the rhythm of his children growing up through Sinai’s nursery school and later Yavneh Day School and Gideon Hausner, with the children of other congregants. In turn, his congregants describe him as a tireless supporter of Sinai families.
      “One story I always tell people is that when my son had his surgery, Rabbi Julius stayed at the hospital with us for four hours. He talked to us, made sure that we were okay, and stayed with us until he was out of the recovery room. He didn’t have to do any of that,” said Congregation Sinai President Steve Dick.
      Rita Jacobson remembers the Julius family’s graciousness in opening their home, having congregants over for Shabbat and other occasions.
      “I would hold Ziva up as a five star rebbetzin,” said Jacobson. “She would host people at their home, work in the kitchen; she was also on the design committee for the new shul….”
     Ultimately, however, Julius said the work load of running a small-mid size synagogue, without an executive director, facilities director or assistant, became too much.
      “I’m a roll-up-your-sleeves kind of guy. If something needs to be done, I’ll do it,” he said. “But eventually it became too much and I’m not getting any younger, you know?”
      Another critical turning point in Julius life, and ultimately decision to move, was the death of both his mother and father in the short span of two years. He says he was blessed to have been at each of their death beds.  His mother, who had been living in San Diego, moved into the Julius home in her final weeks of life.
      “I’m not sure why, but after my parents died I just found it more difficult to be the emcee for everybody else’s simchas and celebrations,” said Julius.
      His concept of the day-to-day routine of Jewish, synagogue life shifted in the wake of their deaths. “I have been blessed with two healthy children, two loving parents, who got to meet their grandchildren, and I completed the kaddish cycle. Existentially, that’s what we’re all meant to do.”
      Finally, Julius said that while chaperoning the March of the Living Trip last year he had an intense realization.
      “The historical imperative, the excitement of moving from the ashes of Europe to the triumph of kids dancing at the Kotel on Yom Ha’aztmaut was so strong it kind of called my bluff,” said Julius. “What am I doing in the Diaspora when I feel so strongly connected to the history that is being written in our homeland?”
      Right at the end of this trip, Julius traveled to Kibbutz Adamit to interview with the gatekeepers of the community development in Northern Israel that he and Ziva had discovered. Initially, their plan was to purchase the land for a later-in-life retirement spot. But while convincing the development’s committee that his family was a good pick, Julius realized that his prepared story of an American Conservative rabbi who longed to complete this demanding phase of his life and return to his beloved Israel, was not just a soft sell. It was true!
      Julius said he has many wonderful memories from his time in the Silicon Valley that he will take with him. He humbly adds that his legacy is not a wall of awards, just an honest man who contributed his best to the community. “I hope I left my campsite cleaner than I found it.” Y

Rabbi Julius can be reached through his website at WWW.RABBIEITANJULIUS.COM or at (866)758-5487 for people who would like to stay in touch or hire a tour guide.

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