New City's Rabbi Fass to retire after 34 years

Rabbi David Fass,

NEW CITY — When Stanley Cohen was in the hospital receiving chemotherapy for lung cancer, his rabbi, David Fass of Temple Beth Sholom, visited several times to cheer him up with stories and humor.

During times of good health, Cohen participates in the rabbi’s brown bag discussions on the Torah and Talmud, holding debates that were intellectually stimulating and free of doctrine.

“It’s a good relationship,” said Cohen, 77, of Tomkins Cove. “Those are the things I want in a rabbi. I don’t want dogma. If I want to know about the rules, I’ll read them up.”

Now, after 34 years of taking care of the spiritual and emotional needs of his congregation, Fass, 65, is ready to call it a day. He will retire at the end of July having served as rabbi for more than half the life of the temple.

Looking back at his decades at Beth Sholom, Fass recalls the joys of growing old with his congregation and presiding over the bar and bat mitzvahs, and weddings of children he has watched grow into adults. But he also recalls the deaths, divorces, accidents and other tragedies, and those have taken their toll.

In the four-plus decades of his rabbinate — he served two congregations before coming to New City — Fass held the hands of a family as doctors removed the life support of the father, and consoled parents whose children had committed suicide or been killed in a car accident. And these are just a small sample.

“I’m involved in the pain of a whole community,” said Fass sitting in the sanctuary of the temple. “I’ve absorbed for 44 years ... It takes a toll.”

For his years of service, the congregation will hold a celebratory weekend in May to give Fass a grand sendoff. A shabbat dinner and concert is planned for May 18, a gala ball in his honor on May 19 at the Paramount Country Club, and a fun, family day with a barbecue on May 20. His replacement is Rabbi Brian Leiken, who is assistant rabbi at Temple Sholom in Norwalk, Conn.

Fass became the rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom in 1978 after spending two stints as an assistant rabbi in Colombus, Ohio, and as a rabbi in Troy, N.Y.

When he arrived in Rockland, the county was booming, and New City, where the temple is located, had a homogeneous and well-to-do population where fathers worked and mothers took care of the family.

Over the years, the community has changed, said Fass. New City is more diverse and most families have two incomes.

The economy has tumbled and many older residents are leaving for other places.

The size of congregation has changed as well, going from 750 in the 1980s to 270 in 2012.

Through all this, Fass has shepherded the congregation.

He has especially been engaged with young people and has been serving on the faculty of the Reform movement’s leadership council in Warwick. He leads services at the temple’s religious school and spends a day a week with nursery school children.

Known for his engaging speaking style, his sermons, filled with parables, anecdotes and humor, have been compiled and are used by colleagues and lay people in the United States and beyond.

“He is retiring with honor and dignity,” said Marty Rutstein, president of the Temple Beth Sholom.

“He did a bang-up job. He went through three decades. It met with resounding wows.”

Fass has been active in Jewish causes, traveling across the world, including Morocco, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank, as a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of United Jewish Appeal, the American Reform Zionist Organization and the Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East on missions to Jewish communities.

At home in Rockland, Fass serves as a Jewish chaplain for the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department, sits on the Clarkstown Board of Ethics, is a member of the board and the executive committee of the Rockland Jewish Federation, and has been active in social action, interfaith and interreligious work with the Christian, African-American, and Muslim communities.

In retirement, Fass wants to write, play golf, learn to cook, spend time with his family — wife Marian, three children and four grandchildren — and enjoy a more informal relationship with the community he has evolved with.

“It’s been great,” said Fass. “For the next few years I don’t want any obligations.”