Be a part of a resilient, thriving community!
Since its founding in 1825, B’nai Jeshurun (BJ) has been at the forefront of the American Jewish experience. As it approaches its third century, its vision remains focused on the spiritual work of transformation and on the creation of a Jewish path that is authentic, profound, and helps all members of the community seek and live their purpose to the fullest.
BJ’s spiritual leaders and its nearly 1,900 member families and 60+ staff share a vision of a diverse, dynamic, and inclusive community that offers many paths to Jewish religious life, while supporting one another in their spiritual quests. BJ is committed to honoring tradition while re-imagining and innovating its practices and programs to create a vibrant, contemporary, and relevant Jewish life for all who are seeking it.
Rabbis Rolando Matalon and Felicia Sol, both of whom have artfully led BJ for three and two decades respectively, continue to evolve along with the community they serve; including COVID-19 and the need for virtual access that resulted in an expansion of our reach.
Looking forward, our post-pandemic vision of BJ includes a dynamic hybrid operation where most of our offerings are available in-person in our historic Upper West Side campus, as well as through various online platforms. We also envision a workforce that helps fulfill BJ’s mission in a primarily hybrid work environment.
We are excited to welcome an Executive Assistant who can evolve with us.
Job Overview
The Executive Assistant will manage all day-to-day administrative operations and provide direct support for Rabbis Matalon and Sol, the two senior rabbis, as part of BJ’s bustling Rabbinic/Executive Office. The office also includes an Associate Rabbi, Hazzan and Executive Director and is managed by a Director, with the support of an administrative assistant. The position reports to the Director, Rabbinic/Executive Office.
The successful candidate for this role will possess a welcoming and professional presence and be both detail and big picture oriented. They thrive in a faced paced, dynamic environment, one where they can quickly analyze, prioritize, problem solve and pivot nimbly and often--as circumstances dictate.
Duties:
- Closely manage and maintain highly complex calendars for both rabbis, such that their time is used most efficiently, while still ensuring a general feeling of reasonable rabbinic accessibility for the community. Prioritize competing needs relative to the Rabbis’ accessibility; preserve the Rabbis’ personal time off. Cross coordinate the Rabbis’ calendars wherever possible, to ensure adequate senior Rabbinic coverage.
- Act as first line resource (in person, via phone, email or other methods) for community members, donors, volunteers, visitors, lay leaders, board members and others with comments, questions, ideas and issues. Respond to all in a timely fashion with clarity, compassion, grace, sophistication and professionalism. Maintain and act on highly sensitive information in a confidential manner, with utmost maturity and discretion.
- Make travel arrangements, create itineraries and appointments for trips, coordinate travel logistics and related materials and prepare expense reports if/as needed.
- Be physically present on the BJ campus to receive and/or escort visitors scheduled for in person appointments with the Rabbis; always ensuring coverage if you are unavailable to do so.
- Anticipate, identify, flag, and/or solve issues which might interfere with flawless and successful execution of rabbinic programs and services offered. Take initiative to proactively intervene, engage others and/or to correct such issues. Keep rabbis abreast of critical matters in real time, while deferring communication of non-urgent information to alternate times and/or alternate venues.
- Adopt and leverage various technologies and utilize organizational skills to create efficient systems and processes. Create and maintain a sense of order and calm in Rabbinic/Executive Office, especially in the Rabbis’ absence.
- Take ownership of regular processes, including but not limited to: creation and maintenance of Shabbat and High Holiday calendars, maintenance of quarterly rotation schedule of rabbinic and minyan coverage and compilation of weekly pulpit notes, and ensure the weekly Community Email mazal tov updates are written correctly and shared with Communications in a timely way.
- Regularly interact and collaborate with leaders of departments, including Director of the Rabbinic/Executive Office, Executive Director, Hazzan and/or their administrators, to ensure facilitation of successful programs and services, for example:
- Coordinate with the Programming Department and Operations Department to schedule and implement rabbinic classes, retreats, services, and special events. Includes partnership with the Communications Department to create website content, program registration, learning packets, room setup, emails, and monitoring via Zoom.
- Support the Rabbis regarding pastoral care of members experiencing lifecycle events ex: births, medical or other emergencies, death, etc. Provide (remote) on-call coverage.
- Collaborate with and support the Advancement department, particularly around High Holiday planning, various fundraising events, campaigns and other donor engagement programs. Monitor receipt of payments, checks and ACH donations to, create reports and process thank you letters for donations to rabbis’ discretionary funds in partnership with Advancement.
- Partner with HR to facilitate the hiring, onboarding, and ending of rabbinic fellow assignments.
Experience and Skills:
- BA degree (or equivalent experience/skills)
- Minimum of 5 years of administrative experience supporting an organization’s most senior leader(s). Preference is for candidates who have managed two or more such individuals simultaneously, particularly the organization’s clergy.
- A basic understanding of Jewish knowledge and culture is preferred, so that the incumbent can most effectively manage programs and issues the rabbis most frequently encounter.
- High proficiency with Google Suite (calendar, drive, and email) required.
- Experience with Salesforce preferred.
- Ability to speak and write with a high level of clarity and grammatical accuracy.
- Ability to project an approachable yet highly professional image, as would be expected within a Rabbinic suite.
Compensation and Benefits:
This is a full-time, exempt position, with a salary range of $70,000-95,000, based on experience level.
BJ offers medical, dental, and vision insurance policies, as well as vacation and sick days, over 20 paid (National and Jewish) holidays, a 403b retirement plan and many other benefits.
Schedule:
The Executive Assistant position is a hybrid, exempt position that requires work in the office four days per week; the ability to work from home on the fifth day is included as coordinated with the Rabbis and the Director. Work hours are typically 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (sometimes later to receive appointments arriving to meet Rabbis in person). The schedule also includes an early release on Fridays for Shabbat, barring requirements to prepare the Rabbis for Shabbat services.
In addition, the Executive Assistant will need to be flexible and able to attend additional on-site monthly staff and/or regular departmental meetings, holiday planning meetings, and other meetings/events. The Executive Assistant will be on call (remotely) up to two weekends per month. S/he may be required to work significant additional hours during the High Holiday season.
To Apply:
Please send resume and cover letter to [email protected] with the subject line, “Executive Assistant-Rabbinic”.
B’nai Jeshurun is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in recognition of its values, commitment to social justice, and responsibility to its spiritual leaders and staff, congregants, and the communities within which it lives and works. It strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, veterans, immigrants, and LGBTQIA+ applicants.