Executive Assistant, Rabbinic Office

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 fast-paced, dynamic environment; one where they can quickly analyze, prioritize, problem solve, and pivot nimbly and often—as circumstances dictate.

Key Responsibilities

• 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 a firstline 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.
• 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.
• Make travel arrangements, create itineraries and appointments for trips, coordinate travel logistics and related materials, and prepare expense reports as needed.
• Anticipate, identify, flag, and/or solve issues that might interfere with the 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, including in the rabbis’ absence.
• Take ownership of regular processes, including but not limited to: creation and maintenance of Shabbat and High Holy Day 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 the communications department in a timely way.
• Regularly interact and collaborate with departments leaders, including the 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 and operations departments to schedule and implement rabbinic classes, retreats, services, and special events. Includes partnership with both departments to create website content, program registration, learning packets, emails, room setup, streaming, and monitoring via Zoom.
  • Support the rabbis regarding pastoral care of members experiencing lifecycle events such as births, medical or other emergencies, and death. Provide (remote) on-call coverage.
  • Collaborate with and support the advancement department, particularly around High Holy Day 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.

Qualifications, Skills, and Experience

• 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 clergy.
• A basic understanding of Jewish knowledge and culture is preferred, so that the incumbent can most effectively manage programs and issues the rabbis 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 office.

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 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 AM-5:30 PM (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 onsite monthly staff and/or regular departmental meetings, holiday planning meetings, and other meetings and events. The executive assistant will be on call (remotely) up to two weekends per month. The incumbent may be required to work significant additional hours during the fall High Holy Day period.

To Apply

Please send resume and cover letter to hr@bj.org with the subject line, “Executive Assistant-Rabbinic.”

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

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.