A Temple Micah Member Returns to the Washington Area, This Time As a Rabbi

Michael Holzman is returning to the Washington area. The former Temple Micah member will take over as the rabbi of the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation-- a Reform synagogue in Reston--on July 6. Holzman, 36, has been the associate rabbi at Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia since 2004.

Rabbi Holzman and his wife, Nicole Saffell Holzman, were members of Micah from 1996 to 1998, when the future rabbi taught the confirmation class and seventh grade.

At the time, Holzman had just graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and taken a job as a paralegal at the Justice Department. Like many young college graduates, he was unsure where he was going professionally. A science major in college, Holzman had been encouraged by his Justice Department colleagues to go to law school. But he had become disillusioned with what he saw as the limits of scientific knowledge and the legal profession to explain adequately the depth of the human experience.

Instead, he began to consider enrolling at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He had always felt a strong spiritual connection with people and the world. Holzman consulted with a number of area rabbis, including Rabbi Zemel.

Rabbi Zemel "doesn't whitewash things," Rabbi Holzman recalled. "He gave me a very realistic picture of what to expect in rabbinical school and afterward. I had a phenomenal experience with mostly fantastic professors and outstanding classmates."

While in rabbinical school from 1998 to 2003, Rabbi Holzman said, there was one experience that profoundly shaped his spiritual development: Sept. 11, 2001. "I was just 15 blocks away on 9/11," he said. "I saw the burning buildings collapsing and people running up Broadway. It was just before Rosh Hashanah, so we started singing psalms."

Yet, something about that response didn't feel right to the rabbinical student.

"I couldn't talk to God that way," he said. "My views of God were still unconsciously somewhat childlike. Without being aware of it, I saw God as a loving being that protects people. Where was God on 9/11? Why didn't he protect people then?"

As he was watching the horrific scene of people trying to escape the collapsing buildings, Rabbi Holzman said, he saw a man stagger up the street. A woman asked the man if he was hurt. The man could not hear her because his ears were full of ash. The woman dashed into a nearby store, bought some Q-tips and cleaned out the man's ears.

"God was not absent," Rabbi Holzman said he realized. "God was in that woman who stopped to help someone in need. Too many people have pushed God out of their lives. That woman let God into hers. That helped me understand God."

At the same time, Temple Micah taught him how to practice his religion as an adult. "I learned from Micah that God matters, not just the synagogue," Rabbi Holzman said. "We use Jewish tradition to help people connect with the values that are right and true and loving in their lives. Nothing is more important than that. That's how we as Jews and as rabbis do God's work. God is present in what we do."

Rabbi Zemel, who officiated at the naming ceremony for the Holzmans' baby, described his former congregant as "a very bright, terrific fellow who is very creative in how he approaches being a rabbi. "It will be great to have him back in this area. He will do wonderful things."