February 2025
Dear Friends,
Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling
We are thrilled to share the news that we have hired our top candidate to serve as our interim rabbi during our transition year following Rabbi Zemel’s retirement. Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling will join our rabbinic team on July 1, 2025 and serve until June 30, 2026, at which time we hope to welcome a new senior rabbi.
Rabbi Tuling visited us at Temple Micah last month to interview with the search committee and meet with our board. We were impressed with her pulpit experience, intellectual prowess, and management experience, especially as it pertains to change management. Her references offered consistent and positive assessments of Rabbi Tuling, both as a pulpit rabbi and as a thoughtful leader in the synagogue. In addition, and importantly, she met with our rabbis and executive director and they all felt that she would make an excellent addition to the Temple Micah team for the interim year.
Rabbi Tuling was ordained at Hebrew Union College (HUC) in 2004 and earned her PhD in Hebraic and Cognate Studies from HUC in 2013. For the past 13 years, she has served two different congregations as the sole rabbi. In addition to serving in a congregational role, Rabbi Tuling served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati, SUNY Plattsburgh, and HUC. She has published extensively, including a book entitled Thinking About God: Jewish Views.
The decision to hire Rabbi Tuling followed a thorough and thoughtful six-month process led by our Interim Rabbi Search Committee, comprised of co-chairs Lauren Laitin and Meryl Weiner, and Transition Committee members. The committee’s work began with collaborating with the staff and Board to prepare the job posting. Our posting incorporated feedback and insights gleaned through the community-wide discovery circles conducted in the spring of 2024. We received a number of qualified applicants and, following preliminary interviews, ultimately invited three of the candidates to Temple Micah for in-person interviews and meetings.
The Interim Rabbi Search Committee voted unanimously to recommend that the Board hire Rabbi Tuling, and the Board subsequently voted unanimously to adopt the committee’s recommendation. Unlike the senior rabbi position, which requires membership approval, our bylaws do not require a membership vote on hiring other pulpit rabbis. Please see our FAQ for more information about the role of the interim rabbi and our reasons for pursuing an interim rabbi for our transition year.
I am so grateful for the Interim Rabbi Search Committee’s commitment to an unbiased and deliberate process and for working so hard to achieve this great result. We look forward to introducing Rabbi Tuling to everyone at Micah when she arrives this summer.
Shalom,
Rielle Miller Gabriel, President
Dear members of Temple Micah,
I am delighted that I will be a part of the Temple Micah community this coming year. I was drawn to Micah thanks to the warm welcome I’ve received. I was also very impressed by your tradition of congregational innovation and intellectual engagement. It’s an exciting place to be, and I can’t wait to meet you all.
I’ll be moving to D.C. with my husband Tom in June and starting in early July. We’ll bring with us two cats, some orchids, a fancy coffee machine, and a whole lot of books. I have spent the last eight years in central Connecticut, serving as a congregational rabbi for Congregation Kol Haverim while also teaching at various seminaries (including Hebrew Union College) and writing scholarly articles and books. My first book, Thinking about God: Jewish Views, was published by the Jewish Publication Society in 2020. I am hoping that I might be able to offer some adult education classes over the year to talk about chapters of that book; I particularly love engaging in conversations about theological questions.
I am originally from California: I was born in San Diego, raised in Orange County, and went to college in Los Angeles. You’ll occasionally hear it in my speech patterns (I say “awesome” a lot). I received my BA in International Relations from Pomona College in Claremont, California. After graduation, I worked in marketing communications for a managed health care firm, but then realized my true calling was to become a rabbi. I was ordained by Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 2004. I stayed on campus to earn a PhD in Jewish Thought in 2013, while also teaching Jewish studies courses at the University of Cincinnati. Thereafter, I served a small congregation and taught at SUNY in Plattsburgh, New York and then in 2017 moved to Kol Haverim in Connecticut. I have always been a scholar-rabbi, blending intellectual pursuits with congregational work.
In my free time I like to make art: my favorite medium is watercolor pencils. I make very colorful abstract works as a form of meditation on a specific idea or theme. I am also a practitioner of meditation, and have been trained as a meditation teacher. I also love to travel and to sightsee, so I plan to spend part of my time exploring our nation’s capital. My husband Tom is a software engineer at Apple, Inc. He and I love to explore new restaurants, so please do let us know your favorites.
Many thanks to the search team and all the staff and clergy at Temple Micah for giving me a warm welcome. I am looking forward to a productive and meaningful year together.
All the best,
Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling