There is a picture that hangs in the Valley Temple Board Room of four men at a pizza restaurant. Taken in the summer of 2023, this picture represents the great story of leadership that has steered the congregation for the past half-century. I am in the photo. So is our Senior Rabbi, Sandford Kopnick. And standing resolute in the back is Rabbi Solomon T. Greenberg, the Rabbi Emeritus, who helped to make Valley Temple what it is today.
During the decades that Sol was Valley’s Rabbi, he made vital decisions that paved the way for a path that would resonate with our community far beyond what he could have imagined. He helped to construct the physical building, moving the congregation from a house in Wyoming to the building that (with a little subsequent remodeling) remains our spiritual home. As many have noted in their tributes to him, he was one of the first in the nation to officiate interfaith marriages, not as an act of compromising his values, but rather upholding them, saying ‘yes’ to those who were trying to find a space for their Jewish identity while so many were telling them ‘no’. He led his congregation from a foundation of relationship, of putting interpersonal connection at the root of good religious practice. In short, he created my dream congregation. And I am so grateful every day that I get to call “the house that Sol built” my home.
The first time I set foot into Valley Temple, I was a third-year rabbinic student. I had been looking for a place to pray during the weeks I wasn’t at a student pulpit, and decided to give Valley a try. As soon as I crossed the threshold, I was inundated with love and welcome. I think I was invited to three different Shabbat dinners for the following week before the service at even started. Looking back, what surprised me the most was that I never actually got the chance to talk to Rabbi Kopnick; I instead learned everything I needed to know about how the place treated guests by the way the congregation took ownership of their inclusion, how they went out of their way to make sure that a stranger could feel like family.
Fast forward a decade, and I am now the rabbi who gets to facilitate a culture that knows how to live out our values. After spending 25 years in Florida following his retirement, Rabbi Greenberg returned to Cincinnati and his congregation. I got to spend the past few years being the rabbi to a hero of our people, watching quietly as he gracefully and humbly found a home in the pews, rather than at the lectern. He was in the congregation for many of my High Holy Day sermons, for funerals at which I officiated, and at Seders that I helped to lead. It is no small thing to get up in front of a room full of people and try to fill the shoes of a great and talented rabbi, let alone with him in the crowd. But I never once felt judged, condescended to, or intimidated. Rather, I could sense the pride he had in creating a legacy, one that I was deeply grateful to honor and maintain.
Last spring, in the wake of Rabbi Kopnick’s announcement of his retirement in 2027, the congregation named me to be the next Senior Rabbi. It was an incredible honor, and one that humbled me for the truly great rabbis, leaders, and mensches I was to succeed. From Sol, I learned what it looks like to create a community that prioritizes care and compassion, humor and joy, and vibrancy and enthusiasm. And I got to see how much better off Jews, Judaism, and all our people were because of the gift that was Rabbi Greenberg.
I’ll admit that I didn’t get to spend as much time with Sol as I would have liked. Likely, there would never have been enough time, especially considering the restraints his illnesses imposed on him. But getting to meet one of my heroes, as I claimed my place in his downline of inspiration, remains one of the great moments of generational leadership I have yet to experience, and I am so profoundly grateful for what I did get.
There was, of course, a fourth individual in that photo I referenced earlier. His name is Matthew Berman. He is a congregant at Valley Temple and a fourth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College in New York. The middle Torah in the ark at Valley belongs to his family. And he is the legacy of this place. Matthew embodies a congregation that knows how to make people feel welcome and at home. He is the result of excellent education, of deep, meaningful connections. He is, in short, a wonderful teacher, friend, and mensch. And he is where he is because Rabbi Sol Greenberg created a place that Matthew and his family could call home. That Rabbi Sandford Kopnick could call home. That I get to call home.
His memory is a profound blessing. And his legacy is a torch we all bear with pride and sincerity.
Austin Zoot is the Associate Successor at Valley Temple in Wyoming, Ohio.