Jim Stoloff, a Chattanooga native, is now assistant rabbi at Temple Israel in New York City, whose congregants - people Stoloff will be responsible for guiding morally as well as comforting - include Hollywood and Broadway stars, globally renowned doctors and powerful politicians.During his high school days at the Chattanooga's Center for Creative Arts, Jim Stoloff's love of clarinet and guitar prepared him for a music degree from the University of Memphis.
But those loves, not to mention a serious affection for Ultimate Frisbee and science fiction and fantasy novels, may not seem to fit the 28-year-old's new job - rabbi at one of the biggest, most prestigious temples in America.
In June 2013, Stoloff was ordained as a rabbi by Hebrew Union College, where he first studied at the school's Cincinnati campus then finished up overseas at the Jerusalem campus. This July, he was hired as assistant rabbi at Temple Israel in New York City, the equivalent of getting a master's degree in computer science and being hired to help Google's top brass a year later.
The temple's congregants - people Stoloff will be responsible for guiding morally as well as comforting - include Hollywood and Broadway stars, globally renowned doctors and powerful politicians.
"The first few jobs I applied for didn't call me back and I was so disappointed," says Stoloff, a former resident of the Big Ridge community in Hixson. "But I was fortunate to have some good references and, when I interviewed here, it felt like a good fit right away. I am so lucky."
He is literally a hometown lad made good. Growing up, he attended Chattanooga's Mizpah Congregation on McCallie Avenue, and his mother, Bonnie, still lives in Chattanooga and teaches elementary music at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences. His father died a few years ago and was laid to rest in the Mizpah cemetery next to Stoloff's grandparents.
"When I first went to New York to see Jimmy in his role of rabbi at a worship service, I promised myself I wouldn't be obnoxious and tell everyone, 'That's my son the rabbi!'" his mother says, laughing. "The first person I saw was the temple's maintenance man and immediately I blurted out, 'I'm here to see my son the rabbi.' I just couldn't help it."
Stoloff decided he wanted to be a rabbi during his bar mitzvah, the ceremony that marks a 13-year-old Jewish boy's passage into manhood. At the event, a relative explained how one studies to be a rabbi, applies for a job at a temple, is hired for the job and is paid a salary. Previously, Stoloff liked the rabbi's role as a teacher and thought he would enjoy being a rabbi but didn't know how to become one.
"It wasn't a calling in the sense that Christian pastors use the word 'calling,'" he says. "I would describe it as more of a career that interested me."
His mother remembers the bar mitzvah as a turning point for her son. While many boys recall their bar mitzvahs as rather nerve-wracking because they must speak in front of a crowd, "several hundred people attended Jimmy's bar mitzvah and he seemed completely relaxed," she says.
"Jim had been standing next to our rabbi, greeting guests and overseeing things, when one of the guests who knew me but not my son came over and asked me who the other rabbi was. The guest thought Jim was a rabbi."
As a boy, Jim was socially active as well as socially conscious - an Eagle Scout active in volunteer work, she recalls. And he never worried that his career goal would make his friends wonder whether he would be too lofty to have fun.
"Rabbis are there for the congregation during the same crucial life events as a pastor - weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs and christenings, hospital visits - so it wouldn't be a great idea to have an anti-social rabbi," he says with a gentle laugh.
"But the word 'rabbi' means 'teacher,' so if a rabbi does an excellent job translating and interpreting the Torah and its moral lessons for everyday life, the congregation is content with accepting the rabbi as a regular guy with moods and flaws. Being a pastor might be emotionally tougher."
"If I were comparing the role of a Christian minister to a rabbi, I would say that there is less pressure on a rabbi, his wife and family to be perfect," Stoloff says.
Temple Israel was founded as the "Congregation Hand in Hand" in 1870 on Harlem's 125th Street, just as Jewish and Italian immigrants began flocking to the neighborhood, prompting a building boom. Oscar Hammerstein opened the Harlem Opera House a few years later on the same street.
Although its roots were modest, the temple soon drew a glamorous and educated crowd, hosting Hanukkah Balls with partiers in chic finery and seminars taught by brilliant professors. Once a rabbi is hired there, apparently he or she never wants to leave; the temple has had only five senior rabbis in its history.
Temple Israel practices Reform Judaism, also known as Progressive Judaism, which examines Jewish law continually to see how it can shape one's contact with the 21st century world and seeks to modernize worship services. That modernization includes adding electronic music and experimenting with the types of songs sung by congregants. Like his mother, who is a trained synagogue musician, Stoloff enjoys playing music for the temple, handling his familiar clarinet and guitar, skills he honed in Jewish summer camp as a boy.
The temple places an emphasis on current events by offering seminars plus Lunch & Learn sessions in which guest speakers discuss issues ranging from Israeli politics to modern Zionism to demos of prototype technology from Tel Aviv, Israel's Silicon Valley. Because he is still single and child-free, Stoloff has the freedom to travel for his work and recently led a group of congregants to Israel.
"One of the demonstrations that amazed me was a pair of glasses that makes it possible for blind people to see - in a way," he says. "A tiny mic rests on the blind person's cheekbone so that he can hear an automated voice but no one near him can hear it. There is a tiny camera in the pair of glasses that analyzes what is in front of the blind person. Then the automated voice describes it whether it is a street sign or a building. If the person wearing the glasses holds up a menu in front of his face, the voice can read it for him."
Like any savvy millennial, Stoloff has embraced technology and social media in his own worklife. His very-active Twitter account features a photo of him with a plastic skeleton wearing a tuxedo and a charming capsule bio: "Rabbi. Reformer. Musicer. Social justicer. Reader. Ultimate player. Gamer. Outdoors enthusiast. Sci-fi/fantasy nut."
Although he knows he will always want to work with a congregation, he hasn't set specific career goals.
And that's fine with his mother. She's just glad that his father had a chance to glimpse the man their son would become.
"In 2009, we went to Cincinnati where Jimmy was a student rabbi for a congregation and he was wonderful," she says. "My husband was so proud. He saw the rabbi my son was meant to be."
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.