Members of Congregations Beth Israel and Neveh Shalom had a unique experience as they filed into Kabbalat Shabbat service the evening of Friday, Aug. 28.

The congregants of Portland’s two largest synagogues filed into the same space.

Nearly 400 of them in total assembled on Neveh Shalom’s Holzman Plaza for the first joint service in either synagogue’s long history.

“It’s pretty amazing to think that this has never happened before, that we never had a [joint] Shabbat service,” Beth Israel Senior Rabbi Designate Rabbi Rachel Joseph said. “I think it really hit us on Friday night, the gravity of the moment and this glimpse of the future, of the possibilities of our congregations working more closely together.”

At the center of the proceedings was Rick Recht, the Jewish music pioneer and founder of Songleader Boot Camp. His presence in Portland for the Portland Jewish Festival, held two days later, was the catalyst for the proceedings.

“[Jewish Federation of Greater Portland President and CEO] Marc Blattner reached out to us, I think it was in February after Rick Rechtconfirmed that he was coming to the Jewish Festival. Marc said, ‘He’s here for Shabbat. He’s willing to do a service. Do either of your synagogues want to have him?” Neveh Shalom Senior Rabbi Eve Posen recalled. “So instead of one of us getting it over the other, we said, ‘What if we did this together?’”

Rabbi Posen explained that she and Rabbi Joseph have known each other since Rabbi Posen arrived in Portland a year after Rabbi Joseph joined Beth Israel, and have been regularly searching for opportunities to bring their congregations together; she continued to say that their synagogue’s executive directors, Josh Kashinsky at Beth Israel and Marlene Edenzon at Neveh Shalom, shared the vision that brought the service to fruition.

Recht was instrumental in the planning of the service itself, combining the liturgy of the Conservative and Reform movements and his own musical stylings, well known to almost anyone who has attended Jewish summer camp in North America in the last couple decades.

“Rick asked for each of us to share the order of service that we normally do on a Friday night,” Rabbi Posen said, “and then we came together on a Zoom for a sort of give and take which things we had to keep from each of our congregations and which prayers and traditions we knew we could let go.”

“When I come into a place, my greatest goal is to create a sense of connection in the community so that people feel more connected to each other on the way out than they did when they walked in,” Recht said. “They feel connected for themselves, they feel connected to each other and in this case, felt more connected more broadly in the Portland Jewish community.”

The issue of which prayerbook to use was bypassed in the form of a customized 16-page handout headed with both the blooming Magen David logo of Neveh Shalom and Beth Israel’s arching main sanctuary roof logo and included both movement’s renditions of prayers where they differ.

“They have Siddurim and prayer books, and we have Siddurim and prayer books, but it felt important that we did something joint, that was just neither one of our movement prayer books,” Rabbi Joseph said. “Through the gift of technology, you can find the Hebrew and put these things together.”

Alongside the handout was a single sheet with each congregation’s yahrzeit (anniversary of death) list, Beth Israel’s on one side and Neveh Shalom’s on the other. The two congregations have different customs for the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish, and effort was taken to incorporate both in the recognition of those observing a yahrzeit for a loved one before inviting the assembled congregants to observe their own custom for the recitation, wish some standing with the mourners and others remaining seated.

“That’s why we come together, to mourn together and to see each other,” Rabbi Posen said. “It made sense that, out of all the pieces, that we would work the hardest to make [Kaddish} something that felt normal and comfortable for all of our congregants.”

There were plenty of congregants on hand – early in the service, the sounds of Recht, Rabbis Joseph and Posen, Rabbi Cantor Eyal Bitton and the joint volunteer choir and band assembled for the occasion were gently punctuated by Neveh Shalom facilities staff adding additional rows of chairs to accommodate the more that 350 people who packed into the plaza to welcome the sabbath in historic fashion.

“Frequently, when you do something that’s quote-unquote community, it’s just the host community that’s there and they really run it. This really felt like a joint effort that was being hosted by Neveh Shalom; it felt like our two congregations really coming together, and I think it really felt different from other community events in that way,” Rabbi Joseph said.

“I don’t think either of us anticipated that it would be this well attended,” Rabbi Posen said. “It was emblematic of the point of the weekend for the Jewish festival, which was that we’re in this together.”

“A lot of times, community events in the Jewish world are really the host community and sprinkled people from the community” Recht said. “In this case, it was truly a combined effort, and you could feel the energy, not just from the leadership, but especially from the community that was present there.”

The rabbinic collaboration, Rabbi Joseph said, went as far as her texts with Rabbi Posen to coordinate their attire for the evening.

“We said, ‘Could you imagine, you know, Rabbi Stampfer and Rabbi Rose talking about their Shabbos outfits before they got together?’” she explained, referencing Neveh Shalom and Beth Israel’s long-serving former Rabbis Joshua Stampfer, z”l, and Emannuel Rose, z”l, respectively.

While this was the first joint service for the two synagogues, it is highly unlikely to be the last.

“I think that the two of us are committed to finding more opportunities to come together,” Rabbi Joseph said of her Neveh Shalom counterpart.

“The two executive directors and Rabbi Joseph and I had a lunch this spring, talking about what our goals were and how we might continue to do this together,” Rabbi Posen said. “So, this was just the first one.”'

PHOTO: Courtesy Rabbi Rachel Joseph