Congregational Engagement Professional

Engagement at Rockdale Temple

K.K. Bene Israel/Rockdale Temple is a mid-sized Reform congregation located in Cincinnati, Ohio. As the oldest synagogue west of the Allegheny Mountains, we celebrated our 200th anniversary in 2024. We pride ourselves on being a forward-thinking and future-focused congregation. Our growing, thriving community engages members as active stakeholders in their own Jewish lives. Members of the Rockdale Temple family build deep relationships with each other and with broader congregation, and connect to community through social, learning, and ritual experiences.

Role of the Congregational Engagement Professional (Engagement Pro)

The Engagement Pro is a full-time professional who plays a key role in imagining, broadening, and deepening individual and affinity/age-and-stage group engagement. The Engagement Pro is an active and collaborative member of the Rockdale Temple team, working in partnership with professional colleagues and lay leaders to create and support a relational culture. Due to the nature of engagement work, evening and weekend programs will be a regular part of the Engagement Pro’s schedule. Rockdale Temple strives to provide flexibility and ensure its employees can live a harmonious work/life balance.

Ideal Candidate

The Engagement Pro is a consummate professional—someone who will successfully support volunteer leaders and staff and engage target cohorts, and who brings relevant experience to this position. Our ideal candidate possesses the ability to work collaboratively and share the joy of Judaism and Jewish community in creative ways, and fundamentally understands that relationships are at the core of successful engagement. While a strategic and creative thinker is essential, the ideal Engagement Pro must also be detail-oriented and organized. This position requires independent judgement, collaboration with fellow staff and leaders, strong administrative skills, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Additional qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s Degree (preferred)
• Significant knowledge of Jewish culture, tradition, and practice
• Previous congregational, youth, Jewish summer camp, and/or Hillel work experience (strongly preferred)
• Prior leadership, programming, event planning, and/or project management experience
• Excellent communication skills (1:1, small group, writing)
• Experience with social media and digital communications
• Success in working with diverse constituencies
• Strong commitment to Jewish communal life

Responsibilities

The Engagement Pro will advance our congregational ideal that everyone can find a meaningful place within the Rockdale Temple community. The Engagement Pro will build 1:1 relationships with congregants and community members, connect members to Temple programs and one another, support the logistics of major congregational programs and initiatives, and work with our clergy, executive director, and lay leaders to further develop and implement our long-term, comprehensive strategy for member and community engagement.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Promote the vision and mission of Rockdale Temple
• Build relationships and work with people at all life stages, particularly in times of transition
• Support current programs, age-and-stage cohorts, and affinity groups
• Utilize social media and digital platforms to communicate with and engage the community
• Engage lay leaders in the development, implementation, and sustainability of programs and initiatives
• Manage grant funding to meet stated goals and partner in evaluation of grant-funded programs and groups
• Recognize and respond to the cycles of initiatives and programs
• Infuse existing opportunities with engagement principles and create new pathways to Jewish engagement

Reporting Relationships

The Engagement Pro is supervised by the Executive Director and will work collaboratively with both lay leaders and Rockdale staff. The Engagement Pro reports to and works closely with the Senior Rabbi and Associate Rabbi & Educator on affinity and age-and-stage group engagement, membership and outreach, and congregational projects and programs.

Compensation and Benefits

• Salary Range: $50,000 – $55,000, commensurate with experience
• Medical insurance, optional dental and vision insurance
• 3% match to employee pension plan
• 15 days PTO
• Paid parental leave
• Conference and professional development funds