On behalf of the Associate Rabbi Search Committee, we are thrilled to let you know that after our year-long search, we have found a wonderful new Associate Rabbi, Bailey Romano, who will join BHS in July of 2023.
Rabbi Romano grew up outside of New Orleans, LA. A Jew by choice, she received a BA in Religious Studies from Rhodes College, and an MA in Jewish Studies from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, specializing in American Jewish History. During Rabbinical School at HUC-JIR, she worked in a number of Jewish organizations and synagogues, including Camp Daisy & Harry Stein in Prescott, AZ; Congregation Oheb Shalom in Sandusky, OH; Congregation B’nai Israel in Parkersburg, WV; and Isaac M. Wise Temple, Rockdale Temple, and Adath Israel in Cincinnati, OH. Rabbi Romano also holds an MA in Jewish Education Administration from Xavier University. She was ordained in 2019.
Among Rabbi Romano’s many wonderful qualities, what particularly resonated for the Search Committee, staff, and stakeholders who met Rabbi Romano during the interview process were her genuine desire to forge relationships, her empathy, and her ability to communicate caring.
Rabbi Romano’s role at BHS will round out our clergy team, collaborating closely with Rabbi Lippe and Cantor Porzecanski, providing much-needed support both on and off the bimah. She will fully share in the responsibilities of worship leadership, life-cycle events, and educational initiatives and offerings. She will bring her considerable experience as a Rabbi/Educator to partner with Religious School Director Katie Rein and help foster a greater sense of community and engagement among families with young children through Bat/Bat Mitzvah. Rabbi Romano also is looking forward to finding new ways to engage teens and build further upon our offerings for young adults and the Jewishly disconnected. We are excited for Rabbi Romano to generate and experiment with new ideas and programming that respond to the needs and desires of our growing, evolving community.
Rabbi Lippe, who experienced an instant connection with Rabbi Romano, says, “We are tremendously excited to welcome her to the clergy team. Cantor Porzecanski and I felt an immediate and total sense of synergy at each of our meetings with Bailey. That energy will be translated into a more vibrant bimah every Shabbat and a deeper field for lifecycle and education. The search committee has done an outstanding job in finding not only a talented associate rabbi but the right associate rabbi for this synagogue community.”
Please join us in warmly welcoming Rabbi Romano, along with her husband, Jewish musician and song leader Ben Pagliaro, to our BHS community.