YOUR MOVE JUST GOT EASIER
H EADLINES
Second Career:
Rabbi Becomes
Police Chaplain
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JEWISH EXPONENT
ON A SATURDAY NIGHT
aft er the end of Shabbat last
month, Rabbi Gary Gans,
emeritus spiritual leader of
Congregation Beth Tikvah in
Marlton, New Jersey, heard the
distressing news of what had
taken place earlier that day at
another small synagogue in the
United States.

A Pakistani-born terrorist
entered Congregation Beth
Israel in Colleyville, Texas, and
held four people hostage until
all four escaped, and FBI agents
shot Akram to death.

Could that type of antisemitic
incident happen in Marlton?
Gans was taking no chances.

Th e rabbi, 70, a Northeast
Philadelphia native who has
served the southern New Jersey
synagogue since 1981, was
concerned about the threat that
“copycat” terrorists could pose
to his own congregation.

He quickly sent an email to
a lieutenant in his town’s police
department. “Within minutes,” Gans said,
police patrols of his synagogue
increased, and have continued,
particularly while worship
services and religious school
classes are taking place inside.

Gans said his protection
appeal succeeded because of the
contacts — and the confi dence
— he built up among offi cers
during his fi ve previous years
as a volunteer chaplain with the
Evesham Police Department.

He knew the right person
to call in an emergency; the
lieutenant understood the
rabbi’s concern.

“It was very confi dence-
inspiring to know that police
were stationed outside our
building,” said Rabbi Nathan
Weiner, who succeeded Gans
at Beth Tikvah. “Rabbi Gans’
ability to be in touch with the
local PD so quickly gave us all
reassurance and enabled us to
more quickly alert our congre-
gants to the thoughtful safety
response of the congregation.”
Gans, who was ordained
by the Reconstructionist
movement and earned a Ph.D.

degree in family counseling at
the Eastern Baptist Th eological
Seminary, became a police
chaplain when the police
department approached several
members of the local clergy
to establish the chaplaincy
program. He was attracted by
the “sense of purpose ... giving
back to the community.”
To prepare
for his
post-pulpit assignment, he
participated in a months-long
training program and accom-
panied police on ride-along
patrols. Gans, who was on the other
side of barricades from police
decades earlier during anti-war
demonstrations, said he gained
new respect for the offi cers.

While Jewish chaplains in a
big city’s police department in
this country are common, they
are rarer in communities home
to few Jews.

Beth Tikvah, Marlton’s only
Jewish house of worship, has
some 250 member families.

Th at means there are several
hundred Jews in the congre-
gation and maybe a few
hundred unaffi liated Jews in
a town whose population is
45,000. Th ough no one keeps
offi cial records of such matters,
Marlton likely ranks among
the municipalities with the
smallest Jewish communi-
ties that have a Jewish police
chaplain in its ranks.

Chaplains are trained to
work with people of all faiths.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM