From left: Rodeph Shalom Senior Rabbi Jill Maderer, Rodeph Shalom President Jon Broder and Josh Laster (Courtesy of Josh Laster)
Throughout his childhood in Delaware County, his years as a synagogue youth director in the Philadelphia suburbs and his early career as a synagogue executive director in the Philly suburbs and New Jersey, Josh Laster would somehow wind up back at Congregation Rodeph Shalom.
He drove by the Center City shul and came for events and meetings. Laster was struck by the old building’s history (it opened in 1928), and he appreciated the congregation’s willingness to serve as a central meeting place for Jewish leaders from around the region.
He always felt like he might want to end up there one day if the opportunity presented itself and the timing was right.
That timing is now. Laster began serving as the Reform synagogue’s executive director on Sept. 1. He was hired in May.
“RS always struck me as a great place,” he said.
Laster always struck RS as a great guy, too. The new executive director actually found out about the job opening while attending a conference for synagogue leaders with Rodeph Shalom’s previous executive director, Jeff Katz.
Laster, then serving in the same role at Congregation Beth El in Voorhees, New Jersey, sat with Katz at the airport. Katz told him he would be retiring; Laster expressed interest; Katz told him he’d be a good candidate.
The Rodeph Shalom leaders who interviewed Laster agreed.
“Part of what was exciting about Josh was, yes, he’s had these years in these different, wonderful congregations, but also, he has so much Jewish communal experience. His heart is really in the Jewish community,” said Rodeph Shalom’s senior rabbi, Jill Maderer.
Laster’s father served as a synagogue director, and his mother worked in Jewish funeral homes. At home, they celebrated Shabbat every Friday night.
It was in his blood, and even early in his adult life, it was on his resume, too: He worked as a youth director at Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen and Beth David Reform Congregation in Gladwyne, and he spent nine years as waterfront director and then alumni president at URJ Camp Harlam in the Poconos.
But those were not full-time jobs. It was not until the spring of 2010 that Laster made the switch to being a full-time Jewish professional.
Months earlier, during the High Holiday season, he was working in IT sales when he attended a service at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Wallingford, his wife’s childhood synagogue. During the service, an announcement was made that the executive director had left and a search would begin. Laster leaned over to his father-in-law and told him to keep him posted.
As he saw it, he would be able to combine his commitment to Jewish life with his business skills. That was his pitch during the interview. He talked about a sales training book that emphasized positive accountability in the workplace.
“See it, own it, solve it, do it,” Laster recalled, of both the book and the pitch. “At the time, I could see how it described the job.”
And it still does.
His jobs have gotten bigger over time. Ohev Shalom had about 300 to 350 member families. Laster’s next stop, Congregation Beth Chaim in West Windsor Township, New Jersey, had about 650. Beth El in Voorhees counted around 850. Rodeph Shalom has more than 1,100 households, and it welcomed 77 new member families during the High Holidays.
But even as budgets increase, security needs become greater and engagement with each congregant becomes more of a challenge, the role remains the same.
“Our job is to create these profound connections,” Laster said.
At the same time, Laster acknowledged that running a bigger synagogue comes with new challenges.
“You tend to have a bigger facility when you have more people. More people also equals a larger religious school. And on High Holy Days, there are more people in the building and more security needs,” he explained.
Laster’s heart was in those previous stops, too. In fact, his family still lives in Cherry Hill and belongs to Beth El. His sister, Tara Feiner, actually replaced him as Beth El’s executive director.
But professionally, Rodeph Shalom feels like a culmination of sorts. Now that he’s seen RS from the inside, Laster wholeheartedly agrees with the synagogue’s vision statement, too.
“Immersed in Jewish time, guided by enduring values, compelled to moral action, we create profound connections,” he said, quoting it.
“I see the vision as steady,” said Maderer of the synagogue’s future. “There’s a layer of the vision statement that’s also a commentary on it. We’ve studied it deeply and seen that it still works for us.”