Congregation Kol Haverim

Congregation Kol Haverim - Voice of Friends

Our little Torah has returned back from the sofer (scribe) after receiving repairs.
In this picture, Rabbi Dr. Kari Tuling and members of the congregation are admiring his handiwork.

See our Welcome and Gallery pages

  Shalom  

Kol Haverim is a place where our community comes together to share our lives and to strive to make this world a better place.

We come here to learn, pray, celebrate and support each other with love and kindness.

Our ongoing mission is to create a vibrant, sacred congregation where each individual can feel at home and contribute his or her Jewish perspectives and personal talents to inspire us all.

  שָׁלוֹם   

Congregation Kol Haverim is pleased to welcome Rabbi Kari Tuling to our community! 

Below are some of the highlights of Rabbi Tuling’s career.

Rabbi Kari Tuling served at Temple Beth Israel of Plattsburgh, New York:

• Founded a nonprofit start-up called The Oasis Project, an afterschool program for providing tutoring and mentoring to homeless kids in temporary housing, created through coalition-building with the Interfaith Council, the Department of Social Services, the homeless shelter, and three local public school districts.
• Learned new spiritual practices through participation in the Institute for Jewish Spirituality’s second cohort, and discovered an interest in integrating movement into prayer. At Yom Kippur, I will be introducing a new healing service, in which participants are given a short prayer to contemplate as they walk through the circuits of a canvas labyrinth.
• Reorganized the congregational religious school, hired a new administrator, and worked in partnership to develop a multiple-year curriculum, create an effective teacher recruitment strategy, and identify opportunities for increasing parental engagement. Our very successful mock seder featured role-playing in which our elementary school parents pretended to be ancient Israelites. Last year’s enrollment was the highest in ten years. 
• Shared the fruits of scholarship within my community, by teaching many varied adult education courses; within the Reform movement, by writing for the CCAR Press; and within the academic world, by producing scholarly presentations and articles. I am currently writing an introductory book of Jewish theology for the Jewish Publication Society. 
• Developed a relationship with the local state university and gained official recognition as the first Jewish Chaplain on campus. I created a program whereby our members could each host a Hillel student as their guest at our congregational seder.

She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Hebraic and Cognate Studies (June 2013), Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio
Dissertation: “Between Maimonides and Kant: Hermann Cohen’s Religion of Reason,” Dr. Barry S. Kogan, first reader; Dr. Michael A. Meyer, second reader.

Master of Philosophy in Hebraic and Cognate Studies (June 2008), Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati, Ohio

Management Experience

Senior Manager, Marketing Communications, Cost Care, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of WellPoint, the national division of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of California (started in 1990 in a lower position; left in 1998 to go to rabbinical school)

• Headed the department responsible for sales proposals for major bids and communications materials for large employer plans (largest client: the State of Georgia State Employees’ Health Plan);
• Oversaw a line-item budget of $750,000 (marketing) and a pass-through printing budget of $2 million (communications).