Hosaha with his grandson Jacob celebrating his bar mitzvah
The warm welcome touched Hosaha and Darlene. “That was the first synagogue we went to where someone actually greeted us!” he says. When members of that synagogue voted to become a more liberal, egalitarian congregation, Rabbi Kunis told them that as an Orthodox rabbi he could no longer serve them. Several of the more traditional members—including the Levys and Toni Brown’s family—broke away to form a new synagogue with Rabbi Kunis at the helm. They launched Shaarei Shamayim on Purim in 2002.
Kunis, who grew up as an Ashkenazic Jew in Brooklyn, candidly remembers: “My family didn’t want to leave Atlanta. It was a blow to my ego, initially, going from 800 families to 30 families.”
But as the years have progressed his boutique shul has quadrupled in size and attracted a mosaic of souls, including African-American converts as well as formerly unaffiliated Hispanic and Israeli Jews.
Embracing the Differences
“We are honored to have them,” says the rabbi. “When we started Shaarei Shamayim we made a greater effort to get them involved in synagogue leadership.
There’s a network in the Atlanta area of black Jews and blacks who are interested in Judaism and word started to spread. Some of them had been meeting by themselves but not knowing exactly what to do.
“I make clear to all of them money is no barrier to belonging to Shaarei Shamayim and educating their children in our religious school. People are enthusiastic. I can’t tell you how exciting it is to convert a family of four or six all at once. The excitement on their faces—it doesn’t go away.”
Rabbi Kunis, far right, with Hosaha Levy behind him, carrying the Torahs to Shaarei Shamayim’s new building September 2016
The congregation recently honored him with a dinner to celebrate his 50th year in the rabbinate. He clearly has found his mission. When will he retire? “When it stops being fun.”
Says Kunis, the author of Dancing with G-d: How to Connect with G-d Every Time You Pray, “I see and feel Shaarei Shamayim is where I need to be. G-d placed me here for a reason. Part of that reason is to be a spiritual portal to those seeking the light of G-d and Torah.”
Reprinted from the current website of aish.com
