by Lane Kadish ’20

Regardless of your faith, age, or employment, if you spend enough time in Waterville, you are likely to hear the name Rabbi Rachel Isaacs. As the spiritual leader of Beth Israel Congregation, Isaacs leads a variety of initiatives to support the community and provide financial assistance to those in need. These initiatives often focus on raising money to directly support individuals in urgent need through her discretionary fund. Donors contribute, she explains, “in large part because they know that it goes towards things like rent and heating and students in need and all sorts of other things.”     

Rabbi Isaacs has assisted members of the Waterville community in all facets of life including handling unexpected medical expenses, providing down payments for new apartments, or paying for students’ college applications. She also makes it a priority to bolster the Interfaith Resource Fund. When that fund is low on money to meet local needs, Isaacs often refills it through her discretionary fund or even her own personal account. 

Isaacs recognizes the lack of available resources in Waterville, citing the upward trend of childhood poverty, increasing housing costs, and the shortage of affordable housing units.  She has made it a priority to secure funds from the widespread Jewish diaspora, both for Beth Israel Congregation and for the broader Waterville community. “Coming from New York, I have spent my life understanding the resources that are available on the national Jewish scale and so [I thought], if I could even bring one one-thousandth of those resources to Waterville, I think I could turn the synagogue around—and that’s ultimately what I’ve been doing.”  

Proud to call Waterville her home, Rabbi Isaacs feels honored to have the opportunity to make a difference in her community. “I think it’s an amazing thing that in my job I get paid to make sure that people’s heat stays on. … I can come home in a day saying I helped someone plan their death, I helped someone keep the heat on in their house with a newborn baby, I supported housing for somebody suffering from mental illness, and I taught a twelve-year-old the Hebrew alphabet. I mean, it’s challenging and exhausting but… to be able to support a family doing that kind of work is an incredible blessing.” Isaacs takes it upon herself to be a “light unto the nations,” as the prophet Isaiah puts it: to be a role model for the Waterville community, for her students at Colby, and for her own children. The Jewish tradition is full of debates and disagreements, but “there are certain values that are beyond debate. You can’t just turn your back on people who are needy… you can’t shame people who are poor. It’s my job as a rabbi to live those values.” 

Collaboration between the synagogue and Waterville-area churches is a top priority for Rabbi Isaacs. She understands that there are many differences among faith traditions, but there are also certain things that are “transcendent,” as she describes them, for instance that lying is wrong and demonizing poor people is unacceptable. Isaacs admires the work of her evangelical and mainline Protestant colleagues and recognizes the essential role that faith-based institutions, particularly in Waterville, have in public life. “The synagogue and churches serve as a stopgap measure in making sure that  people don’t starve or freeze. I think it’s sad that we have to fill that role… I think that the government should do that, but since it doesn’t we’ll always have a role as sort of the place of last resort.” Isaacs also recognizes the dangers of relying too heavily on religious organizations to provide economic relief and charitable service, which may alienate those who do not subscribe to a particular religion and who might not take advantage of those services as a result.

Rabbi Isaacs and the board at Beth Israel alike want the synagogue be seen as an organic, natural part of Waterville by all community members regardless of their background or faith. “Non-Jews should feel comfortable there… to learn about Judaism… to celebrate and engage… to learn about our faith.” She hopes the synagogue will be seen as a benefit to the community and the wide variety of people within it, allocating resources in a way that makes Waterville better. Isaacs also recognizes that Jews as a minority have often suffered from discrimination, and she hopes that her personal relationship with the broader community can help combat harmful narratives about Jews. 

Whether by providing financial assistance or offering support in other ways, Rabbi Isaacs is committed to fighting poverty in Waterville and to building a cohesive community for all of its members. She summarizes the way she seeks to live her life with a quote from the Talmud: “In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man”—that is, always strive to be a decent human being even in the face of an unequal and often indecent world.