Tamara Schuster has a framed quote on her desk at the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, where she is the director of admissions, which describes her overarching goal in nearly every aspect of her life. The quote, from the Jewish Outreach Institute, reads: “I pledge to reach out and welcome everyone interested in finding Jewish meaning and community, wherever they may be on their journey.”
“I think it goes back to my family moving so much,” she explained. “My dad was in management with Avis Rent-A-Car. I lived in five states by the time I was 12. The one constant in my life was the synagogue. It was one of the first things we connected to wherever we lived. ”
Schuster was starting eighth grade when her family settled in San Diego, where the synagogue and all it offered — preschool, religious school, B’nai Mitzvah, confirmation and youth group — remained the constant around which her life revolved.
Right before her senior year at San Diego State University, after spending the summer as a CIT adviser at a Reform Movement camp, she announced her plan to change majors from fashion merchandising to religious studies. “When I realized that my avocation should be my vocation, people wanted to know what took me so long,” she said.
From LA to KC
Schuster spent the next year in Israel and two more at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, graduating in 1992 with double master’s degrees in Jewish education and Jewish communal service, leading to a job as director of education at Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, Calif. At Beth Torah, she received a phone call from Neal Schuster.
“Neal and I had grown up going to Camp Swig in Saratoga, Calif., and had a summer romance when were on the staff together in 1987,” she said. “But we were young and went our separate ways for eight years.”
Meanwhile, Neal, who was from Seattle, had gotten a job recruiting high school students to go on Israel trips sponsored by the Reform Movement. In 1995, he was relocated to Los Angeles and was calling rabbis and educators to set up meetings to promote the Israel program.
“Is this the Tamara Lawson who I went to Camp Swig with so many years ago?” he asked upon reaching her. They were engaged soon after they started dating, married in May 1997, and left for Israel a few weeks later for Neal’s first year of rabbinical school. Ordained and named assistant rabbi at Congregation B’nai Jehudah, the couple moved to Kansas in 2003.
Once settled, Schuster was offered the opportunity to serve as the director of the Genesis program for interfaith couples that had been launched by the JCC’s Department of Adult Jewish Learning under Rabbi Amy Wallk Katz. “The Genesis program intrigued me,” she said, “because so much of my work in Reform congregations had been with interfaith couples and their children.”
For Schuster, one of the most satisfying outgrowths of Genesis was the Jewish Outreach Institute Mother’s Circle program for women who are not Jewish but partnered with Jews and committed to raising their children Jewish. “What I loved about it was offering these remarkable women a program just for them as a ‘thank you’ for giving the Jewish community the “gift” of their children, as well as seeing the connections women made with each other,” said Schuster, who had lobbied for the program to be brought to Kansas City. She and several former participants still get together on a monthly basis to learn and support each other.
The glue that unifies
Whether it’s Genesis and the Mother’s Circle or the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, the common thread for Schuster is a passion for bringing women together across affiliations and backgrounds to celebrate and appreciate Jewish learning.
Schuster dates her first involvement in the Jewish Federation back to college when she served as the campus chair of fundraising for the United Jewish Appeal (now Jewish Federations of North America), the umbrella organization of Federations. She remembers the trip to Israel with other campus leaders as her first extended encounter with all streams of Judaism.
In the fall of 2003, Schuster attended B’not Kehillah, the Federation’s leadership program for young women sponsored by Women’s Division, and was excited shortly thereafter to participate on a Yad b’Yad program panel of Jewish professionals speaking about their Jewish journeys. This year, she helped plan the Tu b’Shevat Seder.
Yad b’Yad is Women’s Division’s educational series, now in its 17th year, that provides opportunities for all women in the Jewish community to come together to explore Jewish values, texts and culture. Schuster has served on the Yad b’Yad steering committee for the past three years and is also active on the PJ Library committee. Additionally, she recently joined the youth committee of Congregation B’nai Jehudah.
With three young children and her job at the Hebrew Academy, Schuster finds time for the Federation, she says, because it’s the “glue that unifies our entire Jewish community. It’s a place where Jews of all denominations, observance levels and backgrounds can be comfortable, learn about the community, connect and give back.”
In other words, for her, the Federation makes the perfect partner in pursuit of that goal she keeps framed on her desk — to reach out and welcome everyone interested in finding Jewish meaning and community, wherever they may be on their journey.
Tamara Lawson Schuster
Born in Miami, 1966
Patrick Henry High School, San Diego, 1984
San Diego State University, B.A., Religious Studies, 1989
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, M.A., in Jewish Education, M.A. in Jewish Communal Service, 1992
Married to Rabbi Neal Schuster, 1997
Lives in Overland Park
Children: Eliana, 10, Ayelet, 8, and Judah, 5
Recent Reading: Bon Appetit and Cooks Illustrated Magazines
Favorite Movie: “Singing in the Rain” or “Mary Poppins”
Favorite Jewish Food: latkes (she’s a vegetarian)
Trips to Israel: Five (including two year-long stays)
Pets: Oscar the dog, and 2 guinea pigs, Cinnamon and Kevin
Synagogue Affiliation: Congregation B’nai Jehudah
