Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin to be Honored by Federation of Jewish Women's Organizations

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is a nationally known author, educator, environmental activist and communal role model.

Today, May 16, she will be honored by the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations of Maryland at its 108th annual convention at Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation, 7310 Park Heights Avenue in Pikesville.

Founded in 1916, the organization is the oldest Jewish women’s federation in the nation. The umbrella group, which includes 26 nonprofits and sisterhoods, is dedicated to leadership training, supporting the Jewish community and advocating for a variety of communal issues.

A Baltimore native who lives in Pikesville, Rabbi Cardin will receive the E.B. Hirsh Lifetime Achievement Award. Past recipients include former Baltimore City Councilwoman Rochelle C. “Rikki” Spector, former Associated Chair Debra S. Weinberg and community leader Myrna E. Cardin.

Recently, Jmore spoke with Rabbi Cardin about the award and her new roles as president of the Baltimore Board of Rabbis and co-chair of the Baltimore Environmental Sustainability Network.

Jmore: How does it feel receiving the E.B. Hirsh Award?

Rabbi Cardin: I feel very humble. It’s lovely to be chosen. But in this particular case, it’s all the more interesting because I remember when I was 12 and my mother [Shoshana S. Cardin, the late global Jewish community leader] pulled me out of school to go to a place where she was the president and she was speaking as the incoming president of the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations of Maryland. It was a luncheon and I’m sitting there, and it was the first time I heard my mother speak.

She got up there and spoke, and I thought, ‘She’s pretty good.’ It was the first time that I became aware of my mother as this potential great leader that she emerged into. She was 39 at the time and it’s just very, very sweet that my first connection to my mother’s greatness is now a place that is also honoring me.

When we moved back to Baltimore from New Jersey, one of the reasons that I was delighted was because Baltimore was a deeply multi-generational Jewish community. There were roots and depth and visions for the future. And this award just reminds me of that with my mother and me, and who knows what’s going to happen in the future.

You’ve been involved in so many projects supporting the Jewish community. What are you up to these days?

I’ve been working with environmental issues like the Baltimore Orchard Project — founding that organization and delighted that it’s still going. I’ve also been working on environmental human rights issues. It’s becoming more and more important on a federal level as well as on a state level.

Codifying environmental rights in our Constitution is going to be the foundation of making sure that people have a right to be protected from environmental degradation, because otherwise we don’t have that fundamental right. Any laws can be undone or ignored with relative impunity, not absolute impunity, but relative impunity if an administration doesn’t want to enforce them.

[In addition] I’m just doing my teaching and I’m grandparenting.

You’ve also taken on new leadership positions recently.

Yes, I became president of the Baltimore Board of Rabbis in January. I’m trying to work with my executive team and the board to figure out how we rejuvenate since COVID. The organization has great potential to utilize its influence, especially now with [what is happening on college] campuses and the [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] movement and antisemitism, and it just seems there’s a place and role for the voice of the Board of Rabbis.

One of the first things I wanted to do was to get our veteran rabbis to come and talk to us about sort of the heyday of what it was like to be a rabbi in the 1960s and even in the 1970s and 1980s. So we have [Rabbi] Gus Buchdahl, [Rabbi Donald R.] Berlin and [Rabbi] Floyd Herman speaking to us in June. That should be a lot of fun.

The other thing is co-chairing with Sam Sobel [the Baltimore Climate Action coordinator for Adamah, and Mark Smolarz [chief operating and financial officer of The Associated] this Baltimore Environmental Sustainability Network. The idea is to promote sustainable practices among Jewish organizations and institutions and synagogues in Baltimore. It’s housed, as it were, within The Associated and that’s fabulous. We’re hoping to help more synagogues and institutions in Baltimore become greener and build sustainability as part of their fundamental values.

The past seven months have been highly challenging and painful for the Jewish community and those who care deeply about Israel. Your thoughts on the current Middle East conflict?

We just had Pesach and the seder, and one of the things that we do in the seder is diminish our cup by 10 drops as we recite the plagues. We do that so we acknowledge the pain and loss that our enemies suffered. At the same time, we celebrate the success of our freedom, the need to protect oneself and do what is necessary to preserve one’s existence and dignity and culture.

There’s no doubt that Hamas dealt a horrific blow to the psyche and the body of Israel and the Jewish people, and we have to make sure that we protect ourselves and heal ourselves from that. At the same time, we also have to respond in a way that acknowledges the humanity on the other side and press our leadership to come to terms for peace while we pursue our security.

Life often requires us to hold two competing feelings and sentiments and values. But that’s what is demanded of us. That’s what we learn about in the seder. The Midrash tells us that as the Jewish people crossed safely through the Red Sea and the waters came down upon Pharaoh and the army, the Israelites erupted in song. The Midrash says that God says, ‘Why do you sing when my creation, my creatures, the Egyptians are dying?’ And yet it was God who brought the waters down upon them.

There are times when you have to do things that are painful. That should not prevent us from feeling the humanity of the other side. And we have to hope that we can find that golden pathway to get to peace. We have to struggle in this difficult time.

For information about the annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Women’s Organizations of Maryland, visit jewishwomensfed.org.