Rabbi Shafir Lobb (left) signs her contract with Congregation Ner Tamid as Alan Gilbert, synagogue president, looks on.

Although she still has a house to sell in Ohio, Congregation Ner Tamid's new rabbi already feels at home in Tucson.

"When I arrived in Tucson on the second night of Chanukah, we went to an assisted-living facility to hear the Ner Tamid choir. Steve Slaff, Ner Tamid's vice president, hugged me, and said Ôwelcome home.' It feels so right to be here," Rabbi Shafir Lobb said during her first official trip to Tucson.

The congregation is "so excited about Rabbi Shafir," says Alan Gilbert, Ner Tamid's president. "Her great warmth and counseling ability has already been felt." Her teaching skills are excellent, too, he says: "She conveys complex thoughts in simple terms that everyone is able to understand, which is very rewarding." Lobb, in turn, wants Ner Tamid's congregants to discover what works for them. "Jewish law is a dance," she says. "Nearly 25 years ago, when I appeared in a Conservative shul with a tallit, the men walked out," Lobb remembers, "but the times have changed."

Her own dance has taken a circuitous path.

"As a child, I told my father I wanted to become a rabbi; even though he was Orthodox, he encouraged me to pursue my dream," Lobb says. A descendent of 22 rabbis, she enrolled at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia after receiving her B.A. in religion at Ursimus College in 1972. Two years later, her father died and she dropped out. "I wasn't ready then anyway," Lobb reflects.

By 1975, Lobb acquired a master's degree in education in order to pursue a more marketable profession. At the same time, she began taking flying lessons, which developed into one of her lifelong passions. Lobb moved to Cleveland to work as a flying instructor in 1980 - that was the year she married her husband, Bill, whom she refers to as her "spiritual partner." After receiving a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Akron, Lobb worked at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for 17 years. During her engineering career, she was awarded 11 patents for her inventions.

In 1999, while in shul saying Kadish for her mother, Lobb observed a "bunch of women wearing tallit." Judaism had moved to a new place, she says; she realized that "I had, too." At the time, Lobb was in training to become a life coach and as part of the process was working with one herself. It was time, she decided, to step up her dance with Judaism and return to rabbinical training. "When I face my maker," Lobb says, "God won't say, ÔWhy weren't you like Moses, but were you the best Shafir you could be?'"

In 2003, as part of the ALEPH Rabbinic Program, Lobb earned a master's degree in Judaic thought from Cleveland's Siegal College of Judaic Studies. ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal is a school without walls that offers structured guidance and mentorship, so Lobb traveled around the country learning from Jewish scholars. At her smicha (ordination), Lobb joined the Rabbinic Association of Renewal; her name appeared on a webpage where the Ner Tamid search committee found their new rabbi.

Although Ner Tamid is Lobb's first congregation, her recent activities in Ohio represent her belief that "all people be treated as God's children." She participated on an interfaith panel for the annual "Children of Abraham - A Journey Together" conference in Lakeside, Ohio; taught courses in Akron, Canton, and Cleveland, including an interfaith workshop on sacred texts; and taught distance learning classes through the ALEPH Bet Midrash. Lobb also served as chaplain associate at the Akron General Medical Center and traveled to New Castle, Pa., to work with Temple Hadar Israel.

"My goal at Ner Tamid is to bring in Tucson's many unaffiliated Jews," Lobb says. "There is a grassroots swelling within Judaism aimed at enhancing spiritual growth through a variety of modalities." By offering experiential Shabbat mornings that include Jewish meditation, chanting, music, and drumming, the new rabbi explains, "We will take the time to go deep - for the individual as part of the community."

"Ner Tamid is dedicated to liberal Reform Judaism and social justice. They have gone through some rough times, and I want to help them heal, to nurture and grow the congregation," Lobb says. In her view, there has been a tamping down of emotion among Jews since the Holocaust, and it is time to address an increased awareness of spirituality and the yearning that comes with it.

Like Jewish tradition, Lobb says, she and her husband are "adept at changing with the times." Looking forward to settling full-time in Tucson, she is eager to add a new passion to her long list: macro-photographing purple Santa Rita cacti. Until their Ohio home sells, Lobb will spend at least two weekends a month at Ner Tamid.

Thrilled that the Ner Tamid board emphatically approved her contract, she says, "I have carried a sense of preparing for something until quite recently. It is only now that I feel like I'm doing the work I've been meant to do."