When Ken Agranoff started working at Temple of Aaron 42 years ago, it was a homecoming to a place he knew well. It was his family’s synagogue growing up – kindergarten consecration, becoming Bar Mitzvah, Talmud Torah graduation, confirmation, and his wedding. And for someone with business and law degrees, it seemed an unlikely place for him to become the executive director.
“I was in between jobs…and I’m not worried. But my mom is worried,” Agranoff said. “She said, ‘Temple of Aaron has an opening.’”
Agranoff argued that this wasn’t what we went to school for.
“‘What have you got to lose?’” Agranoff recalled his mother’s retort. “‘Go talk to Rabbi [Bernard] Raskas. They’re looking for an executive director. You may or may not find it interesting, but you’re not employed.’
“It turned out to be the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Agranoff worked at the St. Paul synagogue for 39 of those 42 years, which will end on June 30 when he retires. His first stay was for six years, helping Raskas wind down his own 36-year tenure in 1989, hire the shul’s first husband and wife rabbinic team, and grow the synagogue to membership numbers that exceeded Raskas’ time on the pulpit.
“I was recruited away, and after two jobs away from here for a couple years, I concluded none of them were as interesting, as challenging, as long-lasting to use every skill I had,” he said. “So I came back.
“When I started, people saw me as Betty Agranoff’s little son,” he said. “Within a couple of years, she became my mom. I wasn’t her son anymore; she was my mom. That was the transition when I knew I had made.”
Agranoff, approaching his 73rd birthday, said he still feels fresh with the energy of a 40-year-old. But the increasing use of technology in running a synagogue is another reason why the time is right for him to retire.
“The technology is something that is more a part of the younger half of the congregation who run their lives around it [and] that’s not an area I’ve invested much time in and there’s not enough time for me to invest,” Agranoff said.
Some of the basic technological changes have been made at the synagogue, but Agranoff seems happy to let them pass him by.
““He’s a creature of habit, so like he doesn’t like to change his paper and pen to online,” Fineblum said. “We’ve made him change a couple of things, like here is an actual Google calendar that you can use on your desktop, and he’s like, ‘Yep, I have mine right here with my pen and paper.’”
Despite all the energy, Agranoff said he doesn’t want to be on call seven days a week.
“In certain areas, I still can help at the highest level. But to move forward, and utilize and harness the power of technology, I recognize I’m not the guy. And it’s just a tool; our job is not technology, but the tool helps the rabbis, helps the school, helps everybody, theoretically, meet more needs. That’s not in my skill set.”
He also knows that he doesn’t want to stay in the job too long.
“I also know that I don’t want to be that person who all of a sudden starts slipping, and then what do you do?” he said. “‘He’s given us so much, blah blah blah.’”
The search for Agranoff’s successor started in late 2025, and the shul hired Amber Brumbaugh as the new director of operations. But the decision to retire started nearly five years ago.
“Someone called up and said ‘I’ve been asked to serve [as president], but there’s no way I’m going to serve when you’ve left…Would you stay two more years?’ Agranoff said. “I still like what I’m doing. I’m still good at what I’m doing. I’ve got my physical and mental health. [My wife, Tracey, is] still working full-time. My kids are independent. I’ll do it.”
Two years later, the same conundrum hits and Mark Devine takes the presidency and asks if Agranoff would stay two more years. Devine’s successor wasn’t going to have any luck trying the same tactic.
“Once you move into your head, it would be healthier for you and healthier for the institution,” he said. “Team Rubenstein (Rabbi Marcus and Rabbi Rachel Rubenstein) completed their first five-year contract, and on July ,1 they start their new one. So it only made sense from my perspective to get a peer of theirs [in the role]. If you get the right team, this is the next 30 years, potentially.
Cantor/Educator Joshua Fineblum, who Agranoff hired in 2010, said he has used all the wisdom Agranoff has passed on.
“He’s been a mentor in so many ways. And he’s always Temple of Aaron first,” Fineblum said. “He thinks about the community and what the community needs, and I’ve tried to take that mentality into everything that I do, too. I really try to say, what would our members want or what do our members need with everything that I do. I learned that from watching him and being there with him in many a meeting over the years.”
Divine said the last two years as president, and the several years before that on the executive track he was on, were career development for him because of his relationship with Agranoff.
“I couldn’t have been the president I was without Ken,” said Divine, whose tenure officially wraps up on June 30. “I had so much to learn, so I needed him to be there. He was the greatest mentor one could have.”
Agranoff said that the vibrancy of a congregation has its ebbs and flows. But even the term “vibrant” is a tough term for him.
“Staying vibrant for what percentage of the congregation?” Agranoff countered. “I see the percentage of people who are enjoying the vibrancy. For example, somebody who enjoys studying Torah every week, and they come every week…they feel it’s very vibrant. If you are joining and enjoying the synagogue through watching your kids grow up, meet new people, get a Jewish foundation, if there are enough peers, then you’re vibrant for the future.
“All the different groups require different touch points. The sharper the clergy, the cantor, youth director, school director, if you have everybody in sync, there’s the synergy. When you’re not, and Temple of Aaron has it like everybody else…your discussion is ‘what’s wrong with the Temple of Aaron?’”
Agranoff said that the synagogue has been lucky to hang on to many people who have become inactive.
“By keeping them around when you’re able to add vibrancy in (areas they care about), it’s a wonderful feeling,” he said. “That’s the magic of the Temple of Aaron, and it’s the magic of Adath, and it’s the magic of Temple Israel, and it’s the magic of Beth El.”