-That new rabbi is Jessica Hutchings.

She's Nevada's first female rabbi cantor and will soon take the place of Rabbi Sanford Akselrad at Congregation Ner Tamid.

After almost 40 years leading the largest Reform Jewish Temple in Nevada, he's retiring.

We recently spoke with both rabbis.

Part 1 of that interview aired last week, and in Part 2, we pick up where we left off, talking about the increased antisemitism happening here and across the country.

(Rabbi Cantor Jessica Hutchings) We had a situation recently where a congregant was getting in their car in the parking lot and someone yelled, you know-- it was some kind of slanderous thing about Jewish people as they drove by our campus.

This just happened a couple of days ago.

We've had a-- threats come in.

We had a written, mailed threat about that we should not exist, basically.

That came in through the mail with someone's return address on it, so they wanted us to know who they were.

That was like a week and a half ago.

Things like that, that people are outwardly-- we'll get on our live stream, we live stream our services, and once in a while, I'll have to go in and delete comments on the YouTube or Facebook because there'll be bots or trolls that come in and say things about how they feel about the Jewish people.

And I want to keep it a peaceful space for our people to have communal prayer.

And so yeah, I mean, these are things I never saw before, not in Las Vegas, not in Los Angeles, like, they happen, of course, but at this level where it's like, okay, what are we waking up to today?

Never before.

(Rabbi Sanford Akselrad) And you know what happens in another state reverberates in the Jewish community throughout the world.

So if you have a governor whose house is fire bombed, right, on Passover, that reverberates here.

If you have people in Boulder who are the victims of a Molotov cocktail, that reverberates here.

We're a small community.

And when something happens in another state, in another country, we look in the mirror and say, Oh, my God, that could happen here.

What are you doing, Rabbi, to protect our community?

-And then comes-- -That's very real.

-Then comes the tax it costs to be Jewish, which is to have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year per community to have ample security.

And it's tough.

It's tough to know that you need that in order to just be, just live in peace.

-So you want to balance that with a great career coming ahead where you're supposed to be warm and friendly, engaging, outgoing-- -You're doing my job for me.

You're transitioning-- -Right?

So there you are.

On the one hand, you have an open hand, and other you have a closed fist.

It's a very confusing time that way, and but that's what we are.

We hope that people don't think they're going to come to Congregation Ner Tamid and think that, you know, like we're just bunkered down in such a way that people won't feel welcome.

We try very hard, programmatically and also person to person, for people to feel at home and welcome and also safe.

-Perhaps some may argue, a female rabbi is needed now more than ever?

-In what way?

-Well, I want to ask, actually.

-You're talking about being more maternal?

-But that is some of the talk around what a female rabbi can provide that perhaps a male rabbi cannot.

Do you agree with that?

-Sure.

I think it's about the person.

In this particular situation, we spoke yesterday, because Rabbi Akselrad just got back from a men's retreat.

And I said, Okay, well, if you're not here next year, I'll have to lead the retreat, and he said, It can't happen.

It has to be a man leading the retreat.

So there is a need-- -That wasn't exactly what happened.

You said, How do you feel about whether I could lead it or not?

I said, I don't think it would work.

I think the men really want to be led in a men's retreat by a fellow man.

-Totally, so I reflected on that.

-Whether that's right or wrong...?

-No, I reflected on that.

I think that there is a truth to that.

Like people that you identify with, you feel closer to and say things to or act in a certain way that you may not with a different-- with someone of the opposite gender or different gender.

So I think for the women in our community that have experienced, you know, infertility or have body image issues, things that I've written about, spoken about in my own life, and those women have come and said, I never thought I could speak out about my miscarriage or even think about it again, but you gave me permission to do that.

Or I have been struggling with these issues with the way I feel about my body, but you speaking about it made me think about this in a whole new way.

So there are things-- those are things that maybe Rabbi Akselrad couldn't talk about, as he doesn't live in that same body.

So I think it just depends about the person that we're speaking about, and, hopefully, one of the benefits of having a community our size is that we will eventually have two clergy, and we will bring two different perspectives.

We may be two different genders, we may not, but we bring something that hopefully our community will find that they are-- like there's that need to be close to that person.

They can see themselves in that person in some way.

-Your legacy, what are you most proud of having done here in Southern Nevada?

-There's a lot of things.

First of all, when I came, it was about 60 families.

Now we're about 600 families.

So I'm proud of the growth, but it's not just growth for growth's sake.

It's because people have found within our community, I hope, a welcoming environment where people can feel a sense of being supported, whether they don't have children, do have children, have toddlers, all the way to being a senior and on to grave.

I've wanted to be a family rabbi.

So I think I've achieved that type of legacy.

Social justice, whether it's helping victims in Katrina, I went out to Poland to help the refugees from Ukraine.

Most recently, we worked together to provide this incredible support to the victims of fire in Los Angeles.

So this whole motto that I've carried of "Stand tall," I think, is something that I hope stays on.

Interfaith, I've been involved in Interfaith throughout my career.

I'm part of the Interfaith Council.

Forging programs for Thanksgiving.

When One October happened, I was part of the planning.

We held it in the Catholic Diocese church and cathedral, and just bringing people together of other faiths.

The work that I've done, in particular, with the Muslim community, has always been a source of pride.

I remember after 9/11, I said, I know what's going to happen.

People are going to blame all Muslims for what happened.

And so I purposely went and reached out to their community, and we planned a huge program in support of the Muslim community, and it was an Interfaith program.

And I remember there was an incident of, in the Muslim community, they built a funeral home, and it burned down.

They never found out if it was an act of arson or not; but from their perspective, it could have been.

And so I heard about it.

No one invited me.

I just showed up, and they looked out there and there was Rabbi Akselrad, and they were so happy.

They said, Please, Rabbi, would you speak?

And I wasn't, quote, prepared to speak.

I wasn't there to speak.

I was there as a citizen of Las Vegas to say, I support you.

But they felt seen, and when they invited me, I gave an extemporaneous talk about "not in our town," because it can, it can fall on the Muslims, it can fall on the Jews, it can fall on any minority, but hate anywhere is something that we have to tackle head-on.

And so that's also part of the legacy.

And the last thing I remember is during the recession, I created this jobs program that was all based upon relationships, and we got over 1,000 people jobs.

And it was called Project Ezra.

And Ezra was a prophet in the Bible who provided help to the Jewish people at a time of despair.

And it also means "help."

So it was kind of a play on words.

I don't know, I could go on and on down memory lane.

And if we had a two-hour show, I think we could go down that lane -Easily.

-And I have nothing to live up to at all.

[laughter] -What do you want to continue?

-All that.

-What do you want to add?

What are your hopes?

-Look, I think, as times change, things will have to change within the community, and but that, the legacy that I think will carry through is wanting to bring the community together, both the Jewish community, the community at large, that we want to do right by the community that we're living in, in Henderson, Las Vegas.

Some of the things, getting all of the supplies together for the fires in Los Angeles was an initiative that I felt was very important, because they're our neighbors.

I created a Vegas Strong in Song.

We had a concert that was like seven days after One October to bring funding and awareness to our community.

And those kinds of things are really the moments that you feel like community is the most important thing.

And so I definitely want that to continue on, that people feel that it's a special place to be and a community that they want to be part of.

And the future is yet to be known, but I definitely was mentored very nicely.

-She has the unique ability, also, of combining her love of music and her leadership skills.

I think you should share what you did in Israel and how you brought that cantoris concert there.

That was really important.

-If you want me to.

-Yes, please.

-So there's a-- we have a sister city called Ramat HaNegev.

It's a very large geographical part of this kind of south of Israel, or the middle south, and that community neighbors the Gaza "envelope" is what they call it, so the area that is really right next to Gaza and where a lot of the front lines are.

And they have been-- all of their efforts have been exhausted because they're helping all these people in the towns right next to them, and I felt like they needed a little bit of solidarity and support.

And a few months had passed since everything had happened, almost a year, and I got together some of my cantor friends from around the country and I also called some in Jerusalem, and we put together a beautiful-- it was like Spring Mountain Ranch, if you've ever been to that.

It was like that under the stars in front of how these ibexim, these beautiful-- Ibexim.

I used a Hebrew plural-- ibexes, like these beautiful animals, like roaming in the valleys, and it was just this beautiful desert landscape.

And these people who live on a kibbutz, and they-- I just wanted to bring solidarity to them, to show them like we're here for you.

We're going to bring-- we can't bring you-- we can't fix this war, but we can bring you beautiful melodies and prayers and songs.

So let's just sing together.

-And dance again, that was kind of the motto, "We can dance again.

We can sing again," because, initially, Israel was in such despair.

For her to travel there and to say, It's time, you know, we're still in mourning, and yet, there's a time to hear each other sing and to celebrate Jewish life.

-Absolutely.

-And from a female cantor, that was especially important, because that's not well known in Israel.

-Not at all.

I mean-- -So again, she's breaking the mold in so many ways, which is why I'm so proud of her.

-They see my kippah in Israel and they're like, Ohhh.

Yeah.

I usually get a, Good for you!

or yelled at in some way.

I'm used to it by now.

-All right.

Rabbi Cantor Hutchings, Rabbi Akselrad, thank you so much for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you for having us.