A movie aficionado, Rabbi Steven Kushner found himself entering his own version of the Academy Awards at Temple Ner Tamid on Nov. 5 at a gala celebration of his 25 years at the Bloomfield synagogue.

Three hundred people were on hand to congratulate him, including at least four other clergy. Walking down the red carpet, an announcer (and member of the synagogue) was on hand to make every entrance an event.

The night before, 500 people had attended a festive Shabbat service in his honor.

For Kushner, the best part of the weekend was the congregation. “To be sure, I’m honored,” he told NJ Jewish News just after making his entrance, in a brief moment in his office. “But my greatest joy is that all the people out there are really part of the synagogue, whether they’ve been a part of this building since they were born more than 80 years ago, or part of the synagogue since it was founded in 1980, or if they’ve only been here one or two years. It’s really amazing. It’s the ideal congregation — a multigenerational group from different places living in a diverse community, all together.”

He acknowledged that his rabbinate at Ner Tamid had a rather inauspicious beginning, from his first view of the synagogue to his expectations about the community’s needs. “I entered the building through the back door by the kitchen, where there were half a dozen men cooking hot dogs. Then I got a look at the sanctuary, where there were about 100 people smoking cigarettes and playing bingo, and the ark was covered by folding screens.”

But Kushner also found something that attracted him. He had come on board as two Bloomfield synagogues, the Conservative B’nai Israel and the Reform Temple Menorah, were merging to form Ner Tamid. The merged congregation has since affiliated with the Reform movement.

“I experienced the people as deeply committed to the congregation and very excited about the merger,” he said. “And I was excited about the idea of working at a synagogue transcendent of institutional identity. One of the first people I met said to me, ‘We’re not Reform, we’re not Conservative. We’re Jews.’ That for me has always been a kind of tag line.”

For the congregation, Kushner was “a breath of fresh air,” in the words of former president Jerry Stein, and the rabbi’s easy manner recommended him even to those who worried about his youth. Kent Roth, who cochaired the rabbinic search committee, said, “My recollection is that I thought, ‘He’s a young guy. He’s a kid, essentially.’ But at some point I said to myself, ‘This guy handles himself well. He can really talk to you.’”

Ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1977, Kushner is a past president of the New Jersey Association of Reform Rabbis, the Coalition of Religious Leaders of New Jersey, and the MetroWest Conference on Soviet Jewry. He has served on the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Ethics Committee and edited the CCAR’s national Newsletter.

A member of Reform Judaism’s Commission on Worship, Music and Religious Living, he chairs the Beth El Cemetery Fund of the United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey and the CCAR’s Task Force on Kashrut.

Of his 25 years at Ner Tamid, the rabbi said, “It’s been a great run.” But he’s not through yet. Asked about the highlight of his rabbinate at Ner Tamid, Kushner replied, “Tomorrow.”