late at night, she felt ex-
cluded.
Her husband, a Detroit
native, was raised in a
Reform home. He once
brought his wife to a ser-
vice at his temple. "I was
uncomfortable with the
organ, the choir, the whole
grandeur of the place," she
says.
Mrs. Green was seeking
"a sense of community and
belonging" when she
stumbled across Workmen's
Circle. She participates
sometimes, not often, in
Branch 1088 activities.
Work and caring for her
family take up most of Mrs.
Green's time.
Mrs. Green says she ap-
preciates the Workmen's
Circle "rational approach,"
does not celebrate the High
Holidays and wouldn't
mind if her children con-
verted to Christianity.
"What difference does it
make if somebody only
goes to synagogue twice a
year?" she asks.
Yet her main concern
with Workmen's Circle is
religion.
"I always feel like some-
thing is missing," she says.
"How can you have
cultural Judaism without
having a liturgy to back it
up?"
Jeri Magid's initial at-
traction to Workmen's
Circle also was because of
her child. A native
Detroiter, Mrs. Magid
heard about Workmen's
Circle from a friend. She
discovered it was a family
tradition: her grandfather
also had been a member of
the Arbeiter Ring.
Though she had no Jew-
ish education as a child,
Mrs. Magid was raised in a
home where the holidays
were observed. Her
husband's background is
Orthodox.
Even as their first child,
a daughter now 23, was
growing up, the Magids
never considered joining a
congregation. Mrs. Magid
didn't like the idea of
"being lost in a crowd."
And with a limited Jewish
education, Mrs. Magid
feared synagogue-goers
might snub her.
The Magids even con-
sidered abandoning
Workmen's Circle at first.
That was before Jan Adler
and Ellen Bates-Brackett
came along. Ten-year-old
Eli hated the school until
Mrs. Adler took over last
year, but Mrs. Magid
loathed the idea of pulling
him out.
"We wanted him to have
an education," she says.
"That's what I didn't
have."
"Before (Mrs. Adler and
Mrs. Bates-Brackett), I
didn't learn a lot," Eli
adds. A bespectacled, seri-
ous boy with an artistic
flair, Eli says he loves the
Yiddish songs and the art
projects (all based on Bible
stories or Jewish holidays)
and even his fellow
students.
"In my group there's
mostly girls," he says.
"But we get along."
Eli was so pleased with
the Sunday School that he
encouraged his cousin to
join, and she in turn
brought her family to
Workmen's Circle.
Among his art projects
are a paper plate ocean
with a walnut boat for
Jonah, and a sheep, in
honor of shepherd King
David. "I loved making
this," Eli says of the sheep.
Did he have any knowl-
edge of King David or
Jonah before going to
Workmen's Circle? "No
way!" Eli says.
"I like to know my
background," he says.
an Adler's Huntington
Woods home is an in-
toxicating playground
o creativity. There's a large
piano, dolls from throughout
the world who sit on chairs
and bookshelves, a fortune-
telling teacup on the coffee
table. One whole room is fill-
ed with papers and boxes,
student-made Purim masks,
At left, Barbara
and Paul Green
discuss the
school day while,
below, Ellen
Bates-Brackett,
center, explains
the program to
Mrs. Green and
Rosemary
Dengiz-Crawford.
.
construction paper, glue and
colorful art projects.
For many parents, Mrs.
Adler, director of the Sun-
day school, is a key to the
success of Workmen's
Circle.
The parents of two, Mrs.
Adler, her husband and
their families have been in
Workmen's Circle
"forever," Mrs. Adler says.
Both her grandparents and
her husband's grand-
parents were members.
Professionally, Mrs.
Adler works for the Eth-
nics Awareness Programs
for Children Adopted
Overseas and for Ameri-
cans for International Aid
and Adoption. Her
Workmen's Circle job,
which was supposed to be
part time, is now "all en-
compassing," she says.
In addition to serving as
Sunday school director,
Mrs. Adler is music direc-
tor, a teacher and develops
the school's curriculum.
This includes studies in
Jewish ethics and holidays,
Jewish history and con-
tributions to society, cur-
rent events and Israel.
Another regular feature
is Yiddish language in-
struction, one of the fun-
damentals of the Workmen's
Circle education. The only
other Jews who promote
Yiddish today are right-
wing Orthodox yeshivot.
A member, along with
the Birmingham Temple
and the Shalom Aleichem
Institute, of the Coalition
for Secular Judaism,
Workmen's Circle is the
world's largest publisher of
Yiddish books.
The Sunday school also is
considering teaching Heb-
rew, Mrs. Adler says. Many
parents are requesting it.
There are no tests at the
Sunday school, and projects
carry the same weight as
work sheets on Jewish his-
tory. Jewish holiday
rituals are taught, then
tied to contemporary issues
like social justice and
ecology. Students are pre-
sented with biblical stories
and given the option of
regarding incidents like
the parting of the Red Sea
as either a miracle or a
geophysical occurrence.
B'nai mitzvah are optional.
"There is no right or
wrong," Mrs. Adler says.
"We're helping to develop
minds."
The emphasis is teaching
children the value of the
Jewish people and Jewish
history, she continues. "If
we accomplish that, we feel
successful."
Almost one-third of the
students locally are of
racially or religiously mix-
ed background. And a large
percentage of the
Workmen's Circle mem-
bership is intermarried.
Yet the organization's
executive director in New
York, Bob Kaplan, is not
concerned about the future
of Workmen's Circle as a
Jewish institution.
"Our (senior citizen)
homes are Jewish, most of
our people and programs
are Jewish," he says. "How
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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