EDUCATION

Not Just For Rabbis Anymore

JTS's new regional director

says it's more than just a

rabbinical school.

NOAM M.M. NEUSNER

Staff Writer

N

owadays, many Jew-
ish organizations are
slashing budgets and
holding off on new programs
until the recession runs its
course.
But the Jewish Theologi-
cal Seminary, the Conser-
vative movement's rab-
binical school, is trying
harder. Not only is it
fighting off the recession
blues, but the New York-
based school is actively look-
ing for new givers.
Locally, they recently
hired Tom Wexelberg-
Clouser to oversee their
fund-raising efforts in the
Midwest. Mr. Wexelberg-
Clouser, formerly an assis-
tant campaign director at
Detroit's Jewish Federation,
looks forward to the
challenge.
Although hired from the
ranks of fund raising, he has
a deep interest in Jewish
causes. The bearded Wex-
elberg-Clouser lived in
Israel for seven years,
teaching illiterate Morrocan
Jewish women. After getting
his master's in social work
at Temple University in
Philadelphia, he worked in
planning and fund raising
for. Detroit's Federation.
"JTS is a well-kept secret
in the community," he said.
Part of his challenge will be
forcing JTS to do what it
rarely has done well in the
past: fund raising.
"Our feeling is that we
have a role to play that is
unlike any other institu-
tion's," said Diane Romirow,
sky, JTS's national director of
regional development.
With outreach programs in

the Soviet Union, eastern
Europe and Israel, JTS has
branched out from its acade-
mic roots. In some ways, it
had to. Throughout the last
30 yeats, JTS's monopoly on
Judaic studies has ended,
with its scholars joining
faculties at western univer-
sities, draining what once
was the hub of Jewish learn-
ing and scholarship.
JTS now offers more than
just a rabbinical education.
It sponsors a joint
undergraduate program
with Columbia University, -a
graduate school for
educators and scholars, and
has revamped its rabbinical
education to include more
hands-on ministering.

With outreach
programs in the
Soviet Union,
eastern Europe
and Israel, JTS has
branched out from
its academic roots.

In addition, it offers a wide
range of educational ac-
tivities for -professionals and
laypeople. Rabbi Efry Spec-
tre of Adat Shalom Syn-
agogue said JTS's local
efforts may not be visible,
but are all-pervasive.
Locally, JTS faces a
somewhat enviable problem:
it has a well-respected
reputation for teaching
rabbis and running summer
camps. The Seminary's prob-
lem now, Mr. Wexelberg-
Clouser said, is perception.
Most Jews don't think of JTS
as a charity.
"For many people, it's a
given, like mother and apple
pie," he said.

The task ahead is a tricky
one. Even in a thriving
economy, Mr. Wexelberg-
Clouser would have to con-
vince givers that there's a
need. With the recession,
JTS is trying to expand,
even as statistics show a
dropping number of givers.
The hope, however, is that
Detroit's Jewish leaders —
many of whom are members
of Conservative synagogues
— will respond.
"We have people who, as
adults, have begun to ask
questions about what it
means to be a Jew, to be a
Conservative Jew," he said.
"We need to remind them
precisely what their own
particular movement offers
them."
Part of his plan is to build
bridges between Conser-

vative synagogues and JTS,
not only through rabbis, but
with educators, librarians
and layleaders.

Tom Wexelberg-
Clouser: "We're a
well-kept secret."

Mr. Wexelberg-Clouser is
currently assembling a 30-
member executive com-
mittee to coordinate fund-
raising and other JTS events,
including a mission to gauge
the progress of Jewish life in
the Soviet Union. Already un-
der discussion is a plan to
bring JTS faculty to speak at
local Conservative syn-
agogues.

"I'm not interested in sell-
ing tickets to a dinner. I'm
interested in selling people
the excitement of being
attached to the Seminary,"
he said. "I see my job as be-
ing more than raising
bucks."

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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