Community Views
Editor's Notebook
Continue To Be Strong
And Strengthen Each Other
Mission Substance,
Subsidy And Red Tape
ALAN HITSKY ASSOCIATE EDITOR
STACIE FINE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
A couple of weeks
ago, I read an arti-
cle in the New York
Times about a rab-
bi who has estab-
lished an "800"
phone number for
freelance rabbi-ing.
Some applauded
his move as a real-
istic effort to meet the needs of an
increasingly diverse and geo-
graphically scattered Jewish com-
munity. Others, in effect, referred
to him as a "prostitute" (in so
many words), conveying the im-
pression that "if you pay, I'll do
what you ask."
ish services and celebrations.
Should we be trying to meet their
needs?
Another prevalent population
paradigm is the phenomenon of
the unaffiliated Jew who may live
in a large Jewish urban center
but who is unaffiliated with any
Jewish organization outside of
her/his family. These people have
a desperate need for occasional
Jewish services and celebrations.
Should we be trying to meet their
needs? Are those Jewish offl-
ciants who try to meet their needs
on a situational basis "prostitut-
ing' themselves?
Before I answer, let me reflect
with them if they joined his con-
gregation (which was over two
hours away), and committed to
five years of membership (despite
the fact that the child was already
11).
This option was unacceptable
and left this family with a very
bad taste in their mouths. They
were also ready to turn away
from doing the ceremony Jew-
ishly and began investigating a
Unitarian church.
When we criticize this innov-
ative rabbi in New York or when
I hear that people feel morally
outraged that I perform services
on a freelance basis, I ask that
This story raises some inter-
esting issues about the state of
the Jewish community. I fre-
quently work on a freelance ba-
sis, performing weddings, bar
mitzvahs, baby namings and oth-
er rabbinic services on an on-call
basis. I, too, have been praised
and derided for my efforts.
The Jewish community is
changing. We are no longer as
concentrated in Jewish urban
centers as we were even 10 years
ago. Our population is moving to
smaller towns and increasingly
living in areas where there are
few other Jews.
I live part time in Traverse
City which, while it is marked by
a vibrant and diverse Jewish
community, still has citizens who
have never met a Jew.
In any event, the Jewish com-
munity is on the move from high-
ly concentrated urban centers to
increasingly dispersed ones.
One implication of this dias-
pora is that Jewish people now
live in communities where there
is no rabbi. They live in towns
that have no temple or syna-
gogue. They often have no Jew-
ish contact outside of their
immediate family. These Jewish
small-town pioneers have a des-
perate need for occasional Jew-
on some of my recent experiences
doing freelance work.
I got a call from an intercul-
tural couple who were getting
married. The bride, Jewish, val-
ued her Jewish identity, planned
to raise her children as Jews and
wanted a Jewish home. The cou-
ple called several rabbis, none of
whom would co-officiate with
Christian clergy.
By the time she got to me, she
was considering the possibility
of having just the Christian min-
ister, who had been welcoming
and supportive. She was ex-
tremely frustrated by the rejec-
tion behavior she experienced
from all the other rabbis she
called. (I believe she said that
she had spoken with over 20 rab-
bis.) I performed the wedding.
That bride, and her parents and
grandparents (who were Holo-
caust survivors), had a Jewish
wedding.
Gratitude is not the word for
what I received from this family.
They felt that their history and
culture and values had been ap-
propriately expressed, acknowl-
edged and affirmed. They left the
event Jewishly richer than before
they came.
Another story. A family called
me because their son decided he
wanted to become bar mitzvah.
They lived in a small town with
no rabbi. The nearest rabbi told
them that he would only work
we stop to consider the idea
that one who saves one soul
saves an entire world. One who
serves one Jewish family with
integrity serves the whole Jew-
ish world.
The message I want to send all
the Jews who have made choices
to move away from the commu-
nity is not: "Go away. We don't
want you anymore."
The message I want to send re-
minds me of a story: There is a
Jewish mother who wishes an au-
dience with a very high guru in
the Himalaya Mountains. She is
asked to fast for three days, pray
for three days, live in the
monastery for several weeks, be
silent for 30 days — all before she
can see the guru, before whom
she will be allowed to speak only
three words.
She agrees to all the conditions,
despite her advanced years, all so
that she can speak three words
to the guru. Finally, she climbs
the mountain, sits at the feet of
the guru and says, "Sheldon,
come home!"
As a rabbi in training, my "Hip-
pocratic oath" is to serve the Jew-
ish people to the best of my
ability, to minister to a wide
range of pastoral and celebrato-
ry needs and to act as a welcom-
ing beacon for those who wish to
identify in some way with the his-
tory, culture and future of the
Jewish people.
Stacie Fine is community
development director for the
Society for Humanistic
Judaism.
My friend was
a little angry last
week. He'd been
dealing with the
Jewish commu-
nity, and he
wasn't happy. So
I became the
lightning rod.
"Just let me
vent," he said.
He wants to send his son on
the Miracle Mission for Teens
this summer. He's already paid
$2,000 of the $2,995 cost for the
June 23-July 26 adventure in
Israel, but he was hoping for
some help on that final $995.
The community has estab-
lished a procedure, he says. It
involves turning in your tax re-
turns and going before a com-
mittee to explain why you need
the financial aid. That's some-
thing my friend does not want
to do.
"Why do you have to prosti-
tute yourself?" he asked. "Why
do you have to plead before a
committee? Why can't the com-
munity subsidize this trip in a
way to make it truly affordable?
If I were a Soviet Jew, a New
American, the money would be
there for me, no questions
asked. But because I'm native
born, I have to bare my soul."
My friend's impassioned
monologue raises a host of is-
sues.
I gently suggested that the
community was only trying to
preserve the subsidies for those
truly in need. He admits he is
not in that category, but offered
the following argument:
* His temple dues and reli-
gious school costs this year will
be $2,200.
* He is making a bar mitzvah
and a confirmation this year.
* He is living in a home that
he can afford and in a neigh-
borhood he enjoys, instead of in
a fancier area that he could
probably still afford. "So I'm be-
ing penalized," he says, "for liv-
ing within my means."
This reminds me of the col-
lege scholarship application
process, with the same bottom
line: spend it all and you'll be re-
warded; live within your means
and you'll pay more. It's not fair,
it goes against the grain, it vi-
olates the values we are taught
to hold dear, yet that's the game
we play.
But the community has sub-
sidized the teen mission
through funding from the Jew-
ish Federation, the Ben Teitel
Charitable Trust, the Grand
Family Fund and the Agency
for Jewish Education (AJE).
Similar trips from New York to
Israel cost $4,200, according to
community shaliach Jeff Kaye.
Howard Gelberd at the AJE
says the educational component
— weekly classes through June,
post-trip classes, materials, and
flying from Detroit — boosts the
value of the package to $4,500.
At the same time, local funding
drops the cost as much as
$1,500 for each of the 200 Jew-
ish teens going on the trip.
That's a $300,000 subsidy.
When The Jewish News re-
ported a $225,000 subsidy for
the original Miracle Mission in
1993, we set off a major discus-
sion. Why had Federation sub-
sidized those who could well
afford to go to Israel on their
own? The answer: Federation
officials and lay leaders believe
the money is an investment in
community. By helping people
go to Israel, they become more
connected to the Jewish com-
munity here, strengthening the
local Jewish fabric and paying
back the subsidy and more in
charitable contributions over
the long term.
The same is true of the teen
mission. And, Mr. Kaye and Mr.
Gelberd say, scholarships are
readily available through Jew-
ish organizations, temples and
synagogues, and the Michi-
gan/Israel Connection office.
But you have to endure the
scholarship process.
My friend's final point has
been whispering through the
community for some time. Some
native-born Detroit Jews feel
they are competing with New
Americans for community re-
sources. When the natives feel
Two participants on last year's
Miracle Mission.
that others are being pushed to
the head of the line, it breeds re-
sentment.
This community has done
wonderful things to help indi-
viduals in need and to uplift all
of its members. Like the debate
over the national budget and
deficit reduction, however, the
how-to and who is impacted will
always be subject for contro-
versy.
My friend, by the way, went to
Hebrew Free Loan for that extra
$995. And he said the one-year,
no-interest loan application pro-
cedure was hassle-free.