THE GOD SQUAD
Rabbi Daniel Nevins
THE DETRO
Rabbi Daniel Nevins of
Mat Shalom Synagogue
It was around Thanksgiving time. Daniel
Nevins, a senior at Harvard, was hav-
ing an "intense" discussion with his par-
ents in the laundry room of their New
Jersey home. A student of Middle East-
ern and European history, he was still un-
decided about his future, although he'd
been applying to doctoral programs in his-
tory. He was also seriously contemplat-
ing rabbinical school.
His father Michael, a physician who
took more delight in intellectual than rit-
ual Judaism, asked him amid the whir of
washer and dryer if life as a college pro-
fessor would enable him to spread his
wings as the rabbinate might. It was ob-
rabbi at their synagogue refused to teach
vious to him that his son had the ability the ‘him how to put on tefillin because the
and the aspiration to lead.
rabbi considered it archaic. That only
"He was very encouraging of the idea heightened the family's curiosity and at-
that I would make a public service career traction to traditional Judaism and drove
that was still scholarly, because he knew them to find another teacher.
that I loved scholarship,". Rabbi Nevins
"I wound up studying with an Ortho-
recalls. "As a rabbinical student, I would dox rabbi on Sundays. That was my first
have five years of graduate school and a exposure to traditional Judaism. Our fam-
lifetime of learning and teaching, but I ily started to search for a redefinition, and
would also have an immeasurable impact I think we jumped out of Reform and land-
on the Jewish community."
ed with one foot in Conservative and one
His mother Phyllis, for whom Jewish foot in Orthodox."
education and tradition are a high pri-
Rabbi Nevins began to spend his sum-
ority, brimmed with pride over his deci- mers at Ramah camps — the Conserva-
sion, although she knew his tive movement camps — and attended an
career might take him far away Orthodox high school, Frisch. He says he
from home.
could have chosen the Orthodox rabbinate
Five years after that discus- if he could have accepted its intellectual
sion, in 1994, Rabbi Nevins as- boundaries and restrictions on the ritu-
sumed his first pulpit position, alistic role of women.
joining Adat Shalom in Farm-
"Intellectually, I was studying history
ington Hills as assistant rabbi.
at Harvard and I was very much con-
Like his colleagues, Rabbi vinced that the best path to study Ju-
Nevins, 30, puts in countless daism was an intellectually open path
lours in pastoral and teaching t hat was critical of sources and method-
obligations. Finding time to o logy," he says.
spend with his wife, Lynn
He rejected Reform, he says, because
Scheele Nevins, a potter, and he felt it had become hostile to Jewish tra-
their 1-year-old daughter Talya d itions like keeping kosher and wearing.
("the most adorable child in the traditional kippot and tallitot in the syn-
world") is his single biggest chal- a gogue.
lenge at the moment.
His Jewish identity was, in fact, nur-
Lately, Rabbi Nevins has tured in rebellion.
been spending a lot of time
Aside from a teen-ager's conventional
preparing himself and his young s nubbing of the adult world — Rabbi
students at Adat Shalom for this N evins became a Deadhead (a devotee of
summer's Teen Mission to Is- t he band Grateful Dead) and played
rael. Thank goodness for his e- d rums in a band, even throughout rab-
mail, which makes it easy and b inic school — he reacted to the "apathy
quick to communicate. He also a nd ignorance" of his peers by embracing
stays in touch by wearing a traditional Judaism.
beeper.
"It was making my own stamp on how
Sarah Turbow, a 14-year-old I wanted to live, which was a change from
who will be making the journey h ow our family had been. There was a sat-
to Israel, calls Rabbi Nevins is faction in setting the pace for my Jew- •
"cool." Another young congre- is h identity," he says.
gant who takes a Talmud class
His attraction to Judaism intensified
with the rabbi, 17-year-old Je- a t the Ramah camps, where he discovered
remy Fogel, calls him "really en- t he beauty of Jewish life, with its em-
thusiastic. It's good to have p hasis on art, dance and song.
someone younger, someone who
Today, Rabbi Nevins is beginning to
can relate to us. He plays the - u nderstand the beauty and intensity of a
drums, he surfs the Internet, so fa ther's love.
there are a lot of ways we can re-
The birth of Talya led to a "complete
late to him out of the synagogue s hift" in his identity and "greatly influ-
as well."
nced the way I perform my job as a rab-
Rabbi Nevins is one of two lo- bi .,,
cal rabbis who rejected the tra-
"Religiously, I felt a much deeper sense
dition in which he was reared. of gratitude than I felt before and a lot
As a child, Rabbi Nevins and st ronger sense of what it means to offer
his family attended a classical th anksgiving," he says.
Reform congregation. But in the
Talya regularly finds her way into his
months leading up to his 13th se rmons.
birthday, a personal and collec-
"I think it's allowed me to share with
tive transformation began to th e congregation a lot more of my emo-
take shape. Like himself, his tio ns and my personal self. I think they
parents and sister and brother ap preciate when I speak from my heart
were beginning to "yearn for as a father. Maybe it's a new-age, a new-
something a little more deep, a ge neration type of thing: young men
little more committed." They de- sp eaking about being fathers and gush-
cided to go to Israel for young in g the way people didn't expect men to
Daniel's bar mitzvah. But the do in the past."