PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT
To Walk In The
Rabbi's Shoes
Young and hip, Kasriel Shemtov
shows it can be cool to live
Jewishly.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
Rabbi
Kasriel
Shemtov:
"You can't
lie to today's
young
generation;
they won't
buy Judaism
that is fluff."
t.
t 29 years of age, Kasriel Shemtov
has traveled the globe, received rab-
binic ordination, gotten married and
elped launch the first four-year
Jewish university in the state of Michigan.
Oh, and he has two children.
He's a busy man, hip to the generation
of which he is a part.
"You can't lie to today's young genera-
tion; they won't buy Judaism that is fluff,
void of meaning," says Rabbi Shemtov, who
is vice president of the Michigan Jewish In-
stitute, the state's only Jewish-sponsored
college.
He knows how difficult it is to juggle a
budding career, family, relationships and
Judaism. If anything helps the young rab-
bi balance the many facets of his life, it's
his wife, Itty, 25. "We go out as a team."
A rabbi's job is not to be in the commu-
nity while his wife sits at home, he insists.
"We do [everything] together. She invites
people over, arranging for all these differ-
ent things ... But it's not only that. Every
day and every night, when your work is
overwhelming — we think together, we dis-
cuss it, [we are] growing together."
At those overwhelming moments, the
rabbi also remembers his teen-age years,
standing spellbound, hanging on every syl-
lable of the late Lubavitch rebbe, Men-
achem Schneerson, whose words inspired
him to reach out.
The biggest difference between the teen-
age years and the twentysomething decade,
he says, "is the change from being someone
who's absorbing and being something for
yourself to learning to teach others."
"All young people have basically two
stages: one is going places, moving ahead,
finding new things in life. And then there's
a time when they 'settle."' In a relationship,
two people have searched separately and
come together as "one unit, with the same
aspirations, want the same things — to-
gether."
A native of Oak Park, Rabbi Shemtov
grew up inculcated in the Chasidic phi-
losophy of the worldwide Lubavitch move-
ment, firmly believing that every Jew
carries unexchangeable cargo: a Jewish
soul.
All he wants to do is share that idea with
those around him — twentysomething and
older.
Wearing a sharp suit, stylish tie and
warm smile (rabbi/businessman mix), he
says, "I grew up in a home where our en-
tire life [philosophy] is that we are all re-
sponsible for each other." That home
included 10 children and a father who is
well-known in the Detroit Jewish commu-
nity — Rabbi Berel Shemtov is regional di-
rector of Lubavitch of Michigan.
At 17, Kasriel left for a New York yeshi-
va and later went to Australia and the Far
East to do "outreach" work: For several
years, he lived in Melbourne, running adult
education programs and studying Torah.
Rabbi Shemtov later went to Taiwan, Ko-
rea and New Zealand, seeking Jews who
wished to learn more about Judaism.
With no "lists" to guide them, he and col-
leagues "had to search out Jewish names,"
sometimes from priests — the only com-
munity leaders conscious of religious iden-
tity.
He found people who hadn't seen a Jew
for years; some had left larger Jewish cen-
ters expressly to assimilate.
In New Zealand, Rabbi Shemtov en-
countered a woman who headed an in-
digenous tribe and could trace her roots
back to Judaism. Her maternal grand-
mother had married the head of the tribe,
bringing the ritual of lighting Shabbat can-
dles with her.
Now, Rabbi Shemtov calls West Bloom-
field home. He chose the mostly non-frum
(observant) locale because "I wasn't look-
ing to go to where the religious communi-
ty was; I was looking to move out further
to start sort of a new community, to be there
for those who are not affiliated with any
synagogues at all, and especially not Or-
thodox synagogues."
People are already involved — "rio build-
ings or anything, but we get together, some
study groups, inviting people to our house
for Shabbat," says the rabbi, who has the
energy of a teen-ager and the universal un-
derstanding of someone decades older.
"Most of the people out there are not part
of any synagogue, and even the people that
are don't go to them," he says. "Our mes-
sage has to be for the entire community —
a lot of people want to be involved, and we
just have to stretch out our hand and say
`We're there for you."'
While traveling to far-out locales, Rab-
bi Shemtov discovered that every Jew is
"really deep down waiting for a connection,
waiting for someone to reach out to them."
"I think the same thing is [true] in West
Bloomfield ... [despite] all the synagogues
and institutions that are here, I think many
Jews are Jewishly hiding, waiting for some-
one to reach out to them. That's what we're
here for." ❑
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