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Looking For A Leader
Young Israel-West Bloomfield takes steps to
find a rabbi.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
he search is on for at least
a part-time rabbi to lead
Young Israel of West
Bloomfield (YIWB), and
members say that when they can
afford it, hiring someone full time
will be their top priority.
In the eight years since the
congregation was established, it
has had one spiritual leader.
Rabbi Alon Tolwin served about
two years, but around 1995 he
stepped down from the post, says
Rita Morse, a YIWB board mem-
ber. Rabbi Tolwin now heads
Aish HaTorah's Detroit office.
"Because we're part of Young
Israel, the two existing Young Is-
rael rabbis in the community
(Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg and
Rabbi Steven Weil) have offered
their services," Mrs. Morse says.
"Periodically we get one of the
Young Israel rabbis out for Shab-
bat or holidays, or we get one of
the people that they recom-
mend."
Bev Leuchter, YIWB treasur-
er, says, "More than anything,
T
we would love to have a rabbi.
It's not as though we've enjoyed
our privacy or freedom from lead-
ership. It's not that way at all. If
we could afford it, we would have
had a rabbi from day one. It's one
thing that we badly need."
YIWB claims about 24 mem-
ber families. The congregation,
which meets in a house near
Maple and Farmington roads,
does not have a rabbi for two
main reasons, Mrs. Morse says.
Taking the
next step.
First, it was without a per-
manent home until this year.
Also, "we did not know what we
had to offer. There are limited
funds, and it's hard to prioritize
when you have to buy a building
and get a rabbi at the same
time," she says.
"Now that we have a building
available, we feel that we have
much more to offer, we have per-
manent space."
At the shul's last board meet-
ing, it re-established a rabbinic
search committee, says Mrs.
Morse. The members have
asked local rabbis for recom-
mendations, and they will start
interviewing potential candi-
dates.
"Ideally, my goal would be to
have a rabbi for us by the High
Holidays, but that would prob-
ably be a part-time rabbi," who
facilitates holiday and Shabbat
services and leads classes, Mrs.
Morse says. At this time, the
congregation "cannot fully sup-
port a rabbi and his family."
"It's one thing if you're a
chavurah and getting together
to enjoy one another's company,"
Mrs. Leutcher says. "Our syn-
agogue is like that. But we're not
a chavurah; we're a synagogue,"
and in order to be a full-fledged
shul, "you have to have spiritu-
al leadership. It's caused us slow
growth."
Mrs. Leutcher says even if the
congregation and its members
offer a warm, friendly place to
daven, or a unique form of ob-
servance in that neighborhood,
"people want more than that.
People want authority, someone
they can learn from." ❑
You've never heard sound this big from a
home theater surround system so small.
Calling All Campers
The Shalom Campers — 25 years old this year —
are planning a reunion for August, and a great future.
LEE SNIDER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
L
ife would be a lot easier if
everything fell into place the
way the Shalom Campers
organization did 25 years
ago.
When Marlene Toby and her
husband, Chuck, came up with
the idea of starting a camping
club back in 1972, little did they
know that a brief announcement
in The Jewish News would un-
leash an outpouring of pent-up
demand.
According to Marlene, the ink
was hardly dry on the page be-
fore the responses began rushing
in.
"I started getting calls, and an
hour and a half later we had the
nucleus of the club," she recalled.
The Tobys, who live in Sylvan
Lake Township, convened the
group's first meeting two weeks
later and found themselves with
more prospective members than
they could handle.
"There must have been 100
people there," Marlene said. "You
had to step over the bodies."
That initial meeting was a pro-
ductive one. The group officially
voted on the name "Shalom
Campers," made a decision to
limit membership to 40 families
and established a waiting list for
the people who continued to re-
spond to the newspaper article.
Eventually, Shalom Campers
drew up a "constitution" desig-
nating the second weekend of the
month for their regular outings.
To make sure everyone could get
to the campgrounds soon after
work on Friday, they decided to
limit their trips to areas within
100 miles of home.
The outings were so popular,
club member Fern Kopnick
said, there was no keeping the
campers away.
"One young man from Ann Ar-
bor, a University of Michigan stu-
dent, would show up by hook or
by crook," she remarked. "One
time, he hitchhiked there, but by
the time he arrived it was 2 in
the morning and he was locked
CALLING page 18
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