Op Fr011i
Heading For Toledo
A Detroit native returns to the Midwest as a
Conservative rabbi.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
R
abbi Michael Ungar has
traveled a long circular
road, almost back to
where he started.
Born and bred in Southfield,
Rabbi Ungar left Michigan years
ago for rabbinical school and pul-
pit positions. Now, he is heading
back to the Midwest — to take
the helm of Toledo, Ohio's only
Conservative shul, Temple B'nai
Israel.'
Rabbi Arnold Bienstock will
be ending his tenure as the syn-
agogue's senior rabbi July 31. As
his replacement, congregants
wanted someone who4s "warm,
welcoming, inclusive and a pos-
itive role model," said Mark
Abramson, chairman of the
search committee. Enter Rabbi
Ungar.
He is 34, was raised "about
three doors down from [Congre-
gation] B'nai David, but I grew
up at B'nai Moshe," a synagogue
which "has produced quite a
number of rabbis over the
years."
A graduate of Southfield High
School, he went on to attend
Kalamazoo College and the Con-
servative movement's Jewish
Theological Seminary.
"I chose Kalamazoo College
because everyone else was going
to the University of Michigan; [I
wanted to] get away from all the
same Jewish kids I had been
with growing up," Rabbi Ungar
says.
"Interestingly, by choosing to
go to a place that was not a very
Jewish place, I ended up having
a very Jewish experience: most
of what I learned I knew from"
a tutor instead of United He-
brew School, United Synagogue
Youth (USY) conventions and
his parents. "I was considered to
be one of the most knowledge-
able Jewish persons on campus,
called the 'Jew at Kazoo."'
"If we wanted anything Jew-
ish on campus — model seder,
Jewish services — we had to
plan it. I found that I knew a lot,
but there was a whole lot more
that I didn't know," he recalls.
Rabbi Ungar was raided in "a
pretty committed Jewish Con-
servative family, always a very
strong sense of Judaism in our
family." His siblings were active
in B'nai B'rith Youth Organiza-
tion, and he in USY. His moth-
er is a past president of B'nai
Moshe and his father is a mem-
ber of the synagogue house com-
mittee.
ictitatie
d
Still, Rabbi Ungar realized pi," he says. Then, he spent two
"there was a lot I didn't know," years at Congregation Shomrei
thanks to a sophomore year in- Emunah in Montclair, N.J.,
ternship in Washington, D.C., where he was no longer an as-
with the Human Rights Advo- sistant but finally the "big cheese
cacy Group. A Spanish and po- rabbi" of the 250-family syna-
litical science major, his gogue.
internship focused on helping the
"What I like best about being
campesinos in Latin America.
a rabbi? Boy, there's a lot," he
"It was the same time as the says. "I like that it gives me the
Lebanon War, Operation Peace opportunity to do many differ-
for the Gall, and a lot of people ent things. I also think that
challenged me and confronted there is something very special
me — 'How can you be so con- about being there, helping peo-
cerned about the campesinos ple at times of celebration or
when your brothers and sisters times of mourning.
in Israel are clobbering the
"And the other thing is I love
Palestinians?"'
working with kids," Rabbi Un-
gar says. "I spend a lot of time
working with bar/bat mitzvah
A homecoming
students, studying their Torah
portions with them, and I always
in many ways.
learn from them. -
"Being a Conservative rabbi
He had studied in South is very exciting — [but it is also
America and Central America the] most difficult kind of rabbi
for a total of nine months, and to be because there's a lot of gray
ultimately realized "there was a area in the Conservative move-
big area of my life that was not ment, not a lot of black and
getting the attention that was white. At the other end of the
needed. I knew that what I spectrum, things are a lot more
wanted to do with my life, not clear-cut, challenging. [Conser-
[be] stuck behind a desk [but] vative Judaism] requires you to
help people, something that really be on your toes, and that's
would allow me to see the world, a good place to be."
At Temple B'nai Israel, Rab-
travel a little bit, make a differ-
ence in the world. The rabbinate bi Ungar will lead 582 member
seemed to fit most of my re- families. Except for Morton
quirements." Thus far, he has Goldberg, the rabbi emeritus
who is in his 90s, Rabbi Ungar's
not been disappointed.
Fresh out of JTS, Rabbi Un- on his own.
Needless to say, he and his
gar took a job as assistant rabbi
at Congregation B'nai Amoona wife are thrilled — both at the
in St. Louis, "the flagship con- rabbinical opportunity and at
gregation west of the Mississip- the location. "Oh my goodness,
you have no idea. We are thrilled
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
HEADING page 18
•
•
10
to be coming back to the Mid.
west," he exclaims.
Toledo has always been for
Rabbi Ungar another suburb of
his childhood. Central Region
USY in which he was involved
comprises five states, including
Ohio.
"I still have a very good friend
in Columbus now who grew up
in Toledo — I spent a lot of time
in that congregation in high
school."
"In a lot of ways it's a home-
coming," Rabbi Ungar says.
"Someone I graduated high
school with in USY is treasur-
er of the congregation — I rec-
ognized.a lot of faces."
Members of Temple B'nai Is-
rael are happy to welcome him
sort of home. Congregants like
Rabbi Ungar's "Midwestern-
ness," the fact that he "wanted
to return to the Midwest," Mr.
Abramson says. "He was outgo-
ing, gregarious, committed to
egalitarianism."
Toledo is home to Temple
B'nai Israel, and an Orthodox,
one Reform and one Chabad
synagogue, Mr. Abramson says.
And although their ideologies
may differ, the Jews of Toledo
tend to band together, says Rab-
bi Ungar.
"Traditionally, in Toledo, rab-
bis from different movements
have all gotten along very well.
[There is a] tremendous spirit of
cooperation, and that was some-
thing that was extremely at-
tractive to me," he says.
It's not just excitement to be
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