PHOTO BY KRISTA HU SA
TEEN TURNAROUND page 9
Felicia Goodman: Thesis on "post b'nai mitzvah dropout syndrome."
Rabbi David Nelson of Beth
Shalom is hoping the sharing of
ideas and resources with other
synagogues will enhance what
each is able to provide.
"What we do in each of our
schools and temples is okay,
maybe even good, but not excel-
lent," he said.
Rabbi Nelson hopes the ex-
citement of the project will send
a new message to students.
'We're looking for something
to tell kids things are not busi-
ness as usual. We're not out to
bore them. We want them to be
literate and knowledgeable.
Bar mitzvah age should be a
jumping off point for serious
study."
Shir Shalom's Nathan says
her temple is joining the pilot
project in order to broaden the
experience of its students, en-
abling them to
meet young Jews
from other syna-
gogues.
'We are a small-
to mid-sized con-
gregation, and the
social context we
can provide is fair-
ly small," she said.
The group of rab-
bis and educators
spearheading the
pilot project has
met several times
over the summer,
and will continue
meeting through-
out the school year
to plan. While no
changes will be im-
plemented in the
schools this fall, the
AJE hopes to see
some joint events in
the spring and a
full-fledged sched-
ule of activities in place for next
year.
"This year might be a total
put-together year," said the
AJE's Goodman.
However, it is unclear who
will be footing the bill as the pro-
ject unfolds. For now, Gelberd
says the ME is funding the staff
component and will determine
how additional costs are divid-
ed as they arise. ❑
For Its Own Sake
Rabbi Ira Stone shares his learning
with Detroit Jews.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
W
hat attracted Rabbi Ira
Stone most to the rab-
binate was its promise
of a life of learning.
And in his 18 years as a Jewish
spiritual leader, the rabbi says
that promise has been fulfilled.
This fall, Stone, 47, will share
his learning experiences with
the Detroit Conservative Jew-
ish community as scholar-in-res-
idence.
"For me, the spark of Jewish
life, the sine qua non of whether
we survive as a Jewish commu-
nity, is not immediately based
on how many people observe
how many rituals, but upon the
life-giving joy of Jewish learn-
ing," Stone says. "I hope I'll be
able to bring some of that [to De-
troit] — learning for its own
sake, exploring our tradition, ar-
guing with it, acceding to it
when it's appropriate, being
comfortable inside of it."
Stone arrives from Philadel-
phia on Aug. 19, staying through
Sept. 25 and returning for two
weekends in November. He has
been pulpit rabbi of Temple Beth
Zion-Beth Israel in center city
Philadelphia since 1988.
Growing up in "a typically as-
similated Conservative Jewish
home" in the 1950s, Stone re-
members a kosher home that
was not particularly religious or
synagogue-based. "I had a bar
mitzvah, and that was it. But I
was always attracted to the syn-
agogue, especially to the liturgy,
the service."
High school and college came
with little Jewish association for
Stone. As a college student in
the 1960s, he became involved
in political activism.
"Somewhere along the lines I
discovered that the values that
I was pursuing in the secular
world were very much part of
the world of Jewish life that I'd
left behind," he recalls.
OWN SAKE page 12
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