SPIRITUAL page 17
Campy Judaism
Temple Beth El takes spirituality outside.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER
0
Above: Lilian Pevzner tunes into
Rabbi Daniel Nevins' service
last Friday.
Left: ManorCare resident Mona
Somkin enjoys the service.
rector of Jewish Home and Ag-
ing Services who has overseen
COJES' chaplaincy program, is
211 for the outreach programs in
non-Jewish nursing homes.
"We would hope all secular
homes would provide that kind
of support for their residents,"
Parr said. "I would like to see
that for other cultural and re-
ligious needs as well. That's an
aspect of a person's quality of
life — their religious beliefs and
observances. That's a big im-
petus for COJES."
Rabbi Simon Feld, the CO-
JES chaplain, is still in the
process of determining who is
out there. He would not visit
those facilities that have rab-
bis on staff, Parr said, but would
provide any kind of support that
is needed. ❑
ver the course of the
summer, nearly 100 con-
gregants at Temple Beth
El in Bloomfield Town-
ship found Judaism in what
some might say are unlikely
places — in a tent, on a canoe
trip and, next week, rafting the
rapids of the Lower Youghioghe-
ny River in West Virginia.
Following the lead of Rabbi
David Castiglione, who started
camping when he was a child,
about 30 individuals participat-
ed in the previous two trips, and
31 are registered for the Sept. 5-
7 rafting adventure.
Why the affinity for religion
in nature?
"I think it's a different venue
for expressing and associating
the values with which we've
associated Judaism," Castiglione
says. "We've become accustomed
to Judaism happening around
the dinner table or in the sanc-
tuary. But in reality, Judaism
happens all around us — the
values and teachings are all
around us, including out in na-
ture."
The canoe trip included Hav-
dallah around a camp fire,
followed by stories and music on
guitar, harmonica and log drum.
Each trip — a beginners
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"with a rabbi, praying all the
way down" the river?
Castiglione says Beth El will
offer similar wilderness trips
next summer, possibly "includ-
ing running cattle out in Col-
orado."
People of all ages have par-
ticipated in the trips, and the
West Virginia rafting trip, while
restricted to adults age 18 and
up, also runs the gamut, with
some participants in their 50s
and 60s, he says.
camping trip close to home
and a canoe trip in Michigan's
Manistee National Forest
gave "individuals a chance
to get away, [cele-
brate] Shabbat out
in nature, get back
to the beauty of cre-
ation," Castiglione
explains.
"We've grown up
with the assump-
tion that Jews just
don't camp," he
says. "We don't chop
wood, we don't
camp, we don't hike,
we don't fix drain
pipes under the
sink. But that's very
far from the fact.
Anyone who grew
up in camping
knows there's a
whole other world
out there."
Simply being in
nature invokes an
awakening, Cas-
tiglione says.
And besides, if
you're nervous
about shooting the
rapids of West Vir-
ginia, what better Rabbi David Castiglione: Taking Judaism outdoors.
way to do it, than
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