Up Front

Sholem
Aleichem
Institute seeks
younger
members
to continue its
cultural legacy.

LYNNE MEREDITH COHN

StaffWriter

very year on the High
Holidays, Jews gather at
Orchard Lake Middle
School to bring in the
New Year with a Yiddish-English
machzor. Most of them- don't
belong to a synagogue; many don't
consider themselves religious. But
what they all share is a passion. for
Jewish culture and heritage and a
desire to daven the High Holidays
in a low-cost, no-pressure setting.
"A lot of unaffiliated Jews want
something less demanding on
their pocketbook," says Alva
Dworkin, co-vice president for
programming of the Sholem Ale-
ichem Institute, which sponsors
the services. "We don't have a
building, a rabbi, the costly attrib-jr
utes of some synagogues. It's an
advantage and a disadvantage."
The Sholem Aleichem Institute
was born in 1925 out of the dreams
of "Jewish American Yiddishists —
intellectuals" who wanted a non-
partisan organization that would
support a cultural afternoon school,
according to Irving Panush, a past
school director and current co-vice
president for programming. The
institute focused on three ideas: Yid-
dishkeit (Jewishness in a cultural
context); menschlekeit (a humanitari-
an, ethical air); and veltlichkeit
Top: Karel Bass listens to Dr. Peter Shifiin, while the group enjoys Purim hamantashen, coffee and munchies.

4/17
1998

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