Prepared To Be Kosher
Boy Scout Troop 1579 practices
first aid, CPR and ritual.
Clockwise, from top left:
Registered nurse Debra Luria
shows how to use a CPR
mouth protector on Avi
Levine.
Aron Sandler and Tzvi
Feldman demonstrate how to
help an injured person walk.
Story by JULIE WIENER
Photos by KRISTA HUSA
The scouts clamor to be
t's rare for a Boy Scout troop to
cancel a camping trip for lack of
a minyan.
But it occasionally happens
to Troop 1579, Detroit's only shomer
Shabbat, kosher-keeping coterie of 11-
to 16-year-olds.
Originally chartered through
Congregation Beth Achim, the scouts
recently split into two separate chap-
ters — approximately six boys at
Congregation Beth Shalom and 10
boys at Congregation Beth Abraham
Hillel Moses — when the Southfield
shul announced it would merge with
Adat Shalom Synagogue. Both troops
are keeping the 1579 designation.
The scouts, students in public
schools, Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit and Akiva
Hebrew Day School, meet weekly at
shul to learn and practice skills like
first aid and wilderness survival. But
the main action occurs outdoors, dur-
ing the frequent and year-round (yes,
even in the dead of winter) camp-outs.
"Once the kids get out in the
woods, they're all ours," said BAHM
Troop Master Robert Levine, noting
that while camping is the main draw,
Boy Scouts also focus on things like
character development.
Although Jews are welcome in non-
Jewish scout troops as well, Jewish
troops exist throughout the country to
make scouting accessible for the reli-
giously observant.
As Levine explained, "The standard
Boy Scout outing starts with a Friday
night bonfire, then all the activities are
on Saturday, which means carrying,
backpacking and other things that vio-
late Shabbat. Then you have dinner
Saturday night, which is usually some
variation of pork roast, wake up
Sunday and have a church service,
then break camp."
In contrast, the Jewish troops set
up camp before sundown Friday, cele-
brate Shabbat together and save the
backpacking, knot-tying and such for
Sunday. The food is certified kosher
and services Jewish, with Orthodox
parents overseeing all religious obser-
vance matters.
While the Boy Scouts of America is
a nondenominational organization,
belief in God remains a membership
requirement — despite an ongoing
lawsuit by two atheist scouts in
California. Many troops are chartered
through religious institutions, and to
become an Eagle Scout, the elite of
the scouting world, one must earn a
religious award.
Although some 300 Jewish troops
exist throughout the country, mostly
under Conservative or Orthodox aus-
pices, scouting's less than politically
correct stances have made some
national Reform Jewish leaders more
uneasy with the organization.
Mark Pelavin, associate director of
the Washington-based Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism,
recently was quoted in The Forward, a
11/2 ' 1
1998
Detroit Jewish News
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