The Middle Is Rejuvenating

JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer

n a Shabbat morning at
Shaarey Zedek's B'nai Israel
Center in West Bloomfield,
the large, sunny sanctuary is
adorned with modern, pale-hued
tapestries and reverberates with the
sounds of prayer.
Most of the seats are filled, with a
healthy mix of children, their parents,
still-youthful senior citizens and the
somewhat noisy, but not unruly,
friends of the bat mitzvah girl.
Over the course of four hours, the
congregation prays to traditional
melodies; follows the Torah reading;
observes a bat mitzvah (after reading her
Haftorah portion concerning the unsa-
vory topic of skin diseases, the poised
12-year-old delivers a humorous, but
thoughtful speech); celebrates a simchat
bat (a relatively new ceremony welcom-
ing baby girls into the Jewish covenant),
then adjourns to the social hall for an
elaborate sit-down lunch.
Like other Conservative synagogues
in Detroit's northwest suburbs,
Shaarey Zedek is thriving.
Although one recent survey suggest-
ed that the overall percentage of local
Jews identifying as Conservative has
declined somewhat in the past decade
(with numbers shifting in favor of the
more liberal Reform Movement),
Conservative rabbis interviewed say
they are witnessing an increased corn-
mitment among their congregants.
Approximately 4,000 families locally
belong to Conservative synagogues.

Education Is Central

Education is booming. Enrollment at
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan
Detroit has almost doubled in the past
decade, and a Conservative rabbi from
Milwaukee has just been hired to head
Detroit's first-ever Conservative day
high school, scheduled to open in
September 2000.
Camp Ramah, the Conservative
movement's summer camp, has a
lengthy waitlist. Local financial sup-
port is rising for the New York-based
Jewish Theological Seminary,
Conservative Judaism's academic hub.

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1999

22 Detroit Jewish News

Conservative Judaism attracts teens as well as adults.

Of the 162 rabbinic students currently
enrolled at JTS, 10 are from Detroit.
Rallying around these educational
institutions brings Detroit's seven
Conservative shuls together, and rab-
bis note that they not only meet regu-
larly, but have unusually warm rela-
tionships.
Children and future rabbis are not
the only Conservative Jews studying in
Detroit. Rabbis report a growing inter-
est in adult education. Since 1997, the
Conservative synagogues have joined
forces to support Eilu v'Eilu, a pro-
gram offering adult courses in a variety
of venues, on everything from a

"Getting to the Root of Ruth" to
"Socialism and Realism in Jewish Art."
Shaarey Zedek this year launched a
winter adult learning series called
Limud, Hebrew for "studying," and is
collaborating with Eilu v'Eilu to host a
community beit midrash, where partic-
ipants study texts with partners in the
traditional hevruta style of Jewish
learning.
A recent Jewish history course at
Adat Shalom Synagogue, with
required reading, five sessions and a
price tag of $25, drew 60 students.
"People are more serious about
Torah study and taking it very much

to heart," said Beth Shalom Rabbi
David Nelson, who has worked in
Detroit since 1972. "In the past when
we offered adult education we'd get
the regular, loyal, few people. Today if
you offer a class, you'll fill it."
Rabbis hope the surge in education
narrows the traditional disparity
between what Conservative Judaism says
one is supposed to do — strictly adhere
to Jewish observance of mitzvot like
Shabbat and kashrut — and what most
rank-and-file members do — occasion-
ally attend Shabbat services and keep a
kosher kitchen, but consume treif, or
unkosher food, outside the home.

