Havdala at home. "Most of our fami-
lies observe Shabbat in some way," he
says.
"I have a sense that more are trying
to add rituals into personal and family
lives, and I would not be surprised if
they are making Havdala in their
homes," says Rabbi Sue Ann
Wasserman. She is associate director
of the Department,of Religious Living
for the Reform movement's Union of
American Hebrew Congregations in
New York. "One way of impacting in
our private lives is modeling it in the
public sphere," she says.
When participating in Havdala in
a synagogue setting, "the congrega-
tion sees the beauty of it integrated
into the liturgy," says Rabbi Daniel
Syme of Temple Beth El. He adds
that there is "the assumption that in
at least some of the homes the cus-
tom is observed on a frequent basis."
Temple Shir Shalom Rabbi
Dannel Schwartz, president of the
Michigan Board of Rabbis, finds the
Havdala ceremony particularly mean-
ingful when performed before a wed-
ding ceremony. He has noticed more
and more bridal couples to be famil-
iar with the ceremony.

Farewell To
Shabbat

Havdala, widely observed in

the Orthodox community, is

emerging in the lives of Reform,

Conservative and secular Jews.

Havdala And Youth

For several decades, teens at youth
group retreats have integrated
Havdala into their programming. "It
is the one religious-ritual moment of
youth group weekends kids look for-
ward to," maintains Rabbi Klein.
Rabbi Wasserman says a large part
of the Reform movement has experi-
enced Havdala at conclaves and
camp where they are "in a fully inte-
grated Jewish life." She sees the cere-
mony as "a wonderful way to gather
people together to end the day."
Participants last summer on the
United Synagogue Youth's Wheels
program spent Shabbat in a different
city each week.
"Sometimes, we were outside and
sometimes we were inside. It didn't
really matter because we made our
own Havdala atmosphere wherever
we were," recalls Dayna Fidler, 15,
president of Congregation Beth
Ahm's USY chapter.
"In San Diego, we did Havdala at
a beach. It was incredible because we
could hear the water in the back-
ground. People were looking at us
and wondering what we were doing,

FAREWELL

To

SHABBAT on page 10

Shelli Dorfman can be reached at
(248) 354-6060, ext. 246, or by e-mail
at sdorfman@thejewishnews.com .

At center;
Jennifer firohey
holds her candle •
(it the irnai Moshe
Havdala-Israel
Night. At fin- right
is Matthew Siborin.

2/4
2000

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