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MAKING

QD

MATTER

Detroit-area Jews open the book on a
new "Golden Age," speakers say.

DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer

I is likely the Eagle Crest Conference
Resort in Ypsilanti had never before
played host to a scene like the one
on the evening of Nov. 19.
More than 100 mostly middle-aged peo-
ple, mellowed by Zen-like chanting, held
hands and danced around the room in a
double circle. The music got louder and
louder, as those in their seats clapped or
stamped their feet in rhythm.
"If God were to look down at this
moment," mused Rabbi J. Rolando
Matalon of New York's Congregation B'nai
Jeshurun, "He would ask himself, 'Why are
350 Jews sitting in a room outside Detroit
making Shabbos on a Sunday night?'"
The answer is vitality. It's what Rabbi
Matalon and his colleague, Cantor Ari
Priven, have pumped into their once strug-
gling congregation in New York City. And

it's what the organizers of Synagogue 2000
would like to graft onto the synagogues of
Detroit.
The Nov. 19 ceremony led by the B'nai
Jeshurun clergy ended the first day of the
kickoff conference for metropolitan
Detroit's participation in Synagogue 2000.
The next morning began with alternative
morning prayers led by Reform Rabbi
Richard Jacobs, senior rabbi of Westchester
Reform Temple in Scarsdale, N.Y.
Merely imitating the services of other
synagogues is not the intent of Synagogue
2000. Instead, the national program, which
was founded in 1996, seeks to help Jewish
communities mold their religious institu-
tions into individual communities of
meaning.
Here in the Detroit area, Synagogue
2000 comprises 13 synagogues, Reform
and Conservative only, including one each
from Ann Arbor and Windsor, Canada.
Each participating synagogue has chosen

a committee of 15-25 members. In
September, these committees began a
three-year program of study and imple-
mentation known by the acronym PIS-
GAH: Prayer, Institutionalizing change,
Study, Good deeds, Ambiance and
Healing.
In her opening remarks, Penny
Blumenstein, president of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, said
Synagogue 2000 was "a major time com-
mitment, one that will require both your
intellect and your spirituality."
However, she said, the results of the
endeavor will last forever.
Synagogue 2000 receives funding from
the Federation, with oversight by its
Hermeliri-Davidson Center for
Congregation Excellence.
The first year of the Detroit-area pro-
gram will be devoted to building spiritual
communities, and the activities of the kick-
off event were geared toward this direction.

Left to right:

Rabbi Larry
Hoffman and Dr.
Ron Wolfion lead
the dancing at
Sunday night's
alternative service.

Merri Lovinger
Arian, director of
programs for
Synagogue 2000,
introduces new
songs to workshop
participants.

Zelda and Milton
Rose of Farmington
Hills, members of
Temple Israel in
West Bloomfield,
follow along in the
songbook.

11/24

2000

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