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TL 15 & TL 30 Safes in Stock WE CAN PROTECT YOU! 248-858-7100 SAFE U1 1 1111 IT ED 1991 ORCHARD LAKE RD 11/24 2000 20 SYLVAN LAKE, MI Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 9:00 - 5:00 Wed 9:00 - 2:00 - Sat 2:00 - 5:00 Spiritual Search Keynote speakers were Synagogue 2000 founders Rabbi Larry Hoffman and Dr. Ronald Wolfson. Rabbi Hoffman is a spokesman for the Reform movement, while Wolfson plays a similar role in Conservative Judaism. "Synagogues ought to be places where everyone counts, everyone matters," said Wolfson, vice presi- dent of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles as well as director o f the university's Whizin Center for the Jewish Future. "We make decisions about our Jewish lives daily, weekly, yearly," Wolfson said. These decisions should be based not on whim but on the answers to meaningful questions about our Jewish lives, he said. These ques- tions include: "What does the syn- agogue mean to me?" "How can I get in touch with my spirituality?" "What is the meaning of life?" and "How do I find the presence of God?" "Synagogue 2000," Wolfson said, "is a program to help guide us on our journey to make synagogues into spiritual centers, to move from a fee-for-service institution to a community that matters." Rabbi Hoffman, professor of liturgy at the Hebrew Union- Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, debunked the idea that the Top: Dr. Ron Wolfson leads Synagogue 2000 number of committed Jews is delegates in new songs. declining. Above: Pat Sachs, Cantor David Montefzore, "In 1950, Look magazine wrote Naomi Levine and Ronn Nadis, all of an article, 'The Vanishing Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfiel4 American Jew,"' Rabbi Hoffman and Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg of Congregation Shir said. "Well, we're still around but Tikvah in Troy, enjoy the ffnai Jeshurun ceremony. it's awfully hard to find Look maga- zine." Instead of vanishing, America's Jews have the freedom and desire Selma Schwartz of Franklin said she to express their spirituality in a maw re joined Synagogue 2000 to help her fashion, he said. synagogue, Shaarey Zedek of "This is the Golden Age for Southfield, maintain members. American Jews," Rabbi Hoffman said • "People are not always comfortable The search for spirituality is on the with the services," she said. "They rise in this country, he said, and the need to feel they can participate more, options are unlimited. not just be observers." Marianne Bloomberg of Farmington Hills, also of Shaarey Zedek, said she Personal Preferences enjoys the innovative activities already Committee members said they were taking place and wants to see more. energized by the speakers and break-out The Kabbalat Shabbat dinner, with sessions, where they discussed why they the Friday-night service that follows, is joined a synagogue in general and their an event she can attend with her baby own synagogue in particular. Each syn- and husband as well as his parents and agogue will conduct similar sessions grandparents. where members at large will say what is "I'm looking for things I can do with being done to encourage participation my family," she said. and what is turning them off. At the mock Shabbat celebration, Rabbi Matalon said B'nai Jeshurun did not have overnight success with its alternative services. Only 15-20 years later, the synagogue, on New York's Upper West Side, frequently has to conduct two services on Friday nights. "It's not a show," he said. "It's not about tricks. It's a spiritual experi- ence which, for us, is the crowning of the week." Dr. Joan Lessen-Firestone of Bloomfield Hills, a member of Federation's Alliance for Jewish Education, belongs to Congregation Shir Tikvah of Troy. She said she sees many elements of the B'nai Jeshurun service in use at Shir Tikvah. "I feel that music and chanting get us into a deeper level of con- sciousness," she said. "No service that is merely words or has more intellectual content has ever moved me so much." Shir Tikvah Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg said he was grateful Federation has made Synagogue 2000 available to the Detroit-area synagogues. "It affords us an opportunity to analyze who we are and who we wish to become in the coming decades," he said. "It's a process we very much need to engage in." Zelda and Milton Rose of Farmington Hills, longtime mem- bers of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, said they didn't think many members of their Reform temple would want the B'nai Jeshurun service in the form it took Nov. 19. "Some things our people would like," Zelda Rose said. "But if it gets too Conservative, uses too much Hebrew and has a lot of prayers, they wouldn't go for it." Each of the Synagogue 2000 com- mittee members has received a book "about a foot thick" describing the program and their commitments, said Carol Ogusky of West Bloomfield, a member of Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield. "I found some of it very interest- ing," she said. "The conference as a whole was a wonderful experience." Ogusky said the Shir Shalom group had mixed feelings about the ceremo- ny. "It was a long ceremony and it was all in Hebrew," she said. "I had a feel- ing of familiarity, because I'd grown up in an Orthodox shul. I liked the dancing; I'd like to see that in our own shul."