ommunity
Spirituality
In The House
A
JCC search
for a
director of
Jewish
education
ends at
Califirnia
rabbinical
school.
Rabbi Hal Greenwald
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Changes At The Center
StaffWriter
The addition of a Jewish educator to
the JCC staff was part of a design to
increase Judaic outreach program-
ming for JCC clients, staff and the
community.
Not specifically searching for a
rabbi, JCC leadership interviewed
candidates of various educational and
professional backgrounds.
In hiring Rabbi Greenwald, they
joined approximately 25-30 JCCs that
have rabbis on staff.
"The bulk of those took their posi-
tions in the last 10 years," says Pattie
Cippi Harte, coordinator of Jewish
educational services for the Jewish
Community Centers Association of
North America in New York. "Some
are going to rabbinical schools, look-
ing to train for more informal, plural-
istic work in the community."
The growing trend is attributed also
to JCC administrators who are looking
to hire those trained to work with
staff, as well as with the community
and congregational rabbis, she says.
Rabbi Greenwald sees his training as
an asset to the new position. "I offer
pastoral and spiritual counseling in the
building," the Birmingham resident
hen the Jewish
Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit put
out a cnil for a director of
Jewish education last year, the ideal can-
didate was on the other side of the
country wishing for exactly such a post.
"In my rabbinical school essay, I
describe this job," says Rabbi Hal
Greenwald, a May 2000 graduate of the
(Conservative) University of Judaism's
Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in
Los Angeles. "I wanted to work in a
marketplace environment where people
come into the building for a zillion dif-
ferent reasons."
In July, he joined the Detroit-area
JCC, which offers a multitude of oppor-
tunities for such connections with more
than 10,000 members and another
25,000 non-members participating in
health and physical education, camping,
adult education, early childhood pro-
gramming and community events.
In moving to Metropolitan Detroit,
he returned to ancestral roots, living
within the same Jewish community as
did his parents, former Oak Parkers.
1/12
2001
54
says. "It is an ongoing revelation that
there is an in-house rabbi here for the
first time.
"There is now a member of the staff
to offer a dear Torah [Torah lesson] at
meetings."
In addition, his job focuses on
enhancing Judaic content of programs
and strengthening the Jewish environ-
ment and mission of the JCC. He will
also have supervisory responsibilities,
including the development and training
of staff and volunteer leaders.
Eventually, he will hold administra-
tive responsibilities and supervise profes-
sionals within the Jeanette and Harry
Weinberg Judaic Enrichment Center, a
physical entity within the West
Bloomfield JCC that will be developed
and built as part of the JCC's renovation
project over the next two to three years.
The new area will be a multimedia cen-
ter with adult and youth libraries, the
Michigan ORT Resource Center and a
children's hands-on Jewish museum.
With cornerstone JCC programming
that includes SAJE (Seminars for Adult
Jewish Enrichment), the Lenore Marwil
Jewish Film Festival and the Summer
Culture Shuk, Rabbi Greenwald hopes
his presence will "take what's here and
enhance it."
Teachings Of The Rabbi
"My time at the Center thus far has cen-
tered on getting a feeling for the scope
and the nature of the services and pro-
grams offered by the JCC and, on a
deeper level, the culture here — meeting
and greeting he Jewish communities of
Detroit," RabN Greenwald says.
Among Rabbi Greenwald's first
courses of action has been to set up
informational sessions for the more than
100 full-time any umerous part-time
staff members and lay persons interested
in learning more about Judaism.
He is also working with the staff of
the Jewish Life and Learning
Department to enhance the Judaic con-
tent of the JCC's Jewish Book Fair and
annual adult
the upcoming . •
Jewish learning program.
He has led holiday learning sessions
for parents of pre-school students, along
with the JCC's Sririi: Committee to
'deepen the Jewish nature of holiday cel-
ebrations. Rabbi Greenwald is also
working to establish the Jewish Learning
Community, a group of lay leaders who
gather to learn Jewish texts and then
apply learning in discussions of how to
enhance Jewish education at the Center.
"Right now, the project is to grow
roots here," Rabbi Greenwald says of
Judaic involvement with employees of
both the West Bloomfield and Oak Park
buildings. In February he will launch
Shorashim (roots), a program of staff
education and Judaic enhancement. "(It)
is a form of Torah Lishma (Torah learn-
ing for its own sake), so that their own
Jewish well is replenished, and also so
that they can then turn around and
deepen the Jewish lives of those they
serve," he says, of subjects including
tzedakah (charity), rabbinic literature
and Jewish history.
"We study what is relevant to what
they are doing," Rabbi Greenwald says
of the small groups and one-on-one
study sessions he leads. Having attended
such a program, Sharon Hart, JCC first
vice president, says, "He led a chavurah
(study partnership) on a text-study of
what does it mean to work as a team.
We couldn't have done this if there was
not a rabbi on staff"
The rabbi says subjects of the sessions
are endless. "We have people here of dif-
ferent faiths. We discuss why we are
closed on Jewish holidays, Jewish ethical
guidelines, keeping kosher, using Jewish
vocabulary in the building," he says.
"Rabbi Greenwald's great to ask ques-
tions to — especially for a non-Jew,"
says Kelly Komlen of Detroit, a staff
member in the Jewish Life and Learning
department.
"He doesn't mind if you keep asking,
`What does this mean?' 'What is this?'
We have talked about everything from
what is and isn't kosher to different holi-
days."
Rabbi Greenwald says, "I want to
enhance holiday celebrations beyond
food. Learning about Sukkot here was
not just 15 minutes in the sukkah. It
was an hour of learning and education."
Komlen recalls, "At a Chanukah din-
ner for adults with special needs, he
made a surprise appearance. He made
the blessings and told what tl holiday