erience

Shaarey Zedek's new ritual director is
homegrown and at home in the synagogue.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
STAFF WRITER

L

J

1/26
2001

82

eonard Gutman sees his new
post as ritual director of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek as
"turning a hobby into a full-
time career.
"I was always a shul boy," he says.
"One of those people who always liked
Leonard Gutman
to go to shul."
Throughout many years of working in the custom clothing and
steel businesses, he always jumped at the chance to read Torah ii'
synagogue. "Whenever someone would call me because they need-
ed a ba'al koreh (Torah reader) for Shabbos, I would do it," he says
of his years of reading Torah in most area Conservative and
Orthodox congregations.
Gutman says he felt "like a person in business who gets bored
with corporate life and he or she has this fantasy of being a lawyer
or a doctor or an Indian chief." For Gutman, the vision was a
position that would permit him more time in the synagogue.
Last August an opportunity arose that would allow him to
follow the career changing dream. He then stepped into a posi-
tion vacant since the May 1999 retirement of Cantor Sidney
Rube, whose duties had included those of ritual director. Since
that time other synagogue clergy divided up some of the daily
responsibilities once held by Cantor Rube, with Torah reading
done by lay people.
"Because of our size, we needed someone to attend to services and
davening (praying) and who could read Torah," says Judy Shewach-
Stevenson, executive director of Shaarey Zedek. "Leonard does that."
A native Detroiter, Gutman began his new position at Shaaiey
Zedek as leader and coordinator of the synagogue's twice-a-day
minyan, weekday, Shabbat and holiday Torah reader and as the
individual who assigns honors during services. "He contacts pco-
ple personally about distributing honors," says Cantor Chaim
Najman. "He asks about the needs of those with yahrtzeit
(anniversary of a family member's death) and helps those who
need it recite Kaddish (prayer for the dead)."
Stevenson sees him as one who "helps people feel comfortable in
services." She says, "When he davens and reads Torah, it is very
,,
meaningful to listen to.
Gutman hopes to expand his role with synagogue youth in the
future. He 'currently teaches Torah and haftorah reading to b'nai
mitzvah students.
As a youth, he attended Detroit Public Schools, but learned
for several hours a day, five days a weeks at Yeshiva Beth

Yehudah after school. As a teen, he moved to Southfield, grad-
uating from Southfield High School and Wayne State
University with a degree in liberal arts.
Growing up, his family were members of Congregation Ahavas
Achim and later Congregation Beth Achim, which was formed
when Ahavas Achim merged with Beth Aaron. "A week after my bar
mitzvah at Ahavas Achim, the cantor told my father to bring me
into his office the next Friday at 3:30," Gutman recalls.
At that time, Cantor Simon Bermanis inducted him into his
Cantor's Club, where Gutman remained for five years, with other
youth who learned to participate in synagogue services. "I learned
how to daven from him," Gutman says.
"He was my initial teacher. He gave me a base and then Cantor
Shimansky enhanced that base and gave me a style," he says of the
late Cantor Max Shimansky, who took over at the synagogue when
Cantor Bermanis left..
From the Rev. Joseph Baras, Beth Achim's ritual director,
Gutman learned to read Torah 15 years ago. "I went up to him after
services on a Shabbos and asked him to teach me to read Torah,"
remembers Gutman. "He told me to meet him the next morning
and a month later I read my first sedrah (Torah portion).
He continues to learn now from. Cantor Najman of Shaarey
Zedek. Gutman says, "He is so talented, learned, a mentsh, and I
have the utmost respect for him."
Working closely with Gutman, Cantor Najman sees him as a
welcome addition to the synagogue. "He is filling the position
extremely well with a high standard of excellence, serving on a daily
basis with a great deal of dignity, perfecting the role of ritual direc-
tor" Cantor Najman says.
Amidst what Cantor Najman calls "more than a full-time job,"
participating and leading services twice a day, six to seven days a
week, Gutman found the time for a special moment in his family
life. In September he married Sandra Lerner, moving the day after
their wedding, to_a home they purchased across the street from
Shaarey Zedek.
The couples' children are, Jennifer (Lerner) and husband Lowell
Friedman, Danny Gutman, 18, David Lerner, 18, Michael Lerner,
16, Geoffrey Gutman, 16, and Devora Gutman, 9.
"He loves what he's doing," says Stevenson "He has a fervor, zeal
and zest for being Jewish. He brings a level of enthusiasm and com-
mitment which is very special for Shaarey Zedek."
Cantor Najman sees Gutman as "doing a wonderful job with the
minyan." He calls him "an excellent Torah reader whose reputation preced-
ed him as a very accomplished Torah reader in our community."
Says Gutman, "The future is going to be interesting. My col-
leagues are wonderful as is the congregation. I love coming here
everyday. It's great to come to work." ❑

