.

Community

Spirituality

, P.44-1,7",

SHELL' LIEBMAN DORFMAN

Staff Writer

E

musical director Penny Steyer of
Commerce Township sang and played
guitar, several participants also tapped
on timbrels, symbolizing the tam-
bourine played by Miriam in the
Passover story
"The seder's focus is to give
women pride in their own sense of
history." Nelson says. "We hope also
that it can help the synagogue
become a place for women to devel-
op relationships with other
women." ❑

llen Dorshow-Gordon drove
all the way from Kalamazoo
to Congregation Beth Shalom
in Oak Park on April 11 to
participate in a women's seder.
And she brought a carload of people
with her, says Alicia Nelson of
Southfield, who chaired the sixth annual
event at the synagogue.
"We drew a very wide spectrum of
people — several genera-
fiaCbc
tions from different parts
of the community,"
Nelson says of the 150
participants, about 60
percent of whom are syn-
agogue members or their
relatives. "We had peer
groups, women who
invited their friends and
young, single women
who feel very much at
home here."
The group followed a
vg;Mv..
Haggadah filled with
readings and verses com-
Alicia Nelson of Southfield pats a timbrel created by Judaic
piled from existing
artist Betsy Platkin Teutsch while Penny Steyer of
women's Haggadot.
Commerce Township plays the guitar.
Created by a committee,
overseen by Dorshow-
Gordon, Wendy Robin of
Huntington Woods and Judith Adler
of Birmingham, the Haggadah is
updated yearly and includes original
works contributed by seder partici-
pants.
"The Voice of the Silent Child," a
passage written by the three women,
was among those read at the seder.
"It talks about the Holocaust and the
voice that isn't heard," Nelson says.
"One of the eight New Americans
present read it in English and then
summarized it in Russian."
While cantorial soloist and seder

.

.` •

Sarah Castator, 11,
of Farmington Hills, raises a cup
of wine with her grandmother
Ruth Bressler, of West Bloomfield.

4/27
2001

58

et Shalom seder brings
women together through music,
verses and camaraderie.

Above: Susan Lichterman and
her daughter, Allie, 6, of
Huntin , on Woods, read the
Hagg, h

Right: Ena Anurova of Oak
Parkfollows the seder with
Sarah Bernstein, 13, of Oak
Park and Lily Morrison, 5, of
Huntington Woods.