New Year, New Service

Shaarey Zedek listens to its members and makes big changes.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

StaffWriter

W

hat began as a few informal get-
togethers between Congregation
Shaarey Zedek members and their
clergy became a plan for perhaps the
most significant enhancement in the synagogue serv-
ice since the inclusion of women in aliyot (calls to
the Torah) and the minyan (prayer quorum).
"We started with four or five 'Coffee with Clergy'
gatherings in people's homes during the last year,"
says Rabbi Joseph Krakoff. "They were set up for
interaction with members, to get to know their cler-
gy better and to talk about how we can better meet
their needs."
Within a short time, it was clear the congregants
wanted a service that was more interactive and more
family-oriented.
Although no easy task for the 2,050-family syna-
gogue, a team including Rabbi Krakoff and his syna-
gogue colleagues, Rabbis Irwin Groner, Leonardo
Bitran and Jonathan Berkun, began to work together
to make changes.
.
Aware that some Conservative congregations, espe-
cially smaller ones, hold family services, this idea was
something of a transformation for Shaarey Zedek.
The synagogue, for a long time, has held separate
services for children and adults.

Main Sanctuary Changes

Beginning with a Sept. 8 Selichot service, their fami-
ly-oriented venture was introduced with an evening
of music, study and celebration led by the syna-
gogue's four rabbis.
This year's Rosh Hashanah service will, for the
first time, be held in three separate venues. All will
be more interactive and family-friendly, but with
various components unique to each one.
To encourage families- to attend services together,
the longstanding children's service has been eliminat-
ed. A program will be available for youngsters ages
3-6.
"We are not doing a separate kids' service," Rabbi
Krakoff says. "We found kids wanted to be with
their parents and parents want to be with their kids.
Many came to us with comments about not wanting
to break up families."
While a traditional service will be held in the main
sanctuary, as in the past, it will done in a way that
encourages participation and inclusion, with prayer
introductions and more responsive readings and
songs.
"And where we normally have one or two adult
Torah readers, we've asked adults and young peo-

9/14
2001

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Rabbi Jonathan Berkun leads a Selichot class.

ple over b'nai mitzvah
age to each take one of
the 16 aliyot," Rabbi
Krakoff says.
The synagogue's rab-
bis, along with Cantor
Chaim Najman, Ritual
Director Leonard
Gutman and Jewish edu-
cators, including Rabbi
Krakoff's wife, Susan
Krakoff, have helped
congregants prepare for
the Torah readings.
"I grew up at Shaarey
Rabbi Irwin Groner
Zedek and girls never
teaches a class in the
read Torah," says Debby
Shaarey Zedek social
Rosen of Farmington
hall on Selichot.
Hills, who will have an
aliyah during the High
Holidays this year, as will
her 14-year-old daughter, Shari.
Wanting to participate in Shari's bat mitzvah serv-
ice, Debby Rosen learned to read Torah from Susan
Krakoff and has read several times during Shabbat

services at the synagogue.
"Really trying to include everyone, Rabbi Krakoff
asked us to read during the holidays," she says. "He
also asked Shari to be on a committee to help get
other congregants to participate in Shabbat services."

New Family Services

In the synagogue's chapel, Rabbi Aaron Bergman,
head of Judaic Studies at the Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit (JFMD), will lead a service
that includes high school students and their families.
"The service also will be open to any adults look-
ing for a more participatory, less formal service,
without a choir, in a smaller physical space," Rabbi
Krakoff says.
"The service I am running is welcoming of teens,
but not specifically geared just toward them," Rabbi
Bergman says. "I am anticipating a lot of people in
their 30s and 40s, including a number of teens. I am
hoping to have a great amount of intimacy and spir-
itual flow during the service. In addition to the more
traditional elements of the service we will have, I
hope, a lot of communal singing, learning and even
a little guided meditation on the themes of the day.

