This Week

Staff Notebook

Exploring Adult Education

Gifted President

Dr. Robert Kegan said many Jewish adults have the
When jeweler Chris Schornack designed a set of
same relationship with their religion as they do with
Sept. 11 commemorative pins for his clientele at
their elderly parents.
MB Jewelers in Southfield, he couldn't have imag-
"They're fond of them; they'd walk through walls
ined they would be going home to the president in
for them; but they don't feel their parents under-
Washington, D.C.
stand their fully adult selves," Dr. Kegan said. "In
"One of our customers,
that same way, we have outgrown the relationship
Ron DeMaagd, deputy
we worked out with Judaism when we were in
city administrator for.
Sunday school. We need to test whether our fully
the City of Southfield,
adult selves can forge a relationship between the syn- called us to say the
agogue and who we are now."
mayor of Southfield
Dr. Kegan, a professor at the Graduate School of
wanted to present a
Education at Harvard University in Cambridge,
pin we made of
Mass., was keynote speaker May 5 at the Detroit-
a fire depart-
area conference of Synagogue 2000, a nationwide
ment helmet to
congregational revitalization project. Representatives
the president
from all Conservative and Reform congregations in
when she met with
metropolitan Detroit gathered at the Birmingham
him," Schornack said .
Public Schools Conference Center to begin a new
of President George W
project aimed at making Jewish education relevant
Bush's May 6 visit with
to adults.
Southfield Mayor
Using real-life examples drawn from audience volun-
Brenda Lawrence.
teers, Dr. Kegan explored the thought processes that
Being patriotic
stand in the way of adult learning. 'Participants also
Americans, Schornack
One of the Sept. 11
completed a survey developed by Dr. Kegan. Ongoing
and his partners Morrie
commemorative pins
results of his research are published on the Web site
Bednarsh and Tony
www.mindsatwork.corn.
Ferrari, decided instead
After the keynote address, participants discussed
to offer an entire set of their five-pin collection to
how to form what Synagogue 2000 terms "Jewish
President Bush.
Journey Groups" within each synagogue. Developing
Creation of the pins began shortly after the Sept.
these small adult-study cells is the next initiative in
11 attacks.
the Synagogue 2000 program.
"Most of our business is cus-
The Jewish Journey Group
tom designs and our customers
study guide explains that each
know we make sterling pieces
group's members will "study rel-
for every holiday — like for
evant Jewish texts to help them -k
Chanukah, we made a sterling
deepen their passion through
Jewish star with a menorah,"
acts of tikkun olam (repairing
Bednarsh said.
the world); through tasks related
After Sept. 11, customers
to the life-cycle stage in which
began asking if the jewelers
they find themselves (Jewish
still carried a flagpole with a
parenthood, for example, or car-
giant firecracker that they had
ing for elderly parents); or
made two or three years ago
through activities connected to
for
the Fourth of July.
Dr. Daniel Rosenbaum of Southfield, a
subject matters that influence
"The following week, I.
member of the Synagogue 2000 committee
their lives, from the most whim- at Temple Emanu-El; Dr. Robert Kegan,
decided to design a new flag,
sical to the most serious."
using four small ribbons,"
conference keynote speaker; and Dr. Ron
— Diana Lieberman Wolfson, Synagogue 2000 co-founder.
Schornack said. "We commit- ,

ted to selling 1,000 of them in a month, donating
the proceeds to charity."
He also created a ribbon charm. Then DeMaagd
asked if he would design a pin for Southfield's fire-
fighters, which led to some Southfield police officers
requesting a pin with a police hat.
"Both of the hats have a miniature American flag
where the shield would be," Schornack said.
A design of the World Trade Center Twin Towers,
toppled on Sept. 11 in New York City, with a small
red, white and blue flag in the center, was added to
the collection that was presented to President Bush.
But the pins haven't actually made their way to
the White House yet.
"Right now, they're in [Mayor Lawrence's] safe,"
Schornack said. "First, the president's secret service
staff took apart the gift wrap we put on it. . . . They
wouldn't let [the package] on the president's plane.
So they asked the mayor to hold onto it until they
could arrange to have it shipped."
But, for most customers, picking up the pins is
simple.
"We will continue to make them," Bednarsh said.
"It is important for people to keep remembering."

— Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Corrections

This photo — which ran with "Still A
Beacon," May 17, page 15 — is of Rabbi Eli
Gordon.

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