Synagogue Listings
Torah Portion . . . . .
Ceiebrate
Learning
SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer
T
he Jewish Theological Seminary of America's
main campus is in Manhattan, but its learning
has made its way to the minds of many
Detroiters.
ITS has made a very strong commitment to be a univer-
sity without walls," says Tom Wexelberg-Clouser, regional
director of the Bloomfield Hills-based Great Lakes Region
of JTS. The local group will host its Metropolitan Detroit
Gala Celebration Thursday, May 30, at Adat Shalom
Synagogue.
The 106-year-old JTS maintains undergraduate, gradu-
ate and professional programs, including a rabbinical
school, the H. L. Miller Cantorial School and College of
Jewish Music, William Davidson Graduate School of
Jewish Education, Albert A. List College of Jewish
Studies, Rebecca and Israel Ivry Prozdor model supple-
mentary high school and five research institutes, including
the Melton Research Center for Jewish Education.
But Wexelberg-Clouser says there's much more.
"Students can receive a master's degree in education via
the Internet or take part in a three-part series online, deal-
ing with teaching morality to teens."
In addition, some 150 Detroiters, wishing to learn
with a rabbi, have met with the JTS Midwest rabbinic fel-
low Rabbi Lauren Berkun in the Kollot: Voices of
Learning outreach study program.
"She brings her training to synagogues where maybe
rabbis can't find as much time as they would like for
teaching," Wexelberg-Clouser says.
"Rabbi Berkun is having an amazing impact on the
groups and on the individuals she studies with one-on-
one," says Doris Blechman, who chairs the May 30 din-
ner with Sharon Gene. "She teaches everything from text
to prayer to rolling sushi and going to the mikvah (ritual
bath). She has reached people who never went near reli-
gious study before."
JTS is a partner in Jewish education with all five local
Conservative congregations, Wexelberg-Clouser says.
Younger students can learn through JTS for Toddlers,
the Hebrew immersion program for preschool and early
school-age students at synagogue religious schools. The
program began at Adat Shalom Synagogue and is now
ready to expand to other congregations. The JTS-devel-
oped Jewish Early Education Enhancement Project
(JEEEP) for preschool educators soon will be followed by
a program for teachers of kinder-
garten through second-grade stu-
dents.
Annual JTS gala
Dinner Plans
Official greetings from the school
will be made by Rabbi Carol
Davidson, vice chancellor for insti-
tutional advancement at JTS -.
Guest speaker at the dinner will
be Dr. Raymond Scheindlin, pro-
Rabbi Lauren Berkun
fessor of medieval Hebrew litera-
ture at JTS and director of the
seminary's Shalom Spiegel Institute
of Medieval Hebrew Poetry.
Dr. Scheindlin, a Hebraic and
Arabic scholar who serves on the exec-
utive committee of the Society for
Judeo-Arabic Studies, has translated
Arabic documents related to the Sept.
11 attacks. A member of the Task
Force on Terrorism through the New
York state attorney general's office, his
topic will be "A Jewish View of Islam
— Post-Sept. 11."
Honorees from each metro-
Detroit Conservative synagogue will
receive the Shin Award at the May
30 celebration. They are Harold and Dr. Raymond Scheindlin
Barbara Berry of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, Gerald and Barbara
Cook of Adat Shalom Synagogue, Maxwell and Sara
Nadis of Congregation Beth Ahm, Albert and Ida
Rosenblum of Congregation Beth Shalom, and Leonard
and Ann Wanetik of Congregation B'nai Moshe.
In addition, Philip Langwald of Southfield, a lifelong
member of Adat Shalom, will receive the Distinguished
Service Award for his work in the Jewish and secular
communities.
"Support for JTS is a lot like foreign aid for Israel,"
Blechman says. "Much of it comes back to us in local ben-
efits. In the case of foreign aid, about 75 percent comes
back to the United States in the form of sales and con-
tracts. In the case of JTS, we get the rabbis and educators
who are in such high demand, the training program for
preschool educators and the Hebrew immersion program.
"The Jewish people need Israel and the Jewish people
need institutions such as JTS to sustain both our physi-
cal and spiritual survival."
❑
supports the
New York-based
school and
honors local
leaders.
The Detroit Board of the Jewish
Theological Seminary Metropolitan
Detroit Gala Celebration will take
place Thursday, May 30, at Adat
Shalom Synagogue. The schedule is
cocktails 6 p.m.; awards presentation
6:45 p.m.; dinner 8 p.m. Minimum
contribution: $180.
For information, call the Great
Lakes Region of JTS office at (248)
258-0055. ❑
5/24
2002
49