Cover Story
TekT
6/14
2002
58
had to heal the wounds of our members
and move forward."
Rabbi Groner reflected on the mur-
der and its aftermath as he sat in his syn-
agogue office and reviewed his life and a
career that has spanned almost a half-
century.
A year after Rabbi Adler's death,
Rabbi Groner was appointed senior
rabbi, filling the first chair on the
bimah, which had been left vacant for a
year out of respect for Rabbi Adler. In
1978, Rabbi Groner was named rabbi
for life. He now has more seniority than
any rabbi in the Detroit area.
On Thursday, June 20, he will be
honored at what's being called his 70th
Birthday Celebration. His birthday actu-
ally was last October, but the observance
was delayed until after the one-year
mourning period for the death of his
daughter, Debbie. The event also com-
memorates his 40th anniversary with the
synagogue (actually 43 years). It will be
the premier attraction of Shaarey Zedek's
140th anniversary celebration, which
began late last year and spilled over to its
141st year in 2002.
The evening will include a cocktail
reception, dinner and a program featur-
ing a multi-media presentation of pho-
tos, narratives, interviews with the
Groner family and friends, excerpts from
the rabbi's sermons and humorous sto-
ries and special effects. Sheri Wagner of
Birmingham directs the program.
Wagner's mother, Dottie, of West
Bloomfield — Shaarey Zedek's only
woman past president — is chairperson
of the 140th celebration. Co-chairper-
sons of the birthday celebration are
Harold Berry and Dr. Richard Brown of
Bloomfield Hills, Doreen Hermelin of
Bingham Farms and Anna Levin of
Southfield.
Rabbinical Legacy
Handling adversity from the highly pub-
licized shooting of Rabbi Adler came
fairly naturally to Rabbi Groner, who
not only had his own experiences with
adversity early in his career, but also
comes from a family of rabbis used to
dealing with all sorts of situations. His
father, three brothers, a brother-in-law
and several nephews are rabbis.
Rabbi Groner graduated from the
University of Chicago and was ordained
at the Hebrew Theological College of
Chicago. His first pulpit was Agudath
Achim Congregation in Little Rock,
Ark., where his synagogue of 150 fami-
lies was at peril during the battle over an
attempt to desegregate the city's schools
in 1957.
When Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus
ordered the National Guard to block the
entry of nine African American students
into a high school, President Dwight
Eisenhower called in federal troops to
guard them and prevent rioting. The
anti-black sentiment also caused anti-
Semitic incidents, and the FBI warned
Rabbi Groner to stop all services at the
synagogue because of bomb threats.
"But we wouldn't give in to threats
then, just as we shouldn't give in to ter-
rorist threats today — and our atten-
dance even increased because of it," he
recalled.
With his wife, Leypsa, and daughter,
Debbie, he joined Shaarey Zedek as
assistant rabbi in 1959. His two sons,
Joel, who is single and a clinical psychol-
ogist in Chicago, and David, a Detroit
lawyer, were born in Michigan. David is
married to Wayne Circuit Judge Amy
Hathaway, who converted to Judaism
when they got engaged.
Rabbi Groner has seen a synagogue,
rich in Detroit and Jewish tradition,
grow to 2,100 member families in its
sixth location since its founding in
1861. In that year, 17 men split off from
the (Temple) Beth. El Society to form
Shaarey Zedek (Gates of Righteousness),
now the second oldest synagogue in the
Detroit area.
"The key to being a successful rabbi
is keeping the congregation happy. I've
tried my best to do that. A rabbi has a
unique role besides being a teacher. He
or she also must be the voice and con-
science of the congregation.
"You must rise to each occasion, revi-
talize the members and exhibit wisdom
and judgment, like the sages of Israel.
One of my biggest challenges over the
years — the same as that of any rabbi in
the world — has been to preserve Jewish
traditions in a secular world and deliver
the message of those traditions to con-
temporary Jewish people."
He bemoans the fact that the chal-
lenge is made difficult by the current
high rates of divorce, alcohol and drug
abuse in the younger generation and
intermarriage where a spouse doesn't
convert to Judaism.
A Rabbi's Work
"In general, rabbis around the world
have the same type of problems.
Throughout the history of civilization,
human conditions haven't changed. I've
mediated many family squabbles, alien-
ation of parents and children, animosity
among businessmen, and so forth," he
said.
He prefers not to give details, but he
figures that, over the years, he's saved
many marriages and parent-child rela-
tionships.
"People come into my study and
accuse each other and argue about who
is right or wrong. But I have to convince
them to resolve 'the conflict by just for-
giving each other ... not to remain