COVER STORY
Rising Star
The growing Ann Arbor Jewish community
flourishes in a renaissance of its
own making.
DON COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
A
nn Arbor is experiencing a
Jewish renaissance. And the
community knows it.
While visitors to Ann
Arbor have always appreciated the city
as a special mix of people and place,
the Jewish community has used the
mixture as a recipe for success.
"The common good really does
work," said Larry Smith, the first pres-
ident of the Jewish Community
Center of Washtenaw County.
"We've been growing and thriving
for the past three decades," said Smith,
the former vice president of Eastern
Michigan University and now CEO of
Service Advantage International.
"We have been a growth community
in every facet of Jewish life. We are
large enough to do great things, and
small enough to have a really great
team. People see this as a community
to invest in."
And investing they are.
Ann Arbor is the only growing
Jewish community in the Midwest,
and one of few growing communities
outside of the Southeast or Florida,
according to the New York-based
United Jewish Communities.
Ann Arbor is "one of the stars," said
Howard Feinberg, UJC's senior man-
aging director of consulting. The suc-
cess of Federation's campaign over the
past three years, with overall dollars
increasing 23 percent from $1.02 to
$1.26 million and the number of
givers rising 50 percent, earned it
UJC's 2001 Sapir Award for
Campaign Excellence.
But the impact goes well beyond
dollars and donors.
"Ann Arbor is one of the most cre-
ative Jewish communities in the
nation and it is a pleasure to work
with because they do a lot of things
right," Feinberg said. "They've been
helpful to us in creating models we
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can transfer to other communities."
Rattling off the names of local lay
leaders involved in leadership and
training roles on the national level,
and citing the leadership of Executive
Director Jeff Levin, Feinberg said, "the
Ann Arbor Federation is a progressive,
solid community institution that is a
player."
Cooperation has become one of the
hallmarks of the growth that has been
so significant in the last 30 years or so.
"We began small and cooperative,
and everyone has their own niche,"
said Rabbi Robert Levy of Temple
Beth Emeth. "It's been a surprisingly
congenial community."
Rabbi Robert Dobrusin of Beth
Israel Congregation credits much of
the community's success to "the great
working relationship between the lead-
ership of the different institutions.
"While we are growing in numbers,
we are holding on to a sense of what
makes this community unique. We
have a certain informality in the most
positive sense. People feel very com-
fortable with each other."
For example, the recent graduation
for the Hebrew Day School of Ann
Arbor was in a Conservative syna-
gogue and a Reform rabbi gave the
speech.
Communal Roots
Today, Ann Arbor supports the Jewish
Federation of Washtenaw County, the
JCC, a day school, synagogues of
every stripe and the full complement
of social service agencies and volunteer
organizations.
Plans call for further expansion of
services, programs and facilities,
including a new gym in the renovated
elementary school that serves as Ann
Arbor's central Jewish address. And
programs in very recent years have
grown to include major national
speakers and a local Jewish book fair
and film festival.
CONTENT EDITOR:
Things were simpler in 1916, when
furrier Osias Zwerdling established the
Conservative Beth Israel Congregation
when he and his wife, Hannah, began
hosting High Holiday services at their
home. Zwerdling would serve as presi-
dent of the congregation for the next
40 years.
Five different buildings housed the
congregation over the years, with the
current building being built on
Washtenaw Avenue in 1978.
In 1966, Temple Beth Emeth was
founded as a Reform congregation.
Spurred by mutual financial need and
the friendship between Rabbi Bruce
Warshal and the Rev. Douglas Evett,
the temple moved into the St. Clare of
Keri Guten Cohen
Assisi Episcopal Church on Packard
Avenue to share a building. In 1974,
they formed a new nonprofit organiza-
tion — Genesis of Ann Arbor.
The partnership is a classic example
of Ann Arbor ingenuity and coopera-
tive spirit. Genesis gives a whole new
meaning to the term "dual use," as
they share joint management of the
facility and a convertible sanctuary,
while maintaining a clear and respect-
ful separation of the two congregations
and the two faiths.
Feeling Our Influence
In 1914, worried that Jewish students
RISING STAR
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PAGE DESIGNER: Michelle Sheridan