To Life! Special Report ON THE UPSWING from page 53 the junior board had one, with money raised going to their group." The hope, said Steingold, is that the junior board will be the start of the re-creation the Beth Ahm's USY chapter. Steingold also wants new members to feel includ- ed. "At Beth Ahm, you can't be on the board if you haven't been a member of the synagogue for two years," he said. "So I created an advisory board of new members who can be non-voting seat members of the board." Steingold sees the struggles and the solutions of Beth Ahm's recent years "as ways that have helped us all come together strongly as a group. It all continued to remind us that we would survive — and we did," he said. "Our members are incredibly supportive of all the new innovations," Goldberg said. "It shows we - already knew how great we were. Now it's time to show others, who may have forgotten." ❑ filled with plants, fish, guinea pigs and child-painted murals. A permanent staff of six teachers and assistant teachers oversee the 35 students in the program. "We also have others who come into the class- room, like an Israeli teacher who teaches Hebrew immersion and a special education consultant," Rozenberg said. "And we offer enrichment classes every day after the regular program as well as early care and extended hours." An immediate plan for the school is a develop- mental kindergarten, set to open this fall. "There are many children with late birthdays or with developmental reasons why a typical kinder- garten would be particularly challenging," Rozenberg said. "We want to be there to give them that extra year to bloom and grow." Come On Inside On the top of Steingold's list as president is to bring back the youth lost with the closing of the religious school and disbanding of Beth Ahm's United Synagogue Youth (USY) group. He began by forming a junior board of directors so younger members can take part in decision mak- ing. "We were always talking about what do we have for the kids; what do we need for them," he said. "So I thought, why not just ask them." Rebecca Zwick!, 18, of Southfield is a- member of the junior board and was the only teen on the rab- binic search committee. "I felt I could bring a differ- ent perspective to the committee, and that it was important that the rabbi we hire be able to relate to kids and teenagers," she said. Emily Nadis, 17, of Farmington Hills is a junior board member who sits on the board of trustees. The New Beginnings After nearly a year without a rabbi, Beth Ahm welcomes its new spiritual leader. SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN Staff Writer R abbi Steven Rubenstein doesn't begin his new position at Congregation Beth Ahm until Aug. 1, but he's already been an inte- gral part of the synagogue. He is still based at Kansas City's Congregation Beth Shalom, but has been here three times and will return again this weekend with his family to spend time with the congregation. "He's been so accessible and helpful already," said Tessa Goldberg, Beth Ahm's executive director. "Even from a distance, he has been incredibly supportive and insightful. I don't hesitate to call on him as he is able to see our situation and give us direction. He is already a part of what we're doing here." And that's evident in the way Rabbi Rubenstein uses the term "we" when referring to those at 5/26 2005 52 Rabbi Steven Rubenstein helps the Salesin family, Brian and sons Blake, 4, and Emma, 7, of Bloomfield . Hills, paint a matzah cover. teens also help with programming. "There are about a dozen kids who regularly come to teen functions," Goldberg said. "This year, they ran a Purim carnival, which for the last two years had been run along with the students from Temple Kol Ami's religious school, which rents space in our building. This year Kol Ami had its own carnival, so Beth Ahm. The search for the new rabbi — with a committee headed by Irving Nusbaum of Franklin and Leonard Farber and George Vine, both of West Bloomfield — began after Rabbi Charles Popky announced he would be leaving in the summer of 2004. "We went through 32 candidates," said Robert Steingold, synagogue president. "There are plenty of good rabbis around, but we needed somebody special we could fall in love with and visa versa. And we found him. He just wowed everybody." Rabbi Rubenstein also feels wowed. "I am really excited to be part of Beth Ahm," said the rabbi, who will move to West Bloomfield with his wife, Robin, and their son Ari, 4, and daughter Tali, 1. Rabbi Rubenstein has served at Beth Shalom, a 1,000- member family congregation, since he was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary's Rabbinical School in New York in 2000. Hardly a stranger to the Detroit area rabbinic community, the rabbi's fellow JTS friends include Rabbi Daniel Nevins of Adat Shalom Synagogue; Rabbi Jason Miller, assistant director of the University of Michigan Hillel in Ann Arbor; and Congregation Shaarey Zedek's Rabbis Jonathan and Lauren Berkun, Joseph Krakoff and Eric Yanoff. His wife is a friend of Susan Krakoff. Rabbi Steven Rubenstein and his family will be at Beth Ahm for this weekend. The rabbi will participate in the 6 p.m. Friday, May 27, Shabbat Limud musical Kabbalat Shabbat family service. The service will be followed by dinner and "An Evening with Theodor Herzl," a presentation on the life and times of Herzl performed by Nate Arnold of Cleveland. For information, call (248) 851-6880. There will be a parallel youth program. There is a charge for the dinner. While a rabbinic student, he led services at Shaarey Zedek one year during the High Holidays. "I get a real positive feeling from Beth Ahm," he said. "One thing that made it so attractive is that the congregation and lay leadership are really looking for- ward. There are a lot of strengths here already, from the nursery school to the leadership to plans for a religious school. I am really happy to be in a place where we see good things happening." ❑ Rabbi Steven Rubenstein talks to members of Beth Ahm at a pre-Passover program.