ITN I To Life!

Music Man

Rabbi Eric Yanoff isn't straying from his musical theater roots.

mer. "On the Teen Mission, I struck
up a personal relationship with Rabbi
Mike Moskowitz of (Reform) Temple
Shir Shalom. It is nice to have friend-
ships across the board," he said.
He also quickly became a part of
Detroit's interfaith community, having
just returned from an Italy and Israel
mission with a group of clergy from
the Farmington Area Interfaith
Association.
Rabbi Yanoff began his undergradu-
ate studies at Princeton University with
plans to become a doctor. "But I ended
up with a major in comparative litera-
ture, with a concentration in Jewish
studies," he said.
His thesis work focused on the
theme of childhood memory in French
Holocaust survivor literature.
Rabbi Yanoff was ordained and
received a master's of arts in Jewish
education degree from JTS. While in
rabbinical school, he interned at
Temple Israel in White Plains, served
as a hospital chaplain at Westchester
Medical Center, and taught Bible,
Talmud, philosophy, and drama at the
Solomon Schechter High School of
New York.

cq

'ED

.

0

r.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

Staff Writer

F

or some, the first sight of
Rabbi Eric Yanoff was on
Simchat Torah, heading a
parade of 750 marchers while eagerly
leading Torah-related sing-alongs
through a megaphone.
And his gusto that night proved
pretty typical of the way he conducts
both his professional and personal life.
"I love to share my enthusiasm in
Judaism," Rabbi Yanoff said. "It's in
my nature and it gets contagious."
He arrived in Detroit last summer,
only weeks past his May 2004 rabbinic
ordination from the Jewish Theological
Seminary (JTS) in New York. But he
was already immersed and making an
impact in a program involving a signif-
icant segment of Detroit Jewry
"Our moving truck unloaded our
boxes in the middle of June and by the
first week in July, I was in Israel with
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit's Teen Mission 2004," he said.
"Even now," said Congregation
Shaarey Zedek colleague Rabbi Joseph

Krakoff, "he and I will be together
somewhere and kids will come up to
him calling out, 'Rabbi Eric, Rabbi
Eric, do you remember me?' He made
a big hit with the community right
from the start.
"He has been an amazing addition to
our congregation, bringing a sense of
vibrancy, excitement, creativity and
passion for Judaism and love of
humanity. He takes the lead, reinvent-
ing and reinvigorating. He does things
with sheer energy and full force,"
Rabbi Krakoff said.
The Shaarey Zedek clergy team
includes Rabbis Krakoff, Yanoff,
Jonathan Berkun and Rabbi Emeritus
Irwin Groner, along with longtime
Cantor Chaim Najman and Cantor
Meir Finkelstein, who began at the
synagogue last month.
"He is extremely insightful," Rabbi
Krakoff said of Rabbi Yanoff. "He is
really immersed in everything he does.
It is a phenomenal experience to work
with him. His ideas are always out-of-
the-box. He has a great sense of humor
and is always funny and always think-
ing of something we hadn't thought of

before."

Settling In

Rabbi Yanoff's wife, Dava, is a former
co-worker of Rabbi Krakoff's brother,
Josh, at the Family Programming
Department of the Jewish Community
Center of Manhattan in New York.
Now a dance instructor at Gotta
Dance in West Bloomfield, Dava
Yanoff met her husband of nearly two
years when the two teamed up to
design and implement the drama and
Judaics curriculum at Camp Ramah in
the Poconos.
Rabbi Yanoff spends most Shabbatot
at the Shaarey Zedek B'nai Israel
Center in West Bloomfield. About
once a month, he trades places with
one of his Southfield colleagues.
Each rabbi does youth-based work,
but Rabbi Yanoff's youth portfolio is
focused on high-school-aged members.
He also is involved in young adult pro-
gramming and works with Shaarey
Zedek's Cultural Connection.
One of the first friends he made
with a Detroiter was in Israel last sum-

Musical Clergy

Rabbi Yanoff has played piano since
age 5 and has been in musical comedy
since sixth grade. At Princeton, he was
president of the Triangle Club, "the
country's oldest college touring group
for original musical comedy." He co-
wrote, produced and performed in sev-
eral musical comedies which toured
the country
"Last autumn, I started rejuvenating
and reinventing Shir Energy, our youth
choir," Rabbi Yanoff said. "We had
several performances this year, includ-
ing the New Zimriyah of area youth
choirs as well as with the Abayudaya
Community of Ugandan Jews on their
visit over the winter."
The Shaarey Zedek rabbis are mak-
ing their mark as a team.
"All three of us enjoy spending time
together," Rabbi Jonathan Berkun said.
"We laugh together and support one
another. We are constantly searching
for ways in which we can create deeper
connections for our members to our
tradition and our community." ❑

8/ 4

2005

13

