The Whole Day!
Adat Shalom's SYNergy will revolutionize Shabbat.
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
D
etroit-area synagogues
have been modifying
the way they celebrate
' Shabbat for decades. But the
current flurry of alternative
services, musical services, young
adult, yoga and healing services
is going one step further at
Rabbi Nevins
Adat Shalom Synagogue.
With a $100,000 grant from
an anonymous donor, Adat
Shalom is planning 10 once-a-
month programs that are
designed to bring people into
the Farmington Hills synagogue
throughout Shabbat.
And the new programs will
include anything from tradi-
tional Shabbat prayer services to
nationally known speakers,
Shere and Marty Liebman on
Saturday night bonfires and
s'mores treats, comedians, musi- guitar; young family dinner, or
sit-down dinner and Noam
cal services, baby massage,
Neusner, former domestic poli-
pilates and nature walks — all
cy speechwriter and Jewish
on the same Shabbat. You don't
community liaison for President
have to be an Adat Shalom
George W. Bush, speaking on
member to participate.
Rabbi Daniel Nevins said the "Modern Day Mordechai:
Representing Jews in the West
idea is to "not have people just
Wing"
sitting around listening to the
• 8:30 a.m. Sept. 17 —
rabbi and the cantor." Adat
Shmooze with Rabbi Nevins,
Shalom, he said, is trying to
make Shabbat participatory and "Battlefield Ethics, an
Oxymoron?"
a time for the family to come
• 9 a.m. — tradition-
together.
al Shabbat service in
The first SYNergy
main sanctuary
Shabbat is scheduled
• 9:30 a.m. —
for Sept. 16-17 and the
Shtiebel Minyan
congregation has a spe-
• 10 a.m. —
cific outline for
Neshamah Minyan,
SYNergy Shabbats Oct.
youth services, Junior
14-15, Nov. 11-12 and
Congregation and
Dec. 16-17. The
Noam Neusner USY
September program
• 10:30 a.m. —
includes:
Prayerful Pilates
• 6 p.m. Sept. 16 —
(workout clothes OK), nature
Minchah and Shabbat Rocks
walk, "Darth Vader and
musical service with Rabbi
Teshuvah" with U-M Hillel
Nevins on drums and Dan
Paul Magy
Rabbi Jason Miller, book dis-
cussion: Naomi Ragen's The
Covenant
• 12:30 p.m. — Kiddush
lunch and Noam Neusner, who
was once a Detroit Jewish News
intern, speaking on: "Faith and
Politics — A Personal Journey
to the White House"
• afternoon — relay races,
flip-flops and Frisbee, basketball
• 8 p.m. — outdoor
Havdalah, songfest, comedy
night, ice cream
For Adat Shalom's youngest
members, SYNergy starts Friday
morning with a nursery-kinder-
garten Shabbat campout on the
playground and an 11:30 a.m.
shmooze. A Shabbat Shaboom
service for preschoolers through
first graders and their siblings
will be at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The
Saturday morning programs
include baby massage and
Torah for Tots.
Meal events for the
September SYNergy will
include a 6 p.m. Friday camp-
Rabbi Miller
style dinner and sundae bar for
families with young children
($18 per family), a 7 p.m.
catered, sit-down Shabbat din-
ner ($25 per family) with
Noam Neusner speaking, 8:30
p.m. tea and shmooze with
Neusner, and the noon
Saturday Shabbat Kiddush
lunch (no charge).
Rabbi Nevins emphasized
that SYNergy will not "water
down the message of Judaism,
but expand the message. It will
show why Shabbat is the cen-
terpiece of our lives and where
the synagogue thrives."
Rabbi Miller, an Adat
Shalom member since child-
hood, is serving as director of
SYNergy. He is making the
focus "family time, not just the
father praying."
He said when he was growing
up, "Shabbat meant putting on
my uncomfortable sport coat
and tie and sitting in a pew.
With SYNergy, we are saying,
`Come in your college sweat
shirt. If Saturday morning for
you means a pilates class or a
book club, then do it as part of
Shabbat. If you want to come
and then leave — finer
Adat Shalom President Paul
Magy added, "We want to
grow people spiritually at our
synagogue. There are people
who love to come to the syna-
gogue wearing a tie. There are
people who love chazzanut
(cantorial music). This remains
a place for those people ...
"But SYNergy is a way to
make our mission and vision
come to life. The quintessential
day for the Jews is Shabbat."
Rabbi Nevins said SYNergy
will expand the boundaries of
Shabbat. "Maybe people will
make a challah on Friday after-
noon. Maybe they will come to
a melaveh malkah [get-together]
Saturday night.
"There are new trends in
Jewish music," he said, "and we
want to take advantage of that.
We don't want to make it a per-
formance [where people sit
back and watch]. We want peo-
ple to get up and to sing and
dance before sundown. We
want to deepen our roots, not
abandon our roots."
SYNergy co-chairs are
Barbara Kappy, Carol
Weintraub Fogel and Gray
Graff. Adat Shalom Rabbis
Herbert Yoskowitz and Rachel
Shere are involved in the plan-
ning with Rabbis Nevins and
Miller. [1
For information on
SYNergy programs, go to
shabbat@adat or call
(248) 851-5100. Meal
reservations due Sept. 12.
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