DELI BASKET
AT THE VINEYARD
volATo ti4
Another Option
Israeli Secular Humanist rabbis offer
tools for celebrating Judaism.
Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News
Deli & Salad Trays
All of our .trays are plentiful & beautifully - garnished &
presented on wicker trays at no extra charge —only Kosher
products used on Bloom's Trays
Minimum 10 person order
We Only Use
Kosher Products
in the Preparation of
Our Food
Vineyard Cafe & Catering
32418 Northwestern Hwy
(Between Middlebelt & 14 Mile Rd.)
visit us on-line www.VineyardDeli.coni.
Phone:
248.855.9463
1CF,6 ,370
viredge
FLOORS. INCORPORATED
Big enough to service you, yet small enough to care!
Bill YerKe, 4th generation owner of
Yerke Floors, demonstrates that
sanding with the Atomic system is a
dean and classy act. Yerke Floors is
proud to be the first retailer in the
area to offer this advanced "truck
mounted - dust containment system.
Choosing who will install or refinish
your floor is as important as the
products you select. Our in-house
staff is committed to customer
service and satisfaction!
• HARDWOOD & EXOTIC SPECIES • PRE-FINISHED HARDWOOD • BORDERS, INLAYS, MEDALLIONS
& HERRINGBONES • REFINISHING OF EXISTING FLOORS • CARPETING • LAMINATES
Visit our showroom:4234 Martin Rd.•Walled Lake, MI 48390 •
36
December 8 • 2005
248.366.9600
S Ivan Malkin Maas is Israel's
only Secular Humanist rabbi
— but not for long.
In late October, eight other Israelis
graduated from the rabbinical pro-
gram of the International Institute
for Secular Humanistic Judaism
(IISHJ) in a ceremony at the
Birmingham Temple in Farmington
Hills. They will be ordained in
Jerusalem in July 2006, and five oth-
ers are scheduled to graduate in
2007.
.
A sabra, or native-born Israeli,
Rabbi Maas, 47, says her approach is
authentically Israeli and homegrown
— her father, Yaakov Malkin, is dean
of the IISHJ in Israel. Yet she credits
her years spent in metro-Detroit
from 1990-1993 with lighting the
rabbinical spark and beginning to
imagine what a different kind of
Israeli society could look like.
"It was here that I saw and experi-
enced the pluralistic approach to
Judaism," Rabbi Maas says of the
three years she worked for the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit as its Israeli emissary
.
(shlicha). She met rabbis and con-
gregants from a variety of streams of
Judaism who all were united by their
Jewishness, though very different in
religious practice.
She credits Rabbi Paul Yedwab of
Temple Israel and his wife, Wendy, as
one reason she thought of becoming
a rabbi in the first place. Rabbi
Sherwin Wine of the Biimingham
Temple was another. She chose to
take from the American model he
had established to build on with
Israeli Jews.
Enhancing Judaism
"For me, Judaism was always a cele-
bration, it was always fun to be
Jewish," Rabbi Maas says. "I want to
enhance Israeli Judaism. I don't want •
to tell Israelis what they are or what
they should be doing, but to enhance
their awareness of Judaism and give
.them the tools to celebrate Judaism."
Rabbi Maas isn't sure what having
more Israeli Secular Humanist rab-
bis will mean, but she's excited
about working with the others to
find out.
"We're still not sure we're starting
a movement:' Rabbi Maas says,
though she has begun T'Mura
(exchange) as a framework to con-
nect to other Israeli Jewish Secular
Humanists.
Rabbi Maas sees Jewish life as cre-
ated by Jewish people, so Jewish cre-
ations, including traditional reli-
' gious texts, are studied and valued.
"I would never conduct .a bar mitz-
vah without a Bible she says.
For Rabbi Maas, the Bible is holy
because of its historic connection
and influence on the. Jewish people,
not because of its connection to
God. Likewise prayer is something
to connect people to each other, not
to God.
"Reform Judaism, for example,
uses prayer as a means to address
the Divine she explains. "We would
never ask the Divine to take a role in
our lives?'
Among the soon-to-be rabbis who
graduated in October is Nardy Grun,
40, of Jerusalem, who has founded
T'Kasim (www.tkasim.org.il ), which
he says is "the Internet home for
Jewish Humanistic Lifecycle
Ceremony Leaders" who provide sec-
ular celebrations based on Jewish
traditions.
"When we got married, we came
up with our own wedding and invit-
ed someone to do the ceremony we
wanted," Grun says of his 2001 mar-
riage. "Three couples wanted to copy
our ideas and learn how to put
something together for themselves.
That is how we started?'
Ceremonies conducted by Grun or
10 other leaders liSted on his Web
site are not accepted as legally bind-
ing in Israel, so couples still must
get married by the rabbinate or go
abroad to Cyprus or the Czech
Republic if they wish for legal recog-
nition.
"Halachah (Jewish law) translates
as 'to walk'," Grun explains. "It is