I

Spirituality

Torah Alive!

In an emotional ceremony, Shir Tikvah consecrates newly scribed Torah
and also donates a Torah to Berlin congregation.

Carol, Jacob, 6; Alana, 9; Benjamin, 11;

and Ricky Blumenstein of Bloomfield
Hills and Michael Silverstein of Troy

Yerman and Taylor Friedman now are
honorary members of Congregation Shir
Tikvah.

Wedding - Like Ceremony

Scribe Jen Taylor Friedman, Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg and sofer Neil Yerman

Susan B. Tauber

Special to the Jewish News

W

hen Congregation Shir Tikvah
kicked off Torah Alive! in
October 2007, its clergy, lay
leaders and congregants didn't know
this renewal project for a new Torah and
a financial campaign for the Troy shun
future also would bring about a renewal
for a small, little-known congregation in
Berlin, Germany.
On Dec. 13, more than 450 people wit-
nessed the heartfelt ceremonies of Shir
Tikvah's marriage to its newly scribed
Blumenstein Family Torah and the
entrusting of its 200-year-old Eastern
European Torah to Cantor Jalda Rebling
from the Renewal-affiliated congrega-
tion Ohel HaChidusch (Tent of Renewal).
Shir Tikvah also consecrated the shul's
new bimah, which included a new Aron
Hakodesh (ark), ner tamid (eternal light)
and reader's table.
Congregation Shir Tikvah (CST), found-

ed in 1983, is affiliated with the Reform
and the Renewal movements.
The story of the two Torahs began about
18 months ago.
"We then had three Torahs, none of
them in good shape said Shir Tikvah
Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg. "I thought it
would be nice to have the Torah we use the
most refurbished for the shul's 25th anni-
versary, which is this year."
A few CST members, including then-
president Barry Rubin of West Bloomfield,
went with Sleutelberg to take the Torah
to a scribe. "We realized there might be a
possibility to have a new Torah written,
to include the congregation in the process
and to use this as a fundraising opportu-
nity during the congregation's 25th anni-
versary year to help sustain our temple
building in the future," Rubin said.
"We had to make a lot of decisions;'
Sleutelberg said. "We had to decide which
scribe, what type of parchment sheets
we wanted and the overall weight of the
Torah. Our priority was to have a Torah

that bar/bat mitzvah children can carry
and that women can lift easily. We wanted
a beautiful Torah that reflected our egali-
tarian congregation:'
Rubin got busy forming committees
to accomplish the goal of a new Torah
and fundraising. CST President Erica
Peresman of Birmingham calls him the
Torah Alive! visionary."He was very
instrumental in our decision to have a
Torah written and in getting the Torah-
writing project going;' she explained.
Peresman and Michael Silverstein of
Troy became co-chairs of Torah Alive! and
its campaign committees.
The congregation chose Neil Yerman of
New York as the Torah project coordinator.
Yerman, 60, is known as a sofer, artist and
educator. The shul hired soferet (female
scribe) Jen Taylor Friedman to write its
new Torah. Taylor Friedman, 29, also
from New York, is the only female Torah
soferet, according to Sleutelberg. She com-
pleted her first Torah for the United Hebrew
Congregation in St. Louis in September 2007.

"We had a wedding because we are mar-
rying our new Torah scroll: Sleutelberg
said."When a Torah is brought into a new
community, it enters the sanctuary under
a chuppah, a wedding canopy, in order to
symbolize the marriage relationship of the
Torah to its congregation and God to the
Jewish people."
And what a wedding it was, with a
ketubah designed by artist Deanne Bednar
of Oxford, a wedding procession with con-
gregants carrying the shul's Torahs and
the breaking of many glasses by members
of the various committees involved in the
Torah and fundraising campaigns. Music
was provided by the band, Schmaltz, led
by CST member Rick May of Southfield.
Carolyn Comai of Pleasant Ridge and the
Gala Kiddushin Committee planned the
evening and decorations.
After the wedding ceremony, scribes
Yerman and Taylor Friedman completed
the lettering of the scroll by filling in the
first letters of the Book of Genesis.
The Blumenstein Family Torah is
named for Ricky and Carol Blumenstein
of Bloomfield Hills and their children,
Benjamin, Alana, Jacob, Julia and Reuben.
"This is a very profound experience
Ricky Blumenstein said after the new
Torah was consecrated. "We are so hon-

Torah Alive! on page A26

January 1 a 2009

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