"Everyone's portfolio has suffered a loss of interest
income and it's hitting the Detroit-area Jewish
community for the first time."

- Adat Shalom's Alan Yost

Federation Help
Yost of Adat Shalom and David Tisdale of Temple
Israel in West Bloomfield agree that Federation
has played an important role for the synagogues.
"They stepped up immensely with scholarships
and the addition of the Sakwa grants," said
Tisdale (see sidebar story on this page). "It has
been significant money."
Tisdale is a past president of Temple Israel and
its executive director for 13 years. One of the four
largest Reform temples in the U.S. with more
than 3,500 members, Temple Israel has contin-
ued to grow during the national economic crisis,
he said, but has not been untouched.
The temple gained 200 new members last year
and is on a similar pace this year. But it also has
trimmed its budget by $500,000 and the New
York-based Union for Reform Judaism is trim-
ming the temple's national dues under a three-
year reduction plan.
More members are looking to the
temple for relief on dues, Tisdale
said, "but we are not getting people
who say they must leave" because
of dues. And other families have
stepped up with contributions.
Temple Israel has cut some part-
time staff and not replaced workers
who leave. "There is no overtime
and we are being more careful on
expenses': Tisdale said.
Alan Yost
"We are trying to do this without
significantly changing our mission:'
he said. "I hope the cuts are truly
invisible."

'Over Synagoguedv?
James Deutchman, president of
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield
Township, echoed his counterparts
but also took a long-term view.
"Yes," he answered broadly when
asked if Beth El has cut staff, looked
for cost savings with utilities, and
more. The temple has installed com-
pact fluorescent lights throughout
the building and is looking at other
"green" initiatives for a structure
that is four decades old.
It is also studying the religious
school — "What days of the week
do we operate? Can we consolidate?"

-

— and other operations.
He said senior staff at Beth El have been "very
much involved in moderating things, achieving
the desired result in less costly ways."
But Deutchman also points out that the Detroit
area "is over-synagogued. We have too much
overhead and too much capacity': with the same
number of synagogues now, with a Jewish popu-
lation of 72,000, as when the population was
100,000.
Deutchman believes the poor economy will
force the closing or merging of some synagogues
and that "will get done voluntarily or by default."
Adat Shalom has seen major changes, but Alan
Yost doesn't expect merger to be one of them.
The synagogue has seen requests for tuition
adjustments rise dramatically, along with dues
adjustment requests. He said that 50 percent of
Adat Shalom's members pay some kind of adjust-
ed dues — up 7-8 percent over the last two years
— and that the congregation's member-
ship has declined over three years from
1,100 to 1,000 due to deaths, relocations
because of work or retirement, and the
economy.
One of the responses, Yost said, was
more cooperation within the synagogue
community. Last year, for Selichot,
Temple Israel and Adat Shalom co-spon-
sored Rabbi Joseph Telushkin as a visit-
ing scholar.
Also last year, most of the area
Conservative synagogues jointly opened
the ATID Monday-night, high school
program based at Hillel Day School in
Farmington Hills. Enrollment hit 290
students the first year.
Creative solutions may have to become
the norm. The economy has created "a
unique situation" for the synagogues
David Tisdale
"that I've never seen before in my career:'
Yost said.
"Everyone's portfolio has suffered a
loss of interest income and it's hitting
the Detroit-area Jewish community for
the first time.
"It's challenging for institutions, but
you don't want to cut back. You have to
meet the challenges and needs of your
community." ❑

James

A Helping Hand

The Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit
(JFMD) stepped up early
and substantially to help
area congregations.
Over the last two years
of economic downturn,
JFMD has earmarked $1.5
million to congregational
schools through its Sakwa
Challenge Fund ($250,000
each year) and its Annual
Rabbi Isaacs
Campaign allocations for
scholarships ($532,000 in
2008, $502,000 in 2009).
The community also supports its day schools, but
provides the "largest funding to synagogue schools
of any community in the country," according to Rabbi
Judah Isaacs, director of the Bloomfield Township-
based Federation's Alliance for Jewish Education.
"We're trying to help so that families can't say, 'We
just can't afford it,— Isaacs said.
But despite the help, because of demographics and
economics, the number of area Jewish students has
been declining. According to JFMD's 2005 Detroit
Jewish Population Study, 49.9 percent of the Detroit
area's 60,000 Jewish households were synagogue
members. That number included 71 percent of all
Jewish households with children, the highest per-
centage in the United States.
The number of non-Orthodox Jewish children
attending a synagogue school was estimated by the
population study at 4,293 in 2005.
Isaacs said the number dropped to 4,100 in 2007
and 3,870 this year.
The enrollment for Detroit-area Jewish day schools
was 2,300 in 2007 and 2,100 in 2009, he said.
The gradual decrease is due to a lower birth rate,
the cost of schooling and a number of families mov-
ing away.
Isaacs is proud that Federation's Alliance for
Jewish Education supports adult education, special
education and other programs "to support syna-
gogues and help them grow."
He pointed to a Congregational School
Improvement program, sponsored by Federation's
Hermelin-Davidson Center for Congregational
Excellence, which has assessed programs at eight
area congregational schools and is customizing
improvement plans.
"Every school should have a clear mission state-
ment," he said. "What is their ideal graduate? What
should he or she know?"
The answer is different at each congregation
because some stress values and ethics, others knowl-
edge.
Isaacs said, "We are trying to make sure the sys-
tem is working at capacity and with best quality. We
have found good areas and some that need work, and
we are homing in on it." ❑

Stretched Thin on page Al2

Deutchman

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