Spirituality
ASK THE
EXPERT
Call for Nominees for the 23rd Annual
for Outstanding Professional Jewish Communal Service
created by Mandell L. and Madeleine Ii. Berman
Eligibility for Nomination
All Jewish communal professionals employed by local constituent
agencies of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, who have been
working in the Detroit Jewish community a minimum of five years, may be
nominated for the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Award.
Sunday
Services
: When did Reform
temples begin holding
worship on Sundays
and what caused the shift from
Saturday, which is the Jewish
Sabbath?
- Keith, California
Criteria for Selection
The recipient of the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Award shall
manifest the highest standards of Jewish communal service. The
professional must have made a contribution to and for the general
good of the Jewish community, demonstrating creativity, dedication,
knowledge and care in the provision of services to the Jewish community.
Moreover, in awarding the Berman Award, consideration shall be given to
special professional innovations that reflect quality professionalism. First
consideration is given to agency professionals, followed by Jewish
Federation staff and agency executive directors.
Nomination Process
To receive a nomination form, please contact
Julie Zuckerman Tepperman at the Federation, 248.203.1497
email: zuckerman@jfmd.org
or go to www.jewishdetroit.org/berman
Names of the nominees will remain confidential,
and they may be renominated in subsequent years.
Send nominations to
Julie Zuckerman Tepperman - Confidential
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
RO, Box 2030
Bloomfiekl Hills, Ml 48303-2030
or FAX to: 248228-8709
Deadline for Nominations: June 24, 2010
Jewish
Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit
jewishdersoitorg
48
June 10 • 2010
Jr4
A: So many of us are accustomed
to our synagogues holding their
main services on Saturday that
a lot of people don't realize that
wasn't always the case.
You're on top of your game, Keith
— for many years, Reform temples
tended to have their main service
of the week on Sunday morning
rather than Saturday.
How did this happen? The
story begins in Germany in
the early 19th century, when
Reform Judaism was just begin-
ning to develop. Rabbi Samuel
Holdheim was the head of a
group of Reform rabbis in Berlin
who were making many changes
to Jewish practice. Among the
changes he instituted was mov-
ing the main weekly service to
Sunday at the synagogue where
he worked.
Why the change? Germany at
the time was observing a six-day
workweek with Sunday as the
day off. This meant it was nearly
impossible for many people
to attend services on Saturday
because they had to be at work.
Holdheim concluded that it
was better to preserve the Jewish
religion than to maintain the
importance of a specific day.
Observing Shabbat by attend-
ing services was very important,
he held — so much so that
it should happen even if that
meant holding Shabbat services
on a different day of the week.
It's important to note, however,
that Holdheim only advocated
the move to Sunday in places
where Saturday services had out-
lived their sphere of usefulness
and "succumbed in the struggle
against the demands of life." He
treated his Sunday service as if it
were Saturday in terms of liturgy,
ritual and sermon.