Federation's Event Horizon:

TribeFest

How TribeFest
underscored what
young people are
looking for from Judaism.

Essay by David Kramer; Profiles and Photos by Karen Schwartz

e all know how powerful the
emotion guilt can be. (It's been
a Jewish mother's most potent
weapon for centuries.) As a lay leader
in Detroit's Jewish community, I, too,
have employed guilt when persuad-
ing skeptical young adults to give their
time and money.
I explain that without personal
commitment and sacrifice of young
people, our incredible community will
crumble. I find myself using the line,
"Giving is just the Jewish way"; as the
child of a Holocaust survivor, I firmly
believe it. But, as of late, I realize guilt
isn't the only way.
TribeFest, conceived and executed by

W

national lay leaders like Detroit's Robb
Lippitt, helped convince me that using
the "guilt" model to attract people is
outdated.
As one communal leader ex-
plained it, "Our parents' generation
got involved in Jewish public life
because they felt obligated to com-
bat anti-Semitism in the wake of the
Holocaust and to help create and
protect the State of Israel; but times
have changed. The Holocaust seems
far away, anti-Semitism has arguably
waned and Jews are more integrated
into society than ever."
The new paradigm, according to the
organizers, involves providing opportu-

nities for young adults to find their own
connection to Judaism. So, the theory
goes, once they find their connection,
they will ask — instead of being asked
— to participate.
When I walked into the main audito-
rium at Tribefest, I sensed the collec-
tive energy among the nearly 1,500
people in the room. People sat silently
as we heard from both the famous and
unknown about their special connec-
tion to Judaism.
Granted, the silence may have been
related to a long night of partying the
night before (it was in Vegas); how-
ever, I noted something else. I got the
distinct sense that these young people

were truly awed by being part of some-
thing bigger — the tribe of Jews.
I saw young people actively engaged
in discussions about their Judaism and
sensed a hunger in these folks to feel
connected to their people and their
communities. As Tribefest demonstrat-
ed to me, if we capture the hearts and
minds of young people, great things
soon will follow.
And, if I'm wrong, I always have the
guilt card in hand. RT

DAVID KRAMER is past president of Federation's

Young Adult Division. He lives in Bloomfield Township

with his wife Anessa and their two boys, Max and Sam.

Left to right: Evan Colton, Rachel Wright, Scott Kaufman and
Bubba Urdan, seated, relax at a Detroiters party Monday night in
Kaufman's suite.

Nikki Fayne and Mark Berkman enjoy drinks with Michigan
friends.

Rachel Winer and Rachel Tucker pose.

Adam and Jodi Becker

From left: Abra Annes, San Francisco; Rachel Wright; an unidentified TribeFest participant;
Rachel Lochover and Ryan Liabenow demonstrate hometown pride.

Actress Mayim Bialik talks about her experiences
growing up and as a Jewish actress, as well as the
role Judaism plays in her life today.

Detroiter Rachel Wright presents at Birthright
Israel Alumni & Young Leaders Happy Hour
Monday evening.

TEXAN DISCOVERS 'CUTE
JEWISH BOY" IN DETROIT

Las Vegas — Leah
Bold, 29, moved to the
Detroit area in spring
2009 for work; a leasing
agent for the Taubman
Co., she originally is
from Dallas and had
been living most recent-
ly in Washington, D.C.
After arriving in De-
troit, Bold signed up for a Shabbat dinner
exchange as a way to meet people in the
community. She started making friends,
found a "cute Jewish boy" and now lives in
Royal Oak.
Being part of a community that has
gone through so much change, where peo-
ple come together and where "every dollar
counts," has helped her identify strongly
with Federation's mission, she said. She
previously attended federation leadership
conferences in Boston and London.
After listening to a day of speakers, she
stopped to explain why the event was so
important to her: "It's something really
special, being a Jew and having all these
people be able to connect on so many
different levels with so many different
topics," Bold said.

20 April 2011 I

RED THREAD

SAN FRANCISCO SHATTERED
WHEN IT LOST GLASS TO
BIRMINGHAM

PILATES INSTRUCTOR IS NOT
'SUPER JEW; SAYS IT TAKES
ALL TYPES

Las Vegas — Detroit native Jordan
Glass, 34, went to his first federation con-
ference in 1999. He was a freshly minted
Michigan State University grad, 22, and
living in San Francisco, working as an
international equities trader.
While in California, he said he could
pick out the Midwesterners right away,
which helped remind him that someday
he wanted his family to be part of the tight-
knit community he loved as he grew up.
He moved back home
in 2002 and currently
lives in Birmingham,
where he is vice president
of Glass Retirement Strat-
egies, a retirement plan
design and administra-
tion company in Bingham
Farms. "I left Detroit to
have new experiences,
but I always felt like I
belonged in Detroit and wanted to be part
of Detroit being a great city again," he said.
He met his future wife, Jenny, on a
Federation mission trip to Israel in 2004.
Now married, they have a 2-yspar-old
daughter, Talia.

Las Vegas — Nikki Fayne,
35, of Farmington Hills,
teaches Pilates at Pure Ele-
ment Pilates in West Bloom-
field. During TribeFest, she
pulled in a huge crowd for
the yoga class she taught.
Having never been to a Young Adult Divi-
sion event or to Israel, she came to Las
Vegas on friend Rachel Wright's promise
that the Beastie Boys and Sarah Silver-
man would be on stage. She was duped,
she says, but was happier for it. "I've never
been 'Super Jew,'" she said. "And what I've
taken from this is that there's all types
of amazing people and we're all Jewish
because of our blood."
After getting a degree in theater from
Columbia College in 1998 and spending
10 years living in Chicago making circuits
at Second City and Tony and Tina's Wed-
ding, among others, Fayne came back
to Detroit in 2003 and took the "fitness
route." That's when the woman who
graduated from North Farmington High
School weighing 300 pounds dropped 150
of them.

MONEY-MINDED ANALYST GETS
A WHIFF OF 'BLOSSOM'

Las Vegas — Matt Ran, 25, enjoyed a
brush with fame when the Bloomfield
Hills resident sat two rows behind Blos-
som star Mayim Malik during the Tribe-
Fest opening event. Ran said he's starting
to get more involved in Federation activi-
ties and looks forward to having more of
a personal connection
with the organization.
He moved back to De-
troit from Los Angeles
at the end of 2008.
Interested in the stock
market as early as his
bar mitzvah, he came
home to join the family
business and works as
an investment analyst at Telemus Capital
Partners. "I love it," he said of coming
back. "I have a great job; ... I have a lot of
friends who are home."
He said he enjoyed meeting people
from other communities at Tribefest and
also catching up with old friends. He ran
into a friend from high school who now
lives in Cleveland and a family friend
from Chicago.

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