metro >> on the cover
Everyone gets ready
for the filming of the
eulogy scene.
Extras! Extras!
Temple Israel congregants take part as extras
in the filming of Mitch Albom's Have a Little Faith.
Keri Guten Cohen
Story Development Editor
T
he ornate golden ark in the main
sanctuary of Temple Israel pro-
vided the perfect backdrop for a
very different role for the Reform syna-
gogue — movie set.
On July 18 and 19, the West Bloomfield
sanctuary was transformed by dozens of
film production members, who moved in
with massive lights, cameras, microphone
booms, computers, roving production
assistants, two seasoned film stars, an
accomplished director and nearly 200
extras, most of them Temple Israel mem-
bers who answered a special casting call.
This little taste of Hollywood came with
the filming of the upcoming Hallmark
Hall of Fame movie Have a Little Faith,
based on Detroit author Mitch Albom's
latest nonfiction book of the same name.
The movie, to be aired on ABC before
Christmas, is a story about losing faith
and finding it again with the help of two
special men — Albom's dying 82-year-old
rabbi from his hometown synagogue in
New Jersey, who asks Albom to write his
eulogy, and the late Rev. Henry Covington,
a reformed drug dealer and convict, who
preached to the poor and homeless in a
dilapidated church in Detroit with a hole
in its roof.
Major scenes shot over two days at
Temple Israel included a High Holiday ser-
vice, a sermon given by the dying Rabbi
Albert Lewis, played by veteran Jewish
actor Martin Landau, and Albom's eulogy
at the rabbi's funeral. Bradley Whitford, a
star of the NBC TV series The West Wing
(which ended in 2006), played Albom.
Both actors looked pretty convincing on
the bimah.
So did members of the movie congrega-
tion, who filled seats in the lower-center
section of the sanctuary.
Most were Temple members who'd sat
in those seats many times before. This
time they were paid $8 an hour for days
that stretched from 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Many
said they thought it was pretty cool to be
earning money and a modicum of fame
for something they might normally do
during a Friday night service. But there
was a catch. Rather than sit through the
rabbi's sermon — or Albom's eulogy —
once, the extras had to hear and react to
the same speeches several times as scenes
were re-shot to accommodate different
camera angles or flubbed lines.
"They'll never complain again about the
time they have to sit in services after this:'
joked Rabbi Harold Loss of Temple Israel.
He and Rabbi Marla Hornsten served as
consultants to make sure Jewish elements
were true to those in a Conservative syna-
gogue, like the one Albom attended into
his teen years.
Prior to filming the eulogy scene, a
production member consulted Hornsten
about whether flowers on the bimah are
traditional at a Jewish funeral. When she
explained they were not, the flowers were
removed.
Advised to have all men wear a kippah
and tallit during services, the crew dashed
into Temple Israel's Sisterhood gift shop to
buy 20 prayer shawls to make sure there
were enough. They were donated back to
the temple after filming.
Extra! Extra! Hear All About It
During a break to change camera angles,
Frank Wolff of Farmington Hills stepped
out to talk.
The financial planner, 68, was dressed in
a dark pinstripe suit for the eulogy scene.
"I'm grateful for a break," he said.
"That's a lot of sitting."
Wolff responded to an email Temple
Israel sent to its members, all 3,400 fam-
Extras! Extras! on page 12
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