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Blessing The Animals
B
aruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech
Haolarn, meshane habri'yot.
With those words, more than
two dozen dogs, cats, birds, turtles and
frogs were blessed by their owners on
Sept. 25 at Congregation Beth Shalom in
Oak Park.
Almost 100 adults and children gath-
ered on the synagogue's front lawn for the
brief ceremony, which included singing
and animal socializing culminating in the
special blessing: "Blessed are You, Adonai
our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who
creates different creatures."
This is the second year the event was
held at Beth Shalom, orchestrated by
Nicole Jahr, interim director of education.
"I enjoyed the program so much the
first year that bringing it back was a joy,"
she said. "This year we not only blessed
our beloved pets, but learned the tradi-
tional Jewish views of pet ownership.
"It also gave us an opportunity to per-
form a mitzvah because we asked people to
bring pet food or monetary donations for
PAAW [Pet Adoption Alternative of Warren,
an animal rescue organization that helps
find homes for pets who need them]. Also,
the event provided an opportunity for the
shul family to meet the whole family?'
Alan Blase, father of third-grader Zoey
and owner of Karma, the dog, said, "We
Beth Shalom uses the day to do a mitzvah for an animal rescue group.
Ron, Marla, Izzy and Sophie Jansen with their dog Clementine and Sophie's
Doug, Abi and Andrew Schildcrout with their
turtle Shelly.
dog Camelot.
loved the selected poems and prayers for
the pets. It was a great and meaningful
event:'
Among the more "exotic" animals at the
service were Shelly, a red-eared slider tur-
tle belonging to 7-year-old Sophie Jansen;
Gabrielle, a Senegal parrot brought by
Donna Edwards; and Flippers, 7-year-old
Yom Kippur Drive
Brandon and 4-year-old Spencer Urikh's
pet frog.
Phoebe Brand, 6, came with her boxer
Dexter, and many children spent time with
the 5-week-old rescue kittens that came
with their new owner, Bill Sweet.
Reese Poger, 5, and her sister, Ryan,
9, convinced their parents, Jenifer and
Herschel, fifth- and sixth-grade teach-
ers at Beth Shalom, to bring their golden
retriever Jonas to be blessed.
All attending looked to be having a good
time — including the animals. After singing,
Jahr asked everyone to put their hands on
their pets' heads, tell them three reasons why
they are loved and make the blessing.
Generous donations
A
bout 30,000
pounds of grocer-
ies, including food
and toiletries, were collected
from nearly 30 synagogues,
schools and organizations
during Yad Ezra's Yom
Kippur drive.
Donated food that isn't
kosher is given to Gleaners
Community Food Bank of
Southeastern Michigan to
distribute to other food pan-
tries that can use the food.
Volunteers sorting food from
the drive included families
from Hillel Day School, vol-
unteers from a Chaldean/
Jewish initiative and regular
Yad Ezra volunteers. I 1
Photos by Jerry Zo lyns ky
yielded 30,000 pounds of food and toiletries for Yad Ezra.
Teens help sort in the warehouse.
Megan Rosenders, 11,
of Farmington Hills and
Daniel Kassab, 12, of West
Bloomfield work together at
Yad Ezra.
Howard Zoller and his daughter, Sacha, of Huntington Woods sort food items.
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October 27 • 2011