metro

By cellphone light, Paul

and Wendy Yedwab on the

Yedstock dance floor

Yedstock!

Temple Israel congregants help
honor Wendy and Rabbi Yedwab.

Robert Sklar

Contributing Editor

M

emories of Woodstock — the
turbulent 1969 music festival
on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in
the Catskills that changed our cultural
dynamic and elevated the social justice
movement — provided the spiritual back-
drop to celebrate the 25th anniversary of
Wendy and Rabbi Paul Yedwab's arrival at
Temple Israel.
A commitment to tikkun olam (repair
of the world) has been a hallmark of their
years at the West Bloomfield synagogue.
Before 500 guests at the Nov. 19 celebra-
tion, dubbed Yedstock, Yedwab noted he
was too young to go to Bethel, N.Y., to
experience that emotive soundtrack of
the '60s. "So I wasn't an official hippie,"
jested Yedwab, 54. But the Woodstock era
left an indelible imprint on him — "why I
hate wearing neckties, why my love of folk
music and, most of all, in my own rabbin-
ate, why the importance of social justice
and what we do here at Temple Israel!'
The New Jersey native grasped the social
justice ropes from his giving parents, Myra
and Rabbi Stanley Yedwab. "People think
that I am a rabbi because my father was a
rabbi," Yedwab said. "Really, I am a rabbi
because my parents were involved in mak-
ing the world a better place. And that's
really what it was all about."
Speaking from the heart in Temple
Israel's peace sign-decorated Herman Hall,
Yedwab said: "My father was the head of
the civil rights movement in Lakewood.
And he was the founding president of
Ocean Inc., which was the poverty program
there. My mother founded a Head Start
program and was very involved in so many
social issues. Both my parents marched

12

December 8 • 2011

with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
Myra, a Jewish educator, also was
involved in the Soviet Jewry and the
Vietnamese boat people causes.

Laughter To Pensive
In a lighter moment, the Princeton
University graduate peered into the
Yedstock crowd, and its colorful array of
headbands, vests and shirts, and declared:
"This is so groovy, man. I love this!"
"Yedstock — I could live in Yedstock," he
added, referring to its sense of community.
Yedstock was replete with a lively '60s
musical revue by Cantor Michael Smolash
and Cantorial Soloist Neil Michaels to the
beat of the Simone Vitale Band. Yedstock
event committee member Judy Seigel
said Yedstock grew from a desire to fuse
popular music, peace, love and a total lack
of social hierarchy — all deeply held per-
sonal beliefs of Rabbi Yedwab."
Turning melancholy, Yedwab shared the
letter he wrote at age 6 to President John
F. Kennedy. "I asked him to end the war,"
Yedwab said. "Of course, I had things a
little mixed up: I asked him to end the war
with the Germans and the Russians. I was
only 6, after all!'
Evelyn Lincoln, personal secretary to the
president, responded, writing, "Dear Paul:
The president has received your friendly
letter. He wants me to assure you he real-
izes his great responsibility, and he is
determined to do his best in every way to
keep America safe and strong!' In a haunt-
ing coincidence, the letter was dated Nov.
22, 1963, the day JFK was assassinated.

"

Family/Communal Ties
The Yedwabs met in 1978 at the Reform
movement's Kutz Camp in upstate New
York; she was 16 and he was 21. They now

have three children: Ariella, 20, a University
of Michigan junior; Jesse, 18, a Michigan
State University freshman; and Zoe, 16, a
West Bloomfield High junior.
Wendy's mother, Sally Hertzbach, moved
to West Bloomfield after her husband
Morris' death in 2005. Stanley Yedwab,

rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth Am in
Lakewood, lives in Seattle, following the

2006 death of his wife.
Professionally, Paul inspired Shabbat
Unplugged and Joga at Temple Israel,
helped inspire the local teen mission to
Israel and serves on the local Forgotten
Harvest prepared-food distribution agency
advisory board, the Mazon: A Response to
Jewish Hunger national advisory board,
Michigan's Board of Ethics and Federation's
Board of Governors. He has published six
Jewish books, including The God Book and
Shema Yisrael, Hear 0 Israel: The Temple
Israel Siddur.

Shared Plaudits
"For most of our 25 years, we didn't have
our families here, yet we were embraced by
you and you became our second family,"
Wendy told partygoers. "You were there for
all our simchahs, and there for us when we
experienced loss!'
After showing the wind chime the nurs-
ery school gave them, she kvelled over her
husband's yen to innovate: "It doesn't really
matter to him whether it is tiling a floor,
smoking a fish, composing a song, editing
a prayer book or creating a new kind of
service. He always likes to do things in a
way they haven't been done before
The night before at Shabbat Unplugged,
oldest daughter Ariella said from the
bimah: "Dad, I have always been in awe of
your creativity, determination and insight.
Mom, your compassion and undying love

In their revue, Neil Michaels and Michael

Smolash penned two sets of Yedstock

lyrics set to 1960s popular music.

The Yedwabs: Paul, Ariella, Wendy, Zoe

and Jesse at Temple Israel.

for everyone around you is truly inspiring."
Amid the afterglow of Yedstock, Rabbi
Harold Loss said his younger colleague
understood the Temple Israel philosophy
instilled by founding Rabbi Leon Fram
and nurtured later by Rabbi M. Robert
Syme — namely, "the creation of an envi-
ronment where members of the congrega-
tion could explore their Jewish identity in a
creative and nurturing environment."
"Whether through the writing of a
prayer book or a textbook or the devel-
opment of a special class," Loss added,
"Paul is constantly engaged in the search
for depth and meaning. I am so very
grateful for all that he brings to Temple
Israel!' I I

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