metro >> on the cover

Shaarey Zedek's
Rabbi Aaron Starr
seeks to inspire
and educate Jews
of all ages.

The Starr family:

Rebecca, Ayal, 4,

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Contributing Writer

Aaron and Caleb, 7.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

"I continue to seek to partner with each
of our members as well as our synagogue
leadership and clergy team to utilize
Jewish tradition and Jewish wisdom to
deepen life, to bring meaning, purpose
and order to a chaotic world, to care for
those who are in need and to inspire the
young and old alike to love and to live
Judaism:' said Starr, 37.
"I am excited to continue to partner
with my colleagues Hazzan David Propis
and Assistant Cantor Leonard Gutman:'
he said. "They are top-notch professionals,
unbelievably talented and true mentshes."

Following A Path

Now a Conservative rabbi, recognized in
2011 by the Rabbinical Assembly (RA),
the movement's international association,
Starr grew up at the Reform-Renewal
Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy.
In 2004, he was ordained as a Reform
rabbi from Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, taking
a position at Shir Tikvah that same year as
rabbi and director of lifelong learning.
"Rabbi Aaron Starr's family has been a
pillar of Congregation Shir Tikvah since

its inception:' said its long-serving rabbi,
Arnie Sleutelberg. "Aaron witnessed
his family's active involvement, and he
became a leader of his generation, locally
and statewide. His devotion to Judaism
and the Jewish people was and remains
vital to the deepest expression of his soul.
"After his ordination, when we had the
opportunity to engage Rabbi Aaron as our
rabbi/educator, we jumped at the chance
Sleutelberg said. "He served us and our
children with skill, warmth and love. The
Detroit Jewish community is fortunate
indeed to have Rabbi Aaron Starr in our
midst. It has been my pleasure to be his
rabbi, mentor and colleague'
Starr said, "Even during Reform rab-
binical school, my path was toward
Conservative Judaism:'
His thesis, Tradition vs. Modernity:

The Committee on Jewish Law and
Standards (CAS) and Conservative
Halachah, was published in the Journal of
Conservative Judaism.
While in rabbinical school, he
and his wife, Rebecca, who grew up
in a Conservative home, joined the
Conservative Northern Hills Synagogue-
Congregation B'nei Avraham in Cincinnati

where Rebecca was director of education
and programming. Starr said she pushed
him to look deeper at Jewish tradition.
While a student at University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he majored
in political science and Hebrew and Jewish
Cultural Studies, Starr had begun to keep
kosher and continued to become more
immersed in Conservative Judaism.

A Conservative Jew
"Even though I grew up in the Reform
movement and was ordained a Reform
rabbi, I always felt there was something
missing; Starr said. "Then two things
changed in my life in 2007 that led me to
seek a deeper commitment to Jewish tradi-
tion, spirituality and greater meaning in
my life, all of which ultimately led me to
CSZ — the death of my mother-in-law in
April and the birth of my first child exactly
one month after that.
"Rebecca and I decided then and there
that we needed to find a community that
shared our love for Jewish tradition, our
desire to seek meaning and purpose, and a
place in which we could grow and learn as
a family:'
He said he was "committed to egalitari-

anism and the desire to live fully in the
modern world:' making his next profes-
sional step an ideal fit.
"Beshert (meant to be), I was hired in
2008 as CSZ's director of education and
youth, with the occasional pulpit responsi-
bility when the synagogue needed it," Starr
said of the synagogue where his grandfa-
ther Wolf Gruca of Southfield is a longtime
member and Rebecca's late uncle, Dr.
Samuel Krohn, was a past-president.
"Since Rebecca and I came to CSZ, my
parents, Margie and Jim Starr, who live
in Troy, have also become members:'
Starr said. "That now makes my children
fourth-generation Shaarey Zedek mem-
bers:'
His primary roles were to oversee all
aspects of youth engagement, prayer and
learning, including running the religious
school as well as coordinating adult educa-
tion.
"But the synagogue recognized from
early on my ability as a rabbi to help fami-
lies in their Jewish journeys and my desire
to work collaboratively with our lay lead-
ership in setting a vision for 21st-century
Jewry:' he said.
In 2008, Starr made his initial contact

Starr Quality on page 10

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November 27 • 2014

