Jeremy Rosenberg and Noah Marcotte, both of West Bloomfield, led services
at the Fall CRUSY Kinnus in Pittsburgh.

Teen Action

JAN 26-30 & FEB 2—

Motor City USY welcomes all
to its Kabbalat Shabbat programs.

I

Stacy Gittleman

Contributing Writer

I

n 2015, the Motor City chap-
ter of United Synagogue Youth
will ignite the spirit of Kabbalat
Shabbat by making monthly rounds
to area Conservative synagogues and
inviting teens, parents and congre-
gants to join them for an evening of
what USYers do best — sing, eat and
even dance to welcome in Shabbat.
McKabbalat Shabbat is an initiative
by the teen youth group designed to
encourage community bridge building
among Conservative Jews in Metro
Detroit.
The initiative kicked off Dec. 5 at
Congregation B'nai Moshe in West
Bloomfield. About 60 participants,
including 34 teens and 25 parents and
younger family members, joined B'nai
Moshe members for student-led ser-
vices, a brief d'var Torah and singing
after a Shabbat dinner.
And, just to make sure that parents
didn't cramp their teens' style, teens
and parents prayed, ate and socialized
separately; yet their voices joyfully
joined together to welcome in Shabbat.
David Lerner, director of youth and
young adult programming for MCUSY
and Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield, said the teens generated
this idea for monthly youth-led servic-
es around town to bring the spirituali-
ty they experience at the organization's
Central Region youth conventions
back to their synagogues in Detroit.
"[The USYers] want to build bridges
between the individual synagogues
and remind the adults that we need to
come together more often on Shabbat
as an extended community," Lerner
said. He added the teens' enthusiasm

Lunch $15 • Dinner $30

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

For more information go to

in planning and leading the services
— and the camaraderie felt by teens
and adults sharing Shabbat together
— flies in the face of a recent Pew
study that forewarned a lack of youth
involvement in organized Jewish life
and an overall downward trend for
Conservative Judaism.
"It was beautiful to see the smiles
on the faces of older congregants,
knowing that our USYers are fulfilling
the mitzvah of l'dor v'dor, continuing
Judaism from generation to genera-
tion. There is a demand for this type of
coming together"
The next USY McKabbalat Shabbat
is planned for Friday, Jan. 23, at
Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak
Park; all are welcome to attend. The
dinner is $15 per person or $50 maxi-
mum per family. For more informa-
tion, call Lerner at (248) 357-5544,
ext. 32.
Allison Bloomberg, 15, of
Farmington Hills planned the B'nai
Moshe evening with Atara Krakoff, 16,
of Southfield, MCUSY's B'nai Moshe
liaison. Bloomberg said the evening
gave parents and congregants an
opportunity to get a firsthand look
at what their kids do at USY's out-of-
town regional conventions in cities
such as Cleveland or Pittsburgh and
"a chance to shmooze with other par-
ents"
"Spending MCUSY's first-ever
McKabbalat Shabbat with not only
USYers, but family as well, couldn't
have been more meaningful," said
Bloomberg, who serves as the chapter's
religion/education vice president. "It
looked like everyone had a blast, and
I cannot wait to celebrate another
Shabbat with my MCUSY family"

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21 January 8 • 2015