metro

Rabbi's
Dual Role

I

take care
of you.

With great rates, an
even better staff, and the
speediest buses in the —1
business, trust Qwik Park e'
to get you to the airport
Qwik as a flash.

Save time.
Reserve online!
qwikpark.com

I

7782 Merriman Rd., Romulus, MI

E7d

../P
C

:

141
111111111"
7

Exit 198 from 1-94
Exit 20 from 1-275

ON M ERR IMAN

1.888.844.7275 • qwikpark.com

2002930

26 April 30 • 2015

T'chiyah's Alana
Alpert will blend
rabbinic duties
with community
organizing.

Rabbi Alana Alpert and Cantor Steve Klaper of the Song and Spirit Institute for
Peace begin the Friday evening Shabbat service.

Perfect Job

Shari S. Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

A

communal weekend of
services, music and educa-
tion marked the installa-
tion of Rabbi Alana Alpert as rabbi of
Congregation T'chiyah. Rabbi Sharon
Cohen Anisfeld, dean of Hebrew College
in Boston, officiated at the installation
service on Friday, April 17, with musi-
cal accompaniment by Cantor Steve
Klaper of the Song and Spirit Institute
for Peace.
A congregational dinner before ser-
vices was the first event of the installa-
tion weekend for the Reconstructionist
congregation based in Oak Park.
Anisfeld, scholar-in-residence, led a
"Brunch and Learn" on Shabbat. After
Havdalah, a combined celebration/fund-
raising dinner to benefit Detroit Jews for
Justice was held at Northern Lights in
Detroit with music by 7 Layers.
More than 75 people attended
weekend activities coordinated by Roz
Schindler, chair, and her committee.
Alpert, ordained at Hebrew College
in 2014, will serve on a part-time basis
as T'chiyah's rabbi and part-time as a
community organizer for Detroit Jews
for Justice.

At the installation of Rabbi Alpert

as much as possible about the issues
people care about, and doing some
community education and community
mobilization to build an infrastruc-
ture:'
She has found interest not only
among T'chiyah congregants, but also
from members of the Isaac Agree
Downtown Synagogue and other con-
gregations, as well as unaffiliated indi-
viduals.
In December, a social media post on
a Friday brought 70 members of the
Jewish community to Campus Martius
in Downtown Detroit on a Monday to
support "Black Lives Matter," a mobi-
lization to protest recent shootings of
unarmed black men by police. "This
showed there is interest;' Alpert said.
She brought a small group of young
Jews For Justice
Jewish Detroiters with her to a clergy
demonstration in Ferguson, Mo., in
She explained the idea for Detroit Jews
for Justice came from T'chiyah members February.
Mary Ellen Gurewitz and Andy Levin as
Detroit Jews for Justice, currently
the congregation sought more intense
being managed by Congregation
T'chiyah, is in its organizational stages.
involvement in social justice issues. The
Jewish community is really
Alpert anticipates that
good at social services, such
a team will do research
as providing food and other
to identify a small
immediate needs, Alpert
number of issues, assess
explained. However, as
the coalitions that exist
pointed out on the Detroit
- around these social
Jews for Justice website
issues and determine
(detroitjewsforjustice.org),
how Jewish individuals
social justice is intended to
can help. She expects
change the conditions that
to use a community
organizing model that
create such needs.
Since beginning her
has been successful in
work here last summer,
New York, the Twin
Rabbi Alan a Alpert and
Alpert has been "meeting
Cities, Chicago and
her parents , Merrill and
people one-on-one to learn Gregg Alpe rt
Washington, D.C.

Alpert, who grew up in
Los Angeles, came to
Detroit because "the job
is a perfect blend of my
interests and passions. I
was impressed with the
challenges and resilience
of Detroiters. Doing social
justice here has implica-
tions for the rest of the
country," she said.
And Alpert, 32, has a
personal Detroit Jewish
connection — her great-grandfather
had a clothing store on Eight Mile Road
years ago. She lives in Detroit's historic
Woodbridge neighborhood.
Alpert has studied social movements
and faith-based organizing, graduat-
ing from Avodah: the Jewish Service
Corps and Activate! the Community
Organizing Fellowship for Social Justice.
She worked as a community organizer
at New York Jobs for Justice and for
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.
In addition, she lived in Israel for three
years.
Andy Levin, T'Chiyah vice president
and chairman of its Rabbinic Search
Committee, described the search pro-
cess and happy outcome: "We scoured
the nation searching for the right person
to be our new rabbi and the leader of
Detroit Jews for Justice. After all, we
were creating a unique new position in
American Judaism, the Rabbi Organizer
— a person who would combine a syna-
gogue pulpit with leadership of a Jewish
social justice organization.
"We needed a fearless, prophetic voice
for justice, but also someone who knits
people together rather than dividing
them:' he said. "Someone who inspires
on the bimah, comforts in the hospital,
and leads the protest for equality and
justice for all in the public square.
"Somewhat to our amazement, we
have found that person in Rabbi Alana
Alpert. Her honesty, grace, spiritual
gravitas and absolute need to make
building a more just world her daily
portion have, quite simply, wowed our
congregation:'

❑