Berkley Schools
continued from page 26
Photo by Brandon Schwartz
Schools of Choice
Apply Now for the
Berkley High School
Scholars Program (9th Grade)
Accepting Applications
April 11 - April 29, 2016
Oakland County residents only
%+6QDPHGD
WashingtonPost0RVW
&KDOOHQJLQJ+LJK6FKRRO
RIWKH%+6FODVVRI
DUHHQUROOHGLQFROOHJH
%+6JUDGXDWHVDUHDFFHSWHGWR
WRSFROOHJHVDFURVVWKHQDWLRQ
%+6RIIHUV$3FRXUVHV
$36FKRODUVLQ
RI6HQLRUVRI-XQLRUV
DQGRI6RSKRPRUHVDUH
WDNLQJDWOHDVWRQH$3FODVV
Sarah, Chana and David Barnes will celebrate their first Passover this year.
%HUNOH\6FKRROVLVD%HVW
&RPPXQLW\IRU0XVLF(GXFDWLRQ
GHVLJQDWHGE\WKH1$00
)RXQGDWLRQ
Questions? 248.837.8104
www.berkleyschools.org
engage. inspire. achieve.
2089300
YOM HASHOAH COMMEMORATION
You are cordially invited to attend our annual
community-wide Yom HaShoah commemoration
Sunday, May 1, 2016 at 2:00 p.m.
Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus
Admission fees waived for the day
For more information contact: Laura Williams at 248.536.9605
Generously Supported by:
Lisa and Gary Shiffman
Marsha and Harry Eisenberg Family
Judy and George (z”l) Vine
Robin and Leo Eisenberg Family
Lori and Steven Weisberg
The Karp Family
Lori and Alan Zekelman
Shari (Ferber) and Alon Kaufman
Presented in Cooperation with:
Program for Holocaust Survivors
BBYO Michigan Region
and Families, a Service of Jewish
C.H.A.I.M. (Children of
Senior Life
Holocaust-Survivors Association
The Shaarit Haplaytah
in Michigan)
Organization
Hidden Children and Child
Survivors Association of Michigan
HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS
pursued a conversation with the one
Orthodox Jew who worked there,” he
said. “I now have the privilege of daven-
ing with him every Shabbos! I can only
truly describe it as a prompting from
HaShem [God] that I had to listen to.
“I think most converts will tell you
that conversion to Judaism pursues you
as much as you pursue it,” David said.
“I was feeling a strong attraction to
Judaism when I met my Sarah. I felt
strongly that Sarah and I were meant to
be together, and I knew that it would all
work out.”
For Sarah, too, the choice was not
made without deep forethought. “I
had grown up with a lot of respect
for the Jewish people and an interest
in Judaism,” she said. “I had a dream,
maybe five years ago — before we were
thinking of converting — that I was at
some kind of simchah [joyous occasion]
and my brother was there wearing a
kippah.”
RIGHT PLACE
Sarah was successfully playing Jewish
geography even before she was Jewish.
While applying for a nanny job, she
realized she had already met the
Orthodox mother at the home of a
mutual friend — and that the children
were students at Akiva, where David
was employed.
That job and later her position at
Akiva brought her into the Jewish com-
munity. “I had never considered con-
verting until I was really in the ‘com-
munity’ every day,” she said.
“Our decision to move to
Southfield was the defining moment,”
David said of the commitment that
brought him and his wife physically
into the Orthodox fold.
A chance meeting in the late summer
of 2014 created a significant impact on
their religious lives. “Before David was
even a candidate for conversion, we
bumped into one another on a Shabbos
afternoon,” said Kostelitz, the rabbi at
Congregation Dovid Ben Nuchim-Aish
Kodesh in Oak Park. “I had taught with
him at Akiva about 10 years earlier and
hadn’t seen him in many years. I sug-
gested he call me. A couple of months
later we had a conversation about
how, even though he was not Jewish,
he could go to shul. I quoted the verse
from Isaiah 56:7: ‘For my house will be
called a house of prayer, for all nations.’
“The next day, he showed up at my
shul and continues to come. We also
began to study together at that time.”
About a year ago, the Barneses
moved to Oak Park to be closer to the
synagogue.
“They are such special people,”
Kostelitz said. “They fit so well in the
Jewish nation.”
THE PROCESS
In February 2015, when Sarah and
David began to seriously pursue con-
version, they met with the beit din’s
chairman, Rabbi Doniel Neustadt, and
Rabbis Chaim Moshe Bergstein and
Elimelech Silberberg.
During the process, the Barneses
were monitored by rabbis at the beit din
every month or two until they judged
that they were ready for conversion.
Having sponsored other candidates,
Kostelitz, also a beit din member, said,
“My shul has the most converts in the
state of Michigan.”
David said, “At Dovid Ben Nuchim,
I met many others who had shared a
similar journey.”
In addition to his primary learning,
David studied with Rabbi Yehuda Lowy,
whom he referred to as “a beloved rabbi
at Akiva.”
Lowy said, “David needed some-
one to learn kashrut [laws of keeping
28123 Orchard Lake Rd. Farmington Hills, MI 48334 www.holocaustcenter.org
2089420
continued on page 30
28 April 21 • 2016