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Ann Arbor Centennial
Beth Israel celebrates 100-year tradition of welcoming and engaging Jewish community.
Josh Bender | Special to the Jewish News
Ann Arbor
I
n the century since Beth Israel
Congregation came into being much
has changed, but its commitment to
providing a welcoming and engaged faith
community remains.
Starting in November 1916, a few Ann
Arbor families met at Osias Zwerdling’s
house to celebrate the Jewish holidays.
Zwerdling then became the first synagogue
president and continued in that role for
the next 40 years. For many years, Beth
Israel remained the only Jewish congrega-
tion in the Ann Arbor area. The congre-
gation used various houses as its place
of worship and, from 1928-1978, they
eventually shared a building with the Hillel
Foundation that served students at the
University of Michigan.
Beth Israel was the first Conservative
congregation in Southeast Michigan to
choose to be an egalitarian congregation
and the first Conservative congregation in
the country to vote for a woman president.
In the late 1970s and ’80s, Beth Israel
formed the Soviet Jewry Absorption
Committee, which worked vigorously to
successfully settle new emigrants from
the USSR. This committee eventually
developed into what is now Jewish Family
Services of Washtenaw County.
Today, Beth Israel stands out as a con-
gregation that for many years has fully
welcomed LGBT individuals and families
into congregational life.
The congregation never had a cantor,
preferring to keep services mostly led by
congregants, said Robert Dobrusin, the
congregation’s senior rabbi.
“Not everyone who stands up to lead
services has the voice of a cantor, but what
they have is a connection to the congrega-
tion,” he said.
The participatory nature keeps congre-
gants dialed in to Shabbat services, said
Bob Blumenthal, vice president of religious
affairs.
“We’re all doing this together even
though the rabbis are the experts,” he said.
“All of this is part of creating a place
where congregants want to be; part of
which is appealing to younger families,”
said Jacob Kander, the congregation’s pro-
gramming director.
“We strike a good balance between rec-
ognizing where young families are in their
lives, but also that they are a part of the
congregation, not a separate entity within
24 May 26 • 2016
Rabbi Robert Dobrusin lights the chanukiah last Chanukah.
A religious school classroom in 1953
it,” said Kim Blumenthal, the congrega-
tion’s associate rabbi.
Some of this balance is achieved by
offering early childhood religious educa-
tion programs and toddler-friendly seating
and snacks at every Kiddush held after
Shabbat services, she said.
Dobrusin said Beth Israel felt like home
from the start of his tenure. Everything
felt comfortable, he says, starting with the
sanctuary from which he has led services
for the past 20 years.
“I love the fact that the bimah reaches
out toward the middle of the sanctuary
so I can feel people on all sides of me,” he
said. “The simplicity of it and the softness
of the wood, the overall calmness of it and
its lack of ostentatiousness.”
However, the synagogue’s scope extends
far beyond the sanctuary.
Some of the biggest programming
changes under his tenure have been aimed
at keeping high school-age congregants
engaged, Kander said. Perhaps one of the
most substantial changes was the addition
of a service learning option for the reli-
A religious school classroom in 2016
gious school’s madrichim program.
Students work with local charity and
nonprofit groups, primarily in Detroit
and Ann Arbor areas, he said. “We place a
value on the time and abilities of our stu-
dents so that they aren’t doing busy work.
What they do might not be glamorous, but
it is very important work.”
DEEPENING EXPERIENCE
The service learning track was predated by
an alternative spring break program devel-
oped by Kander and Rabbi Blumenthal.
Students spend their week away from
school helping out and learning from vari-
ous service groups in a new city.
“As a Jewish educator, one of the most
attractive aspects of the trip was giving
kids an immersive experience that was
totally outside their element,” Blumenthal
said. “Giving them the opportunity to go
out and have these experiences but then
come together with their friends at the
end of the day and reflect on these experi-
ences, too.”
Since the program’s inception, students
have traveled to Philadelphia, New York,
Baltimore and Detroit, Kander said.
The service learning programming
teaches some of the complexities of pov-
erty, said Zachary Bernstein, a participant
in three alternative spring breaks as well as
the service learning madrichim program.
While on an alternative spring break in
New York, he spent time working at a food
pantry.
“We got to help people, but also got to
talk with them,” he said. “They told us a
little bit about their families, how they felt
about having to go to a food pantry, some
of them were more casual and just talked
sports, some of them were really open.
“I think it taught me that there really is
no one narrative of poverty,” he added.
The synagogue seeks to reach out to
everyone in the community: young and
old, recent emigre or longtime townie.
Part of this outreach is making sure all
congregants feel they belong by calling
every single member and making sure that
they have a Passover seder to attend, said
Carol Finerman, one of the architects of
the seder project.
“I think personal contact is very impor-
tant in that regard. Even with email and
things like that, people always say, ‘It’s so
nice of you to call me,’” she said. Finerman
and the congregation’s former kitchen
coordinator, Jeanne Kitzman, first pitched
the idea of pairing those without a seder
with others willing to host more guests.
Despite all the congregation has accom-
plished in its first century, their leadership
is keeping an eye to the future.
“We hope to build and maintain our
membership,” said Karlan Bender, con-
gregation president. “Right now, we have
not decreased our numbers and that is
unusual for a Conservative synagogue
these days.”
*
Celebrate 100 Years
On June 5, Beth Israel hosts the congre-
gation and the general community at
a gala event at the Sheraton Ann Arbor
Hotel in Ann Arbor beginning at 6 p.m.
There will be a catered kosher dinner,
with music and dancing provided by
Neil Alexander’s Klezmer Fusion Band.
There is a charge for this event.
Interested individuals may call Beth
Israel at (734) 665-9897 or email office@
bethisrael-aa.org.