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Rabbi Daniel Syme has been a rabbi for 44 years — 20 of them at Temple Beth El.

Tireless Advocate

Beth El’s Rabbi Syme will bring a lifetime of passions to his new role as rabbi emeritus.

Jackie Headapohl | Managing Editor

I

f a person saves one life, it is as though
that person saved the entire world.”
That Talmud verse has been the
guiding principle by which Rabbi Daniel
Syme has tried to live his life.
“People, especially children, have
always been my major emphasis,” he says.
“You have to attend to people in pain,
people who are dreaming, people who are
in need — that’s been the major theme of
my life.”
Syme, 70, who’s the third longest-
tenured rabbi in Temple Beth El’s 156-
year history, will be honored Friday, June
24, at the temple as he becomes only its
third rabbi emeritus. Syme has been a
rabbi for 44 years, the last 20 spent at the
Bloomfield Township temple.
As a young man, Syme said he had aspi-
rations of being a musician or a lawyer, but
God had other plans.

ROAD TO THE RABBINATE
“I’ve been a failure musically in my life,”
Syme says, although that might be a bit of
an exaggeration.
After his first piano recital at age 11 —
Beethoven’s “Für Elise” — he came home
and watched his brother, David, sit at the
piano and play it by ear. “I had to practice
six months,” Syme said. “Of course, David
eventually became a concert pianist, and I
never touched the piano again.”
Next, his parents got him an electric
guitar.
“My baby brother, Michael, became one
of the best guitar players in America, mak-
ing music with the likes of John Lennon
and Frank Zappa. I gave him my guitar,” he
said. “But I had the best singing voice, so I
became the lead singer and played the tam-
bourine in our family rock and roll band.
That was one of the ways I worked my way
through college. I also drove a Good Humor
Ice Cream truck in the summer.”

Syme earned his degree at the University
of Michigan in 1967 with plans to continue
on to law school. Those plans came to a
halt when he was diagnosed with a rare
form of cancer.
“I made a vow that, if I was cured, I
would become a rabbi and devote my life
to God,” he said.
His surgeons called his recovery a “mir-
acle.” That summer, he went to Hebrew
Union College for its summer program.
“My father, who was the rabbi at Temple
Israel, didn’t want me to become a rabbi
out of fear,” Syme said.
“He told me if I didn’t like it that he
would free me from any obligation I
might feel. But he didn’t convince me.
I was certain that if I didn’t become a
rabbi, I’d die.”
Syme was ordained at the Hebrew Union
College in 1972. He also earned a master’s
degree and a doctorate in education from
Columbia University Teachers College.

A SAD CHAPTER
When Syme was a 29-year-old rabbi, he
had gone to services with his parents on a
Saturday night. When they returned home,
they found his youngest brother Michael,
21, had taken his life.
“I’m still angry, and I still feel respon-
sible,” Syme said.
The day of Michael’s suicide, Syme
had asked his brother how he was doing.
Michael had just returned to Michigan
after being on the road as an accomplished
musician and told Danny he had never felt
worse.
“But the therapist Michael was seeing
had just told my parents that he appeared
to be doing well,” Syme said. “I never
shared that conversation with anyone; and
that night, Michael died.”
That death continues to haunt him.
Throughout his career, Syme has been a
vocal advocate of suicide prevention. He
created Hand of Hope, an educational

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10 June 9 • 2016