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Rabbi M. Robert
Syme of Temple
Israel with his son,
Rabbi Daniel Syme

resource program teaching kids and par-
ents about the warning signs of suicide.
He partnered with national sports teams,
celebrities and athletes to spread aware-
ness and raise money to curb the epidemic
of suicide.
Syme now is starting a new nonprofit
called “A Single Soul” that will enable rab-
bis and other professionals who support
youth to identify those at risk. It will even-
tually provide training and crisis interven-
tion (see sidebar on page 15).
He also is the co-executive producer of
a documentary with local Emmy Award-
winning filmmaker Keith Famie called
Death is Not the Answer, which will be
shown on public television this fall.

PASSION FOR MUSIC
As a rabbinical student, Syme was sent to
lead High Holiday services at Interlochen
Arts Academy, which, at the time, had
a Jewish president. “I borrowed a Torah
from Temple Israel and took it on the
plane with me,” he said. “The stewardess
thought it was a set of bagpipes!”
After Yom Kippur services, a distin-
guished man with gray hair approached
him and asked to learn how to blow the
shofar.
“I showed him, and he started playing
classical music on it,” he said. “After he
left, I learned I had just taught the famous
jazz musician Dave Brubeck the shofar.”
Syme was also a big fan of the
Persuasions, an African American a
capella group that began singing together
in Brooklyn in the mid-1960s.
When he first got to New York, Syme
said, he picked up the Village Voice
and saw they were playing at a club in
Greenwich Village. He bought tickets for
the 8 and 10 p.m. shows and made sure he
was sitting in front of the bass singer. “The
music was glorious,” said Syme, who went
backstage to tell the musicians how much
he loved the show.
“They were surprised to learn I was a
rabbi,” he said. “Later, as I was about to
leave after the second show, they asked me
if I knew their songs. I did. They invited
me on stage to sing ‘In the Still of the
Night.’”
From that night on, whenever Syme was
in the audience, they would call him to
the stage to sing. Once, in Houston, Syme
filled in for lead singer Jerry Lawson, who
had laryngitis. He sang five songs.
Syme also has a profound love of folk
music, becoming close friends with folk

legends Peter, Paul
and Mary. He saw
them for the first time
in 1963 at U-M and
fell in love with their
music.
In Miami, years
later, while he was
sitting in the lobby of
a hotel, the elevator
door opened and out
walked Mary Travers.
“I’m never at a loss
for words, but I was
overcome,” Syme said.
“I told her I loved her
music, and she said,
‘Wait a minute. What’s
your name? Let’s sit
down for a few min-
utes and talk.’ That
was the start of a great friendship. She
introduced me to Peter and to Noel [Paul].
“One of the great joys of my life was
bringing Peter, Paul and Mary to Temple
Beth El in 2007. It was one of the small-
est venue they had ever played and one of
their last live performances,” he said.

FIRST RABBINIC POSITION
After his ordination, Syme headed to New
York to work at the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations (now the Union
for Reform Judaism), where he would
spend the next 24 years. He started as the
director of National Federation of Temple
Youth (NFTY), then national director of
education, then vice president and, finally,
senior vice president of the Reform move-
ment.
He oversaw all of the UAHC’s programs,
including his special interests of outreach,
education, television and film produc-
tion, and the task force on youth suicide
prevention. During his time there, Syme
wrote or co-wrote 23 books on topics such
as Jewish parenting, youth suicide preven-
tion, Christian-Jewish relations, Jewish
social action, ritual, theology and Jewish
education. He’d spend 120 days a year on
the road as scholar-in-residence in various
communities.
When he was ready to leave New York,
he planned to go to Los Angeles because
“I had always promised myself I’d live in a
warm climate.” Then his father [Rabbi M.
Robert Syme] called.
“He said, ‘Danny, would you consider
coming back to Detroit for one or two
years because your mother and I are get-

A young Daniel Syme

ting older and it would be nice having you
here.’ At first I said no, and then he began
laying it on until I finally I said, ‘OK,
please, no more guilt! I’ll come, but only
for two years.’ That’s how I came to Temple
Beth El.”

PUTTING DOWN ROOTS
When Syme was 16, he had met his future
wife, Jill, at camp and was completely
smitten. But he never plucked up the cour-
age to ask her out.
“Fast forward 36 years,” Syme said.
“She’s been married. I’ve been married.”
Jill’s parents were temple members; and
when her father had open heart surgery,
Syme went to the hospital to sit with her
mother.
“Jill was living in Baltimore and flew in.
I got her phone number. Our relationship
grew, and my aspirations of living in Los
Angeles ended.”
They were married in 1998. Syme has a
son, Josh, 38, who is a lawyer in Orlando,
Fla.

LIFE AT TEMPLE BETH EL
“I was ready for congregational life
because I’d been raised as a rabbi’s kid,”
Syme said. “My father used to tell me,
‘You’ll never be a real rabbi until you’re in
a congregation and share the moments of
people’s lives.’ He was right.”
Over his career, Syme has shared in
5,000-6,000 life cycle events. Through it
all, he focused on people and education.
“When he came to us, he oversaw a
renaissance in primary, secondary and
adult education,” said attorney Alan May
of Bloomfield Hills, a Beth El past presi-

dent. “He was instrumental in the adult
b’nai mitzvah program, without which I
wouldn’t have made my bar mitzvah in
1995.”
Syme started the Morning Minyan, a
chavurah-style prayer group that meets
each Sunday for those in need of support
during difficult times.
Partnering with Jim Hiller, who owned
Hiller’s Markets, Syme established the
Mitzvah Meals program to provide food
for families in need and engage congre-
gants in the practice of gemilut chasidim,
acts of lovingkindness.
“When I met him in 2005, we clicked,”
Hiller said. “He instantly became my
rabbi.”
When they began Mitzvah Meals during
the economic recession, “he provided the
vision, and I was the Clydesdale,” Hiller
added. “Together we generated 150,000
meals before I left the supermarket busi-
ness.”
Syme has always loved working with
children, so when then-8-year-old Noah
Ostheimer had a dream of starting a char-
ity that would help kids make a difference
in the lives of others, Syme helped him
make it a reality.
Noah’s Angels and Dreamers Foundation
has brightened the lives of many.
“I love him,” Noah, now 11, said. “He’s
like my grandpa. I hope he knows how
much he means to me and how much he’s
helped me these last three years.”
Other Beth El clergy have benefitted
from Syme’s example.
“It’s been a blessing for me to have the
unusual advantage of having time with
Rabbi Syme as a colleague,” said Beth El

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12 June 9 • 2016