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Jewish Communal Life Centered
On Social Justice for All

EDITOR’S NOTE: Two weeks ago, the JN published a Rosh Hashanah sermon Rabbi Aaron Starr delivered at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield. Rabbi Starr suggested it
was time to “Say Kaddish For Tikkun Olam” and focus on shoring up Jewish identity and commitment. The sermon generated a lot of talk in the community. To keep the conver-
sation about the role of tikkun olam in the Jewish community going, today we are publishing another set of Rosh Hashanah remarks that present a markedly different perspective,
these from Andy Levin, president of Congregation T’chiyah in Oak Park, as well as a response to Rabbi Starr’s sermon from some local young adults.

I

want to talk with you about belonging. Alone century? I don’t think so. We are cer-
About where we belong. About what it tainly in an uncomfortable moment, one in
means to belong. What it means to join which some very loud voices are telling us
something. To be a member of a group.
that the only way to feel good is to go back-
Recently, I read Sebastian Junger’s new
ward and to repel people who look or sound
book, Tribe. It’s a short book, and
or pray differently than what some
it’s gotten a fair amount of atten-
perceive as “normal,” in effect, setting
tion. Junger’s thesis, essentially,
tribe against tribe.
is that the explosion of problems
But isn’t our challenge precisely
experienced by vets after they
this: that we truly need tribal con-
return home from fighting in
nection, that intensity of mutual
Iraq and Afghanistan reflects not
affection, that acknowledgement of
something wrong with them, but
interdependence; but that at the same
rather something wrong with us,
time, we know universalism is the
Andy Levin
with American society, perhaps
only thing that can save us?
with modernity itself. He talks a
The evidence that tribalism can
lot about Indian tribes, about egalitarianism
have devastating consequences overwhelms
and selflessness. About how we feel most
us daily. We, the carbon-gobbling “Tribe of
vital when in danger, when fighting for oth-
the Haves,” are frying our planet and chang-
ers we care about.
ing our ways too slowly to maintain life on
How can we have meaningful lives in a
Earth in the way it has been since the end of
society where everything is so comfortable
the last ice age.
— at least for some of us? When the empha-
Black people are being shot by public
sis is on getting and having, me and mine?
authorities who react so quickly to … to
When people live isolated lives, driving into
what, if not a difference that’s only skin deep?
garages with doors that close behind them,
The last 30 years have seen wars, terrorism
focusing on electronic devices that mediate
and even genocidal activity among people
all interaction? While Junger seems to talk-
of different religions, races and ethnicities
ing about PTSD and related matters, he is
across multiple continents.
really interrogating both modernity itself and
I want to build a world in which I can have
the organization of American society.
an intense feeling of belonging to a group
It has been 15 years since Robert Putnam
that does not set me apart from others, but
published Bowling Alone, the study that
that supports me in my faith in universal
brought the world’s attention to declining
human values — that even demands that I
participation in all manner of communal
put my best self forward in achieving uni-
activities, from churches and synagogues to
versal sister and brotherhood across these
PTAs and bowling leagues. And that was six
differences.
years before the iPhone showed up!
That is why we are building Congregation
So are we doomed to live in the Bowling
T’chiyah the way we are building it.

WE ARE ONE
We say to our brothers and sisters in the
Reconstructionist Congregation of Detroit,
with whom we are so happy to be sharing
services, that we are one. Together, we are
the Reconstructionist Jews of this great city
and region. We belong together.
I say to all of you sitting here who are not
our members, consider joining us. We have
turned a corner at Congregation T’chiyah,
and we will not turn back. In June, our mem-
bers voted unanimously to leave dues behind
forever. And do you know what happened?
That same membership pledged significantly
more financial support for this spiritual
community than it has ever given before in
so-called dues.
However, it’s not just a fundraising strat-
egy, this matter of eliminating dues and
asking everyone to pledge from the heart to
support this community financially — to
whatever extent they are able and wish freely
to give. It goes to the core of who we are.
The old model of belonging to a syna-
gogue out of obligation is too tribal, not uni-
versal enough for today’s young people. And
God bless them. It’s not universal enough for
me, either. We have separated the notion of
money from the question of belonging com-
pletely. Honestly, we have.
But the old model wasn’t too tribal just
because of dues and obligation and guilt. It
also undersold what our obligation as Jews
really is. Which is taking care of the stranger,
seeing the other as oneself. It is nothing less
than universal human rights for all people.
That’s the Judaism my parents burned into
me. And I want — no, I need, this is my per-
sonal spiritual need — to be part of a group

that demands nothing less of me.
So this is what membership in
Congregation T’chiyah means today. We are
a down-to-earth davening shul, with services
every single week where you are welcomed
by name and where people need to know
whether your granddaughter’s broken leg has
healed or how your new job is going. We are
the social justice shul, where fighting water
shutoffs in poor people’s homes or winning a
regional system of mass transit, at long last,
can be your way of davening; and that’s just
fine.
I recently spoke to one of our members
who said, somewhat sheepishly, that the
most important thing to her is pretty much
our monthly book group.
What a nice opportunity she gave me to
say, “Wow, that’s just fine!” That’s what we
want. Whether you are looking for a book
group, a potluck, a protest, some place to say
Kaddish or a place to pray week in and week
out, join us.
Join us to build a new kind of Jewish
communal life with many doors to enter
based on your own needs and wants. A
new kind of Jewish communal life that only
seeks to help you find your truest self —
and to help us all repair our badly broken
world arm in arm with each other — and
with all people across all the silly categories
we humans have created and which our
Torah, at this time above all others, asks us
to see — right — through.

*

Andy Levin is a founder and leader of Detroit Jews for
Justice and president of Congregation T’chiyah in Oak
Park. He gave these remarks on Rosh Hashanah.

Faryn Borella)

essay

A Response To ‘Time To Say Kaddish For Tikkun Olam’

T

he piece that follows was written a few weeks ago in response to Rabbi Aaron Starr’s sermon, which we encourage you to read in full at
www.shaareyzedek.org/time-to-say-kaddish-for-tikkun-olam. We offer this perspective with full hearts and striving toward holiness that is
truly holistic, inclusive of the universal and progressive values that we hold as inseparable from our Jewish values.

Many of you heard or read Rabbi Aaron
Starr’s Rosh Hashanah sermon, “Time to
Say Kaddish for Tikkun Olam,” proclaiming
that Jewish participation in movements for
racial and social justice is risking the future
of the Jewish people.
We are young and active members of
this community, and we reject Rabbi Starr’s
assertion that our commitment to tikkun
olam, repairing the world, devalues our
commitment to the Jewish community.
For those who also felt hurt and surprised
by his words, we are right there with you.

8 October 27 • 2016

We are in the Days of Awe, a time for deep
reflection that urges our community to shed
the fear and prejudice that nurtured Rabbi
Starr’s sentiments. The harmful implications
of his words, spoken from a position of
spiritual and communal leadership, compel
us to speak up, too.
In his sermon, Rabbi Starr quoted part
of a well-known passage by Rabbi Hillel: “If
I am not for myself, who will be for me?”
In Rabbi Starr’s insistence that we prioritize
“Jews and family first” over movements for
racial justice, he excluded people of color

and of all backgrounds in our Jewish com-
munity. These individuals are our family,
too, and we stand up forcefully in these
movements to ensure that every member of
our community can thrive.
We, too, care deeply about the safety
and prosperity of our community, and we
know that it is bound together with that of
all people. We believe ending the 50-year
occupation in the West Bank and Gaza is
crucial to securing freedom and dignity
for Palestinians — but also to sustaining a
vibrant future for our Jewish community.

IfNotNow members in the Bay Area
participate in a #HeedTheCall march.

This work does not put us at risk; rather, it
makes us more resilient and connected.
While Rabbi Starr cuts the passage short,
Rabbi Hillel continues: “Uch’she ani l’atzmi,
ma ani: If I am only for myself, what am I?”
reminding us that we are all less human,
less whole when we ignore prejudice and

continued on page 10

