Glassman Genesis jews d in the Valet Service Jeff Stewart Assistant New Car Sales Manager Serving the Community Since 1969 248-636-2736 Rachel and Rabbi Asher Lopatin will arrive in Detroit this summer. Complimentary Maintenance Serving Our Community For Over 45 Years! 5FMFHSBQI3Et4PVUIýFMEt 2168010 JUF CHICAGO XXXHMBTTNBOHFOFTJTDPN 2018 Audi Q5 2.0T Quattro Premium Special Lease $ 489 mo* 36 mo. $3,984 due at signing lease “I think this move to Detroit will, God willing, be able to meet both passions — the intense desire to be involved in the Jewish community and to take on broader issues we care about in America and the world.” Magna Society Audi Sylvania 5570 Monroe St. | Sylvania, OH www.sylvaniaaudi.com — RABBI ASHER LOPATIN *Based on MSRP of $45,325 (incluiding destination charges. $3,984 due at signing, plus taxes, title, options & dealer charges. $0 security deposit. For qualified customers who lease through AFS. Lessee responsible for 25¢/mi. over 30,000 miles. Subject to credit approval. See Audi Sylvania for complete details. Offer expires 7/2/18. continued from page 12 that will be good. This goes for any new rabbi who comes into town. He is no different,” says the other rabbi. CONCERNED REACTIONS FIRST-TIME HOME BUYER? WE’VE GOT YOU COVERED. If your dream is to own your own home, we can help make it a reality with a mortgage from Chemical Bank. Stop in and talk with one of our experienced Mortgage Loan Officers who will guide you through the process from start to finish. To find a lender near you, visit ChemicalBank.com/Mortgage. The announcement that Lopatin accepted a new position in Detroit has been met with equal parts excitement and vilification. Detroit’s “black hat” Orthodox community (so-called for the black hats worn by men) has held at least one forum to decry his posi- tions — it equated “Open Orthodoxy” to “neo-Conservatism” — and his arrival has sparked a spate of vitriolic (and mostly anonymous) letters to the editor at the Jewish News, one of them calling for him to resign from the Orthodox rabbinate. Other critics have come forward publicly, most to question his Orthodox bona fides. Rabbi Simcha Klein of Ahavas Olam Weingarden Torah Center in Southfield wrote in an email for this story that “Asher Lopatin’s positions are not those of an Orthodox rabbi and he is misleading the public.” There was “strong interest” among the local Orthodox rabbinate to release a “united public statement” rejecting Lopatin’s positions as not being Orthodox, Klein wrote. Ultimately, they dismissed the idea to avoid “unwanted controversy and public strife.” “More importantly, many of the rabbis felt that since some of Asher Lopatin’s positions are so beyond the pale of Orthodoxy, and this matter has already been vet- ted and settled on a national level, he does not even war- rant a public reac- tion from the local Rabbi Elimelech organized Orthodox Silberberg rabbinate,” Klein wrote. Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg of the Sara and Morris Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center of West Bloomfield said his concern is that Lopatin “will generate much murkiness in the Jewish community with regard to the Orthodox Jewish positions in many areas of life.” In the Orthodox world, which has drifted rightward both religiously and politically for the past two decades, Lopatin is seen as an outsider, even a dangerous one. Along with Weiss, who started Yeshivat Maharat in New York to train and ordain women to become Orthodox clergy, he embraces a more inclusive view of Jewish law. Lopatin and other rabbis look- ing for a more inclusive rabbinic association when it seemed clear the RCA would not accept YCT members in their ranks joined the International Rabbinical Fellowship, which accepts women clergy. While Lopatin declined to discuss the positions that have come under continued on page 16 14 June 21 • 2018 jn