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Coming Home

Temple Emanu-El welcomes native son as new rabbi.

MARTIN KOHN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

ABOVE: Ben
Taylor-Abt
rehearses
for his bar
mitzvah with
Rabbi Matthew
Zerwekh.

I

“I had just signed a new contract.
f there is any truth to the old
Then I learned that Temple Emanu-
Yiddish saying about how we
El was looking for a new leader, and
make plans and God laughs,
then the Almighty has had at least a the chance to help shape the com-
couple of good chuckles with Rabbi munity that helped to shape me
was too special to pass up.”
Matthew Zerwekh.
One occurred “pretty close
GROWING UP AT
to the end of my college
career” when Zerwekh, a
TEMPLE EMANU-EL
“My earliest Jewish iden-
pre-law student majoring in
tity was the ECC,” he says,
political science at Western
of the Early Childhood
Michigan University, was
Community, Temple
preparing to take the LSAT
Emanu-El’s nursery school.
exams.
Except for four child-
The other has to do with
Rabbi Matthew
hood years when his
how, as of July 1, Zerwekh,
Zerwekh
family moved to Chicago,
33, became spiritual leader
Zerwekh stayed involved with
of Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park,
Temple Emanu-El, as a board mem-
where he grew up and where his
ber of the temple’s middle-school
mother, father and grandmother
youth group and then its high
are members.
school youth grou p. “I got some
He wasn’t looking to leave his
ownership over my Jewish experi-
pulpit at Temple B’nai Israel in
ence, which was transformative.”
Kalamazoo. “In fact,” Zerwekh says,
Becoming a rabbi wasn’t his
goal in college. Although he was
COMPLIMENTARY HIGH HOLIDAY TICKETS
teaching Hebrew after school, “I
In welcoming Zerwekh home, Temple Emanu-
was involved in the political world,
El is inviting the entire community to “be their
interning for a state representative
guest” at High Holiday services and is offering
in Lansing.” Then, “there was this
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“I left this political fundraiser. I

went to teach on a Wednesday and
the kids I was teaching were able
to recall what I taught them, and
they were telling me what it meant
to them. And I realized this is how I
can have an impact on something I
love and connect with.”
That was a start. “I love teaching
but it’s only a piece of what I love.”
As a rabbi, “I love the relationships,”
he says. “I love helping Judaism
be relevant for people, and I value
being with families in their happi-
est times, but also in their hardest
times. I connect with being a pres-
ence for people in time of need.”
Congregation president Marty
Leibowitz says, “Rabbi Zerwekh’s
personal connection to Temple
Emanu-El is a plus, but he was
the strongest candidate when we
looked for a new senior rabbi, and
we were most impressed with his
abilities. He is working out great.”

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

This is, Zerwekh says, a time of
great challenges and great opportu-
nities for synagogues.
“Temple life is different than it
was when I was growing up,” he
says. “There are more narrow-inter-
est groups out there for Jews, so the

temple, the synagogue, whatever
you want to call it, is no longer the
one-stop shop for Jewish engage-
ment; which is good and bad.
“It’s good because it gives more
voices and more opportunities for
engagement, and bad because it’s
forced congregations to have to
figure out what they are, what they
do, who they are and what, at their
core, is the most important piece.”
Membership numbers for syna-
gogues aren’t what they used to be.
“Across the board, we’re all aware:
It’s not just the Jewish community,”
Zerwekh says. “All organized faith
communities are seeing this down-
tick in affiliation.”
Yet Zerwekh remains optimistic.
“I think there will always be a
place for a strong and vibrant tem-
ple. What we do and what we look
like may change, and I think that’s
why my history with this congre-
gation is so important, so helpful.
Because I know what has brought
us here, and I would never want
to take us somewhere that isn’t
authentic to who we, as a congrega-
tion, are.”
He favors embracing a larger
community, not being afraid of
other Jewish engagement groups
but understanding how they can
work together.
“I do believe there’ll always be
a need for tradition, for places for
authentic prayer, to teach our kids,
to educate our children and to
come together as a community,” he
says.
Just as “belief in God is really
powerful because you’re believing
in something greater than yourself,”
the temple offers something else
that’s powerful: “That community
that’s a family. I think there’s some-
thing Divine in a family of families.”
Zerwekh and his wife, Mayim,
who is getting her master’s degree
in social work, have a daughter,
Liliana, 2. She is already enrolled in
the ECC. “I can’t think of a better
place,” Zerwekh says. •

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September 6 • 2018

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