jews in the d

Clockwise from left: Jeri
Fishman, Liz Modell, Jodee
Fishman Raines, Hillary King,
Beth Nadis, Gretchen Weiner
and Mary Ellen Gurewitz.

Common
Thread

Though not so unusual,
seven synagogues currently
are led by women.

S

even congregations in the
BARBARA
Detroit Jewish community
LEWIS
are led by female presidents.
CONTRIBUTING
WRITER What’s so remarkable about that is

that it’s so unremarkable.
None of the current female con-
gregation presidents feels like a
trailblazer, though several noted it is
unusual to have so many congrega-
tions headed by women at the same
time.
Not that there’s anything wrong
with that. Liz Modell, president
of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield
Township, says when-
ever she tells people
there are seven
female congregation
presidents in Detroit
“they are thrilled.”
Modell said the
Liz Modell
most unusual thing
about her presidency
is that she didn’t have the business
background most of her predeces-
sors had. “But I’m a very good orga-
nizer,” said Modell of Bloomfield
Hills, who has four children, aged
13 to 20, and a degree in organi-
zational management from the
University of Michigan. “I’m getting
a lot more respect than I expected.”
Jeri Fishman, president of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield, wondered why it’s taken
until now for half the area’s non-Or-
thodox congregations to be led by

women. On the other hand, she
noted, at some local Conservative
synagogues, it’s been less than
20 years since women have been
counted in a minyan.
Female congregation presidents
are no longer a nov-
elty. The Detroit
pioneer was Lillian
Maltzer, who became
president of Temple
Emanu-El in Oak
Park in 1969; she
Lillian Maltzer was only the second
female congregation
president in the country.
It took another 10 years for Mary
Saidman to be elected president at
Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield
in 1979. Other trailblazers include
Barbara Goodman at Congregation
Beth Shalom in Oak Park in 1981,
the first Conservative woman pres-
ident in the area; Shirley Fink at
Temple Israel in West Bloomfield
in 1982; Flora Millter Winton
at Temple Beth El in 1983; and
Barbara Cook at Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington Hills in
1988.
Since Goodman’s tenure at Beth
Shalom, nearly half the succeeding
presidents have been women. Beth
Nadis of Congregation Beth Ahm in
West Bloomfield is the fifth woman
among the past seven presidents.
While none of the women has

experienced any outright hostility,
Jodee Fishman Raines, president
of the Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue in Detroit admitted
she sometimes feels her comments
aren’t taken seriously until a man
says the same thing. But that hap-
pens everywhere, she said, not just
in synagogues.
Some of the female presidents say
women are better communicators
than men.
“Men tend to focus on con-
crete, tangible stuff,” said Weiner,
acknowledging that she was gen-
eralizing. “Women try to see the
bigger picture. Yes, finances are
important, but so are relationships.
If the relationships aren’t working,
the finances won’t work either.”
Some of the women have made
changes in the way their boards do
business.
Hillary King of Bloomfield Hills,
president of Temple
Israel, moved the
biweekly board meet-
ings from 6 p.m. to
8 a.m. “I realized
that a 6 p.m. meet-
ing was based on an
old-fashioned notion
Hillary King
that that’s when the
workday ended; moving it to 8 a.m.
respected everyone’s personal and
family time,” she said.
Modell said she changed the way

Temple Beth El’s board meetings
are structured, starting with rear-
ranging the conference table from a
U-shape to a square.
“In the past, we listened to lots
of reports,” she said. “Now there’s
more discussion. And everything
is timed, so our meetings last no
longer than 90 minutes.” After each
meeting, she invites board members
to stay and chat over a glass of wine.
“When you get to know the people
in the group, you want to come to
the meetings.”
Fishman said she’s working to be
more approachable and to ensure
that everyone at
Shaarey Zedek has a
voice. A year ago, she
started an inclusion
committee that devel-
oped a campaign
of outreach to the
Geri Fishman
LGBTQ+ community.
Now the committee is
working on better inclusion of peo-
ple with disabilities.
Raines and Mary
Ellen Gurewitz, presi-
dent of Congregation
T’chiyah in Oak Park,
both lead small con-
gregations that only
recently hired rabbis:
Mary Ellen
Gurewitz
Ariana Silverman
at the Downtown
Synagogue and Alana Alpert at

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December 6 • 2018

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