12 January 31 • 2019
jn

ADAM FINKEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER


Wexner program
returns to Detroit
after 31 years to
enhance young
leaders.

I

srael facing the “Who is a Jew”
issue, one of several religious dilem-
mas to confront the state. Clergy
“challenged” by intermarriage, assimi-
lation and Hebrew school inattention.
American Jewry confronting a night-
mare of anti-Semitism and hate. A
Supreme Court justice hearing rocked
with intense scrutiny. An administration
facing scandal dealing with a foreign
nation and a country glued to news
reports of it and the Congressional testi-
mony around it, day after day. After day.
This was more than three decades
ago. It seems like everything — from the
flavors of Faygo to the challenges of our
demographics to the soup stains on the
Maxwell House Haggadah — has stayed
the same, with the history and the head-
lines repeating themselves.
Thirty-one years ago, the initial
Detroit cohort of the Wexner Heritage
Fellowship, a North American leader-
ship development program designed to
provide a toolkit of Jewish knowledge
for emerging community leaders, was
assembled. Detroit participants were
recruited for that initial group when the
three youngest members of the current
Detroit cohort (including this author)
were not yet born. This was the era of

Sinai Hospital, still 10 years away from
being sold off to DMC.
This was the late 1980s. Boblo and
Tally Hall were thriving, so I was told;
Google and Uber were not yet envi-
sioned, nor were JSwipe or Twitter or
Amazon.
Over the last three decades, it seems
like everything except the Amidah has
changed. Yet, truth-be-told, that may
now depend on your prayer book, which
may be digital, colorful, more matriar-
chal or, for some, non-existent.
One thing is certain: Making sense of
a confused, complicated, certainly uncer-
tain world is assisted by education rooted
in Torah, by community-building done
in real time and with peers who easily
become friends. This is Wexner 2017-19
— and Wexner 1986-88.
The program still allows participants
the dedicated time with the highest-cal-
iber scholars to discuss and deliberate
around the core of who we are as a peo-
ple, all rooted in the famous Pirkei Avot
phrase that inspired the Wexner Heritage
Program: “The world stands upon three
things: upon Torah, upon Divine service
and upon acts of kindness.
The 20 current fellows have discussed
pressing issues with noted scholar

Deborah Lipstadt just as earlier ones did
with Leon Uris, the famous author of
bestsellers including Exodus.
Matthew Shiffman of Birmingham,
already a passionate philanthropist and
dedicated booster of the city and com-
munity, has found immediate value in
the program.
“Having the opportunity to be part of
an incredible group (chavruta), Wexner
has provided me a lasting platform to
further my Jewish education and pre-
pare me to be an even better lay leader
within our community. It’
s been many,
many years since this program has been
in Metro Detroit, and I feel blessed to be
part of it.
”

THE PROGRAM’
S ROOTS
When Les Wexner decided to make a
significant philanthropic investment in
leadership in the North American Jewish
community, he approached it entrepre-
neurially, said Rabbi Jay Henry Moses,
vice president at the Wexner Foundation.
“He and his co-founder, the late Rabbi
Herb Friedman, piloted the Wexner
Heritage Program in Les’
hometown
of Columbus, Ohio, in 1985. It was
immediately clear they had hit on a win-
ning formula. So, they reached out to

neighboring communities, and Detroit,
where Les’
dear friends and mentors
Max Fisher and Al Taubman were pillars
of Jewish life, was one of the first cities
to respond to the call and embrace the
leadership development opportunity that
the Wexner Foundation was offering.
“So, the Detroit group of 1986-88 were
pioneers, helping the foundation test
and hone the approach to adult Jewish
learning in the service of strengthening
leadership.
”
“
As a native Detroiter myself,
” Moses
said, “I was especially delighted the
trustees of the D. Dan and Betty Kahn
Foundation, in partnership with the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, had the vision to realize a gen-
eration had passed, and it was time to
invest in developing volunteer leaders in
the Wexner model again.
“Since the 1980s, we have watched
with great interest as Detroit weathered
economic and social challenges and
began an inspirational renaissance in the
last decade. In the Wexner program, we
teach that leaders need to guide their
communities to respond to changing
circumstances with an adaptive mindset
— as Jewish communities have done for
three millenia.
“We work with communities all over
North America; nowhere are we seeing
more vision and energy than in the cur-
rent Detroit cohort, which represents
nearly every corner of Detroit Jewish
life, from city to suburbs, secular to
Orthodox, schools, community cen-

jews d
in
the
on the cover

&

Learning
Growing

Josh Levine, Gayle Gold, Sherri Singer, (spouse)

Rachel Maxbauer and Reuben Maxbauer

continued on page 14

PHOTOS COURTESY WEXNER HERITAGE PROGRAM