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BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
J

ewish Renewal is probably the small-
est and least-well-known branch of 
Judaism, but Southeast Michigan has 
become an important center for the move-
ment.
SooJi Min-Maranda of Ann Arbor is 
executive director of ALEPH: Alliance for 
Jewish Renewal, the movement’
s governing 
body. Rabbi Aura Ahuvia of Congregation 
Shir Tikvah in Troy chairs the board. Linda 
Jo Doctor of Ann Arbor, a program officer 
for the W
. K. Kellogg Foundation, is vice 
chair. Her husband, Rabbi Elliot Ginsburg, 
is the spiritual leader of Pardes Hannah, 
a Jewish Renewal congregation in Ann 
Arbor. Hazzan Steve Klaper of Song & 
Spirit Institute for Peace in Royal Oak was 
ordained through the ALEPH Ordination 
Program.
Those involved with Jewish Renewal 
might dispute calling it a “branch” of 
Judaism. ALEPH’
s website defines it as 
a trans-denominational 
approach to revitalizing 
Judaism by combining “the 
egalitarianism of progres-
sive Judaism, the joy of 
Chasidism, the informed 
do-it-yourself spirit of the 
chavurah movement and the 
accumulated wisdom of cen-
turies of tradition.”
“Reb Aura,” as Ahuvia likes to be 
known, worked as a journalist before being 
ordained through Jewish Renewal in 2014. 
She became the spiritual leader of Shir 
Tikvah, which affiliates with both Reform 
and Jewish Renewal, in 2017.
What she most likes about Renewal is its 
use of creativity to get people excited about 
Judaism. 
Jewish Renewal traces its roots to the 

Chasidic movement of the late 18th cen-
tury, which turned away from the dry 
pedanticism of the yeshivahs and advocated 
expressing religious devotion through song 
and dance. Like the original Chasidism, 
Renewal uses song, movement and medi-
tation to enhance understanding of Jewish 
prayer.
“I see it as empowering our whole selves 
for Jewish expression, not just from our 
neck up,” said Ahuvia, 52, who lives in 
Huntington Woods. 
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who 
died in 2014, is often considered the found-
er of the Jewish Renewal movement as well 
as the chavurah movement of small, lay-led 
prayer communities. The 
Jewish Catalogue, a founda-
tional text for Baby Boomer 
Jews interested in more par-
ticipatory Jewish practice, 
was created by chavurah 
activists in 1973.
In 1978, “Reb Zalman,” 
as Schachter-Shalomi is 
known, founded B’
nai Or (“Sons of Light” 
in Hebrew) in Philadelphia as both a local 
Jewish Renewal congregation and a national 
organization. The name later changed to 
the more gender-neutral P’
nai Or (“Faces of 
Light”). The national organization merged 
with Rabbi Arthur Waskow’
s Shalom 
Center in 1993 to form ALEPH, integrating 
the two principles of tikkun halev (“repair 
of the heart”) and the better-known tikkun 
olam (“repair of the world”).
Niggunim, wordless songs used to 
enhance devotion, are a hallmark of Jewish 
Renewal as they were of the original 
Chasidism, Ahuvia said. 
A nigun is not a mindless way of singing, 
she said. “It allows people to participate in 

Dance

Song, 
 
 
 

& Spirit

Ahuvia

Schachter-

Shalomi

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Jewish Renewal movement fi
 nds its leadership
core in Southeast Michigan. 

Renewal movement members in action (top to bottom) : a service at 

Shir Tikvah; a close-up look at a Torah at the Song & Spirit Institute 

for Peace, a Shir Tikvah men’
s outdoor service; and reading from the 

Torah at Shir Tikvah. 

COURTESY OF SHIR TIKVAH

SONG & SPIRIT INSTITUTE FOR PEACE

COURTESY OF SHIR TIKVAH

COURTESY OF SHIR TIKVAH