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prayer without necessarily knowing all 
the words.” In fact, she said, the musi-
cal structure of many niggunim, A-B-
C-B, mirrors the written structure of 
the unpronounceable name of God, 
Y-H-V-H in Hebrew. “The niggunim 
are meditations on the Divine name.”
Song & Spirit Institute for Peace, 
jointly founded by Hazzan Steve 
Klaper, his Catholic wife Mary 
Gilhouly and Brother Al Mascia, a 
Franciscan monk, reflects the philos-
ophy and intent of Jewish Renewal 
as well as its core practices, without 
being formally affiliated with the 
movement.
Jewish Renewal leaders are aware 
of Song & Spirit and “understand us 
to be partners with them in spreading 
this new outreach of Jewish authen-
ticity in the 21st century,” said Klaper, 
65, of Oak Park. 
SooJi Min-Maranda, 49, was not 
born Jewish. A native of Korea, she 
came to the United States at age 3 
and was raised without religion in 
Evanston, Ill. 
After graduating from Barnard 
College, she learned about Judaism 
from listening to scholars like Rodger 
Kamenetz, author of The Jew in the 
Lotus, Susanna Heschel 
and Rabbi Joseph 
Telushkin. She convert-
ed to Judaism when 
she was in her early 30s 
— but she doesn’
t like 
the word “conversion.” 
“I like to think my soul 
was always Jewish and 
it was finally being revealed,” she said.
A nonprofit manager by profes-
sion, Min-Maranda attended a lead-
ership program through Bend the 
Arc, a Jewish partnership for justice, 
and realized she could combine her 
professional and spiritual lives. She 
landed a job as executive director of 
Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor, 
where she now lives with her hus-

band, who is not Jewish, and two 
school-aged sons. She started as exec-
utive director for ALEPH a little over 
a year ago.
Jewish Renewal, she said, is 
trans-denominational, enfolding 
many who also affiliate with anoth-
er branch of Judaism, from Reform 
to Modern Orthodox. She knows 
Renewal devotees who keep Shabbat 
and kashrut, and others who do very 
little in the way of traditional obser-
vance.
Renewal services are often long. In 
Min-Maranda’
s congregation, they do 
the full Torah reading with the addi-
tion of much singing and meditation. 
The service, which can take up to four 
hours, is “very prayerful, very soulful, 
very soul-searching,” she said.
And it’
s not a performance. “There’
s 
lots of dancing in concentric circles. 
People are part of the fabric of the 
service; there’
s a palpable energy of 
aliveness.”
Jewish Renewal is “an enormous, 
wide-open tent for a new generation 
of seekers who want the deep roots of 
Judaism but also innovation,” she said. 
She said she found it ironic that 
many of those whose synagogues and 
temples have incorporated the singing 
of niggunim, dancing and meditation 
have never heard of Jewish Renewal. 
Neither ALEPH nor its seminary 
has a physical headquarters, so Min-
Maranda is able to work easily from 
Ann Arbor. The organization has 
40 affiliated communities across the 
country; the largest are Kehillah in 
Piedmont, Calif., and Romemu in 
New York City.
In the future, Min-Maranda hopes 
to incorporate more Earth-based, eco-
logical practices into Jewish Renewal. 
She also wants to work to make the 
movement more multicultural and 
welcoming to Jews by choice and Jews 
of color. ■ 

Min-Maranda

jews d
in 
the
on the cover

Jewish Renewal is “an enormous, 
wide-open tent for a new generation 
of seekers who want the deep roots 
of Judaism but also innovation.”

— SOOJI MIN-MARANDA

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