22 | SEPTEMBER 19 • 2019 

Jews in the D

R

abbi Asher Lopatin is in 
line to take over as the 
new executive director 
of the Jewish Community 
Relations Council/AJC, pursu-
ant to passing final employment 
checks.
Last summer, Lopatin was 
welcomed by Detroit’
s Modern 
Orthodox community as rabbi 
at Kehillat Etz Chayim, a con-
gregation started by a group of 
families in Huntington Woods. 
He also launched the Detroit 
Center for Civil Discourse, a 
not-for-profit program co-di-
rected by Professor Saeed Khan, 
a senior lecturer at Wayne State 
University, that recently wel-
comed its first cohort of fellows, 
who will work on projects that 
promote respectful debate.
According to a JCRC/AJC 
source, once Lopatin is officially 
welcomed as JCRC/AJC execu-
tive director, he will continue on 
the board of the Detroit Center 
for Civil Discourse but not take 
a salary. The source said Lopatin 
plans to continue as rabbi for 
the 35 families of Kehillat Etz 
Chayim. 
Lopatin earned a bachelor’
s 
degree at Boston University 
and a master’
s degree in medi-
eval Arab thought as a Rhodes 
scholar at Oxford University, 
where he also began work on his 
doctorate in international rela-
tions. He returned to the U.S. 
to attend Yeshiva University’
s 
rabbinical program, where he 
received ordination. 
For 18 years, Lopatin served 
as rabbi of Anshe Shalom B’
nai 
Israel, a Modern Orthodox con-
gregation in Chicago. Prior to 

coming to Detroit, Lopatin led 
Yeshiva Chovevei Torah, a liberal 
Orthodox rabbinical seminary 
in the Bronx, N.Y. Lopatin’
s 
made a name for himself as a 
maverick, a spiritual leader who 
is unafraid to stake unpopular 
halachic (legal) positions on 
women’
s roles in the synagogue, 
gay marriage, conversion and 
other topics that have occasion-
ally put him in the crosshairs of 
the Orthodox rabbinate.
Last year, Lopatin told 
the JN he decided to come 
to Detroit because his wife, 
Rachel, a Hillel Day School 
alumna, wanted to be clos-
er to her father, Dr. Warren 
Tessler (she was raised in West 
Bloomfield), and he was also 
“excited about being in a city 
in the midst of a rebirth.” The 
family lives in Huntington 
Woods, and their children 
attend Farber Hebrew Day 
School in Southfield.
“I’
m interested in broader 
questions of race in America, 
Israelis and Palestinians, issues 
of gentrification and affordable 
housing, social justice issues,” 
Lopatin told the JN last sum-
mer, adding that the move to 
Detroit would fulfill his desire 
to be “involved in the Jewish 
community and to take on 
broader issues we care about in 
America and the world.”
The Detroit Center for Civil 
Discourse website features a 
quote from Lopatin: “Our dif-
ferences need not pull us apart. 
Disagreements and divides can 
be an opportunity to find com-
mon ground if we engage with 
respect and civility.” 

JN STAFF

NY JEWISH WEEK

Rabbi Asher 
Lopatin 

New Leader
at JCRC/AJC
/

Rabbi Asher Lopatin is on tap
to be new executive director.

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