54 | SEPTEMBER 26 • 2019
Jews in the D
The Marcus family:
Scott, Ethan, Dana
and Mason.
C
ontinuing its outreach
into Metro Detroit
neighborhoods where
there are growing yet unaf-
filiated pockets of Jewish
families and individuals, the
Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit held an
end-of-the summer Shabbat
in the Park on Sept. 6 to kick
off its Birmingham Jewish
Community initiative.
Approximately 40 families
attended the event in Booth
Park. There, they played lawn
games, ate pizza and salad
delivered by Jerusalem Pizza
and created crafts from recy-
cled materials provided by
Arts and Scraps.
Neighbors sat on blankets,
lawn chairs and picnic tables
as they recited blessings over
challah and grape juice and
then participated in a sing-
along with the JCC’
s Lisa
Soble Siegmann to usher in
Shabbat. As they departed for
home, each family received a
pair of Shabbat candles.
The initiative is a contin-
uation of the outreach that
has taken place in Franklin,
where for the past two years,
thanks in part to a $25,000
grant from the William
Davidson Foundation,
Franklin Jewish neighbors
have celebrated holidays like
Shabbat, Sukkot, Purim and
Chanukah.
Birmingham was selected
as the next neighborhood
in the initiative that was
inspired by the 2018 Jewish
Population Study revelation
that many young families
choose not to join a temple
or synagogue, yet still desire
the connections and com-
munity those institutions
offer. Birmingham is home to
many young Jewish families,
and it is the goal of the pro-
gram to “bring the Jewish” to
them through casual, friendly
programming with a “Jewish
twist.”
Dana Marcus, 45, who
served on the planning com-
mittee, lives in Birmingham
with her husband, Scott, 45,
who is the president of ORT,
and their two sons, Ethan,
15, and Mason, 12. Though
they have lived in the area
since 1998, they had never
seen such a demonstration
of Jewish community life in
Birmingham before the Sept.
6 program.
Marcus said although her
family belongs to Temple
Israel in West Bloomfield, it
is a 30-minute drive. Having
a Shabbat-centered program
right in the neighborhood
for her family gave her fam-
ily and Jewish neighbors a
chance to meet locally.
At the pre-Shabbat picnic,
she said she saw people she
knew yet was unaware they
lived in Birmingham. There
were also lots of new faces of
younger couples with young-
er children, a good indication
that the Jewish population in
Birmingham is growing, she
added.
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
COURTESY OF DANA MARCUS
Jewish Birmingham
New initiative aims to “bring the
Jewish” to the neighborhood.
Sh
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