continued from page 15

16 | OCTOBER 17 • 2019 

Aura Ahuvia of 
Congregation Shir 
Tikvah in Troy 
grew up in 
Milwaukee and 
attended the 
University of Wisconsin in 
Madison. She has graduate 
degrees in journalism and 
Judaic studies from the 
University of Michigan and was 
ordained through ALEPH: 
Alliance for Jewish Renewal. 
Ahuvia, 54, and her husband, 
Aaron, a professor at University 
of Michigan-Dearborn, moved 
to Huntington Woods from 
Ann Arbor in 2017, a year after 
she became the rabbi of Shir 
Tikvah, which is affiliated with 
both the Reform and Renewal 
movements. They have two 
grown sons. One thing that 
attracted Ahuvia to Huntington 
Woods is the highly educated 
population. She has enjoyed 
meeting her rabbi neighbors.

Dorit Edut grew 
up in Northwest 
Detroit and lived in 
Oak Park for many 
years. She and her 
husband, Shimon, 
a retired landscaper, moved to 
Huntington Woods in 1999, 
when her father died and left 
her his house. She holds a B.A. 

in Russian studies from the 
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 
a master’
s in counseling educa-
tion from Wayne State 
University and rabbinic ordina-
tion from the Academy for 
Jewish Religion in New York. 
Edut, 70, has done rabbinic 
work for the Isaac Agree 
Downtown Synagogue and 
Congregation Beth Israel in Bay 
City. She now coordinates the 
Detroit Interfaith Outreach 
Network. 
“The ability to ride bikes, jog 
or walk anywhere here is great 
and reminds us of the neighbor-
hood I grew up in in Detroit,
” 
she said.

David Fain, 35, is 
rav beit hasefer
(school rabbi) and 
dean of Jewish 
studies at Hillel 
Day School in 
Farmington Hills. He grew up 
in Connecticut, graduated from 
the University of Connecticut 
and earned master’
s degrees 
from Hebrew College and the 
Pardes Institute in Jerusalem in 
Judaic studies and Jewish edu-
cation. He was ordained at 
Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in 
Bronx, N.Y. 
He says he, his wife, 
Shoshana, and their two sons, 

Yair, 3, and Natan, 2, love 
the community feeling in 
Huntington Woods. He is a 
regular attendee at Kehillat Etz 
Chayim.

Robert Gamer, 
spiritual leader of 
Congregation Beth 
Shalom, grew up in 
Oak Park and 
graduated from 
U-M before attending rabbini-
cal school at the Jewish 
Theological Seminary, where he 
earned a master’
s degree and 
ordination. He lived in subur-
ban Chicago before moving to 
Huntington Woods in 2010. 
With many Jewish neighbors 
and a number of congregants 
who live nearby, he’
s frequent-
ly “on call” for people with 
questions and those who have 
requests for prayers for healing. 
Gamer says he appreciates the 
diversity within the Huntington 
Woods Jewish community.

Chanoch Hadar
left his native 
South Africa in 
1998 and came to 
the U.S. after two 
years in Israel. He 
was ordained by 
the Rabbinical College of 
America in Morristown, N.J. 
He and his wife, Tamar, who 
grew up in Oak Park, moved 

to Huntington Woods in 2005 
from New York with the goal 
of offering outreach and ser-
vices to unaffiliated Jews. The 
prayer services and program-
ming they offered out of their 
house grew and developed 
into the Woodward Avenue 
Shul (WAS) in 2008. (The 
WAS is technically in Royal 
Oak but feels like it’
s on the 
eastern edge of Huntington 
Woods.) 
He finds Huntington Woods 
to be friendly and accepting, 
and attractive to “people who 
cherish age-old values and pri-
oritize good character.
” Having 
kosher stores and restaurants 
nearby is another plus.

Miriam Jerris, 
rabbi of the 
National Society 
for Humanistic 
Judaism, moved to 
Huntington Woods 
in 1973 from Oak Park, well 
before the big Jewish growth 
spurt. She grew up in Windsor 
and was impressed that a 
friend’
s house had been 
designed by someone from 
Huntington Woods. “I thought 
it must be a great place,
” she 
said. Now that she’
s there, she 
says the community reminds 
her of her childhood neighbor-
hood in Windsor. 
Jerris was ordained in 

Rabbis Asher Z. Lopatin, Dan Horwitz, Ari Witkin and Robert Gamer have a celebratory toast. 
Rabbis Dorit Edut and Miriam Jerris

Jews in the D
“Judaism is meant to be 
practiced in community, so 
having community just outside 
your front door is quite special.”

— RABBI DAN HORWITZ

JEWISH NEWS FILES

COURTESY AURA AHUVIA

HILLEL DAY SCHOOL

