20 | FEBRUARY 20 • 2020 

Jews in the D

HUES from page 18

it at the time. For exam-
ple, mixing milk and meat 
always bothered him, and 
on Saturdays he felt a strong 
desire to rest and abstain from 
things like listening to music.
“
Are you sure you’
re not 
Jewish,” a Jewish friend and 
client once asked him. His 
response: “I think I have a 
Jewish soul.” 
Rickman, who is 15 years 
sober, expressed an interest 
in Judaism to his Alcoholics 
Anonymous sponsee, who was 
Jewish and offered to take him 
to services for the first time. 
The same person helped him 
learn to read after he received 
what is known as the “Big 
Book” at an AA meeting and 
was told his salvation was 
contained within its pages. 
The book is considered the 
basic text for AA because of 
its message of recovery. 
“I thought it was a sick joke 

HaShem was playing on me,” 
Rickman says. “How could 
a book be my salvation if I 
couldn’
t read? But all the time 
HaShem was saying, ‘
I’
ll be 
with you,’
 and I was able to 
do it.” 
Rickman later started a 
weekly AA meeting at Adat 
Shalom.
When he signed up for the 
adult b’
nai mitzvah classes at 
Adat Shalom in Farmington 
Hills, he was still struggling to 
read English — and suddenly 
he was also trying to learn the 
Hebrew alphabet and Torah 
tropes. Ultimately, he ended 
up reading the longest hafto-
rah part in his class.

MARRIAGE & RELATIONSHIPS
At a Jewish function or kosher 
restaurant, it’
s hard for Aliza 
Klein to ignore the occasion-
al stares and gossip directed 
toward her and her husband, 

and they’
ll just be friendly to you, and 
it’
s constant. My wife has enjoyed the 
same kind of exposure and experience 
there, and we’
re going on four full 
years of being members.”
Soon after landing at Temple Beth 
El, Jones and his wife, Gar, moved 
from their Arden Park mansion in 
2015 to a West Bloomfield condo — 
one he discovered in an issue of the 
Jewish News.
At age 92, Jones converted and, soon 
after, became a bar mitzvah.“I found 
the satisfaction that I wanted to in 
Judaism,” Jones said. “It was like com-
ing home.”
Temple Beth El’
s Rabbi Mark Miller 
and Rabbi Dorit Edut, among many 
others, have been integral in Jones’
 
conversion journey.
“I believe Dr. Jones has provided 
a unique sense of inspiration to our 
Temple Beth El community — not 
simply because of his incredible wealth 

of experience, but also because of the 
joy and seriousness he brings to the 
endeavor of living a Jewish life,” Miller 
said. “Personally, I love the opportunity 
to learn from both his wisdom and his 
spirit every single week.”
While exploring Judaism, Jones held 
teaching positions and was a principal 
in Detroit Public Schools for 40 years. 
Even after retiring, he was a principal 
at several Roman Catholic schools, 
taught at Wayne State University in the 
College of Education and was the prin-
cipal at Ecorse High School, where he 
taught Introduction to Religion.
 “I invited a minister, an imam and 
a rabbi, and I got Rabbi Dorit Edut,” 
Jones recalls. “When Rabbi Dorit 
finished, the young ladies in the class 
wrote a letter to her saying they would 
like to become a rabbi. Mind you, we 
had three Hispanic kids — the rest 
were black kids and two white kids.”

JERRY ZOLYNSKY

JERRY ZOLYNSKY

Re’
uvein Rickman in his usual 
seat at Adat Shalom — the 
seventh row on the aisle

continued on page 22

continued on page 22

JOURNEY from page 19

