T

his past Friday, 5-year-old Nathan 
Wagner woke up, got out of bed 
— and watched school. Along with 
classmates at Temple Beth El, he was able 
to clap, bounce and sing along with the 
school’
s Early Childhood Center director, 
Susie Weiner, and guitar-playing Rabbi 
Mark Miller in a live-stream viewing of the 
morning’
s Shabbat program, all from his 
West Bloomfield home.
“Our congregation, like others, is work-
ing on ways to bring our families together 
through this new virtual world we live in,
” 
said Nathan’
s mom, Lindsey Fox-Wagner, 
who is Beth El’
s communications director.
In this time of social distancing, local 
synagogues and Jewish schools, agencies, 
groups and individuals are finding innova-
tive and inclusive ways to continue religious 
studies and observance — from a distance, 
while staying together.
From b’
nai mitzvah tutoring and 
adult-learning webinars to children’
s art 
and science classes broadcast from teachers’
 
homes, our Jewish community has joined 
an unprecedented dimension.

Torah lessons from Bais Chabad’
s Rabbi 
Shneur Silberberg have become his “social-
ly distancing, but soulfully connecting 
Facebook Live” course. Partners in Torah’
s 
women’
s division program has become a 
series of teleconferencing classes.
Temple Kol Ami and Tamarack Camps 
have each planned virtual Havdalah ser-
vices, with Tamarack set to launch future 
virtual programs.
Younger students are “in school” in their 
kitchens and dens, many alongside parents 
who are working remotely from home.
Many, like those at Farber Hebrew Day 
School-Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield, are 
connecting through Zoom videoconfer-
encing, for class studies as well as morning 
minyan services.
Our community is continually creating 
and updated ways to connect while learn-
ing, praying and socializing. Virtual pro-
gram and communal event information can 
be accessed through the Jewish Federation 
of Metropolitan Detroit (jewishdetroit.org/
covid19resources).
With JLearn classes on Zoom, virtual 

Jews in the D

30 | MARCH 26 • 2020 

Our Jewish community may be distanced,
but we’
re never apart.

Doing
 Virtually 
 Anything

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

programming from JFamily, at-home work-
outs for every age and ability, live nightly 
story-time from the Pitt Child Development 
Center and more, the JCC continues to 
build community (jccdet.org/covid19 and 
jfamily.jccdet.org/covid19-resources). 
The BBYO teen movement (azabbg.bbyo.
org/on-demand/home) has gone virtual, 
with live programming and resources for 
teens, and the Bnei Akiva, Detroit’
s religious 
Zionist youth movement (bneiakiva.org), 
is working on plans for future virtual pro-
gramming.

KOSHER OPTIONS
In the absence of sit-down restaurant 
options, local kosher eateries and some area 
synagogues are providing carry-out service. 
One Stop Kosher Food Market in Southfield 
has implemented “senior shopping” hours 
for those 65 and older or with compromised 
immune systems. At Harvard Row Kosher 
Meat and Poultry in West Bloomfield, cus-
tomers can have raw and prepared food 
orders, along with kosher grocery items, 
brought to their car or delivered. Owner 
“Chef Larry” and his daughter Stacey Katz 
make full meal dishes and soups daily.
“
A couple of weeks ago, I said we have a 
lot of older customers who hire someone to 
drive them here; we should do deliveries,
” 
Stacey said. “Definitely, I was not thinking 
this is why people would need it!”
Some kosher bakeries and restaurants 
also have implemented delivery and curb-
side service. Spitzer’
s Hebrew Book and Gift 
Store in Southfield is offering home delivery 
on purchases of $50 or more, including 
matzah, wine, grape juice and items for chil-
dren’
s activities.
Synagogues, caterers and restaurants are 
taking Passover orders for prepared dishes. 
As the holiday approaches, synagogues are 
making decisions on how to handle plans 
for synagogue seders, with Beth El now 
planning a virtual second night seder.

STAYING CONNECTED
Being at home doesn’
t have to mean being 
isolated.
“We are all about to discover time and 
opportunity in our homes we didn’
t antic-
ipate,
” wrote local leaders of the Orthodox 
Rabbis of Greater Detroit in a statement. 

Nathan Wagner, 5, reacts to 
Temple Beth El’
s live-stream 
preschool Shabbat program.

LINDSEY-FOX WAGNER

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