18 | FEBRUARY 4 • 2021 

R

achel Lawson Shere 
has resigned as rabbi at 
Adat Shalom Synagogue 
after serving more than 16 
years. She said the COVID 
experience made her appreciate 
her time with her family and 
she wanted to concentrate on 
that aspect of her life.
Her decision was announced 
to congregants at the 970-family 
Farmington Hills congregation 
in a Jan. 22 letter from President 
Joan M. Chernoff-Epstein, who 
noted it was effective immedi-
ately.
Shere had been on a leave 
from the pulpit since July, 

shortly before her eldest son, 
Eitan, 18, left for a year at a 
yeshivah in Israel. She was due 
to return in May and promised 
the congregation’s leaders that 
she would let them know by the 
end of January if her situation 
changed.
“In July, before our son left 
for Israel, I decided it was time 
to take a 10-month sabbatical 
from Adat Shalom,
” said the 
rabbi, in her own letter to con-
gregants, sent on Jan. 25. “My 
intention, at that time, was to 
spend the COVID quarantine 
focused on our family and to 
return to the synagogue at the 

end of the school year. 
“However, five months into 
the sabbatical, it became clear 
to me that in committing 
myself so deeply to work, I was 
missing out on irreplaceable 
moments with our family.”
Shere, 46, whose family 
belonged to Adat Shalom 
while she was growing up in 
West Bloomfield, became the 
first woman in Michigan to 
hold a Conservative move-
ment pulpit position when 
she returned to be rabbi in 
2004. She had graduated from 
Andover High School, the 
University of Michigan and 
the Ziegler School of Rabbinic 
Studies at the American Jewish 
University in Los Angeles, 
where she won an award for 
excellence in rabbinic studies.
Her husband, Dan Shere, a 
singer-songwriter and screen-
writer, is also from Detroit; he 
and the rabbi first met as teens.
In addition to Eitan, the 
Sheres have two younger sons, 
Avi, 14, a freshman at Frankel 
Jewish Academy, and Ezra, 12, 
in seventh grade at Hillel Day 
School. 
Shere says her decision was 
prompted by one of her chil-
dren. A few months into the 
COVID shutdowns, while she 
was still working fulltime, he 
said, “
As bad as COVID has 
been for everyone, it’s been nice 
to have you home so much.
”
His comment made her 
reflect on what is most import-
ant to her. “I believe that 
COVID has given us all pause 
to think about the ways we 
spend the precious hours God 
has given us to walk the Earth,” 
she said. 

The decision to leave was 
Shere’s alone, and she “more 
than earned that right,” said 
Rabbi Aaron Bergman.

SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT
During her years at Adat 
Shalom, Shere started a Nosh 
& Drash program for teens and 
helped lead the confirmation 
class. She started a popular 
“Soulful Yoga” gathering on 
Shabbat mornings that com-
bined worship with yoga and 
meditation and led a women’s 
spirituality retreat. 
“She provided significant 
spiritual involvement for the 
women of the congregation,” 
said Executive Director Alan 
Yost. 
Chernoff-Epstein said Shere 
helped her family get through a 
difficult time following a death, 
noting the rabbi’s ability to 
connect personally with con-
gregants.
Shere has been on the board 
of Kadima, a Jewish mental 
health advocacy organization, 
and was a chaplain at Jewish 
Hospice and Chaplaincy 
Network. She also served on 
the board of South Oakland 
Shelter. 
Shere says her family will 
remain members of Adat 
Shalom and that she will con-
tinue to be active in the spiritu-
al life of the congregation.
“My love for Adat Shalom 
runs deep, as it has always been 
a second home for me,” Shere 
said. “My heart and soul are 
deeply rooted in Adat Shalom 
and are intertwined with all the 
people who walk through its 
doors. Our family is not going 
anywhere.” 

After 16 years, Rabbi Rachel Shere 
steps down from Adat Shalom pulpit.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Taking Time to 
Enjoy Family

COURTESY OF RACHEL SHERE

OUR COMMUNITY
“I WAS MISSING OUT ON 
IRREPLACEABLE MOMENTS 

WITH OUR FAMILY.”

— RABBI RACHEL SHERE

Rabbi Rachel Shere