60 | MARCH 17 • 2022 

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OBITUARIES
OF BLESSED MEMORY

Interment was held at 
Adat Shalom Memorial 
Park Cemetery in Livonia. 
Contributions may be made 
to a charity of one’s choice. 
Arrangements by Dorfman 
Chapel.

JERRY ZABEL, a 
resident of West 
Bloomfield, died 
on March 9,
2022, at the age 
of 77.
He is survived by his 
loving and devoted wife, 
Rochelle Zabel; daugh-
ters and son-in-law, Marla 
(Jason) Golnick and Elisa 
Zabel; his adoring grand-
daughters, Ariel and Rayna 
Golnick, and Lillian and 
Ruby Harwin; sister, Judith 
“Cookie” Stein (late husband 

Sol Stein); his brother-in-law 
and sister-in-law, Frank and 
Beth Grund; many nieces, 
nephews and cousins who 
absolutely cherished him. In 
addition, he leaves behind a 
lifetime of wonderful friends. 
Mr. Zabel was prede-
ceased by his siblings, Phyliss 
(the late Sonny) Damraur, 
Marlene “Malky” (the late 
Hersh) Goldberg, Herbert 
“Sonny” (the late Sharon) 
Zabel.
Interment was held at 
Adat Shalom Memorial 
Park Cemetery in Livonia. 
Contributions may be 
made to the Alzheimer’s 
Association, to Congregation 
Beth Ahm or to a charity of 
one’s choice. Arrangements 
by Dorfman Chapel.

Influential Reform 
Rabbi Shim Maslin Died

Rabbi Simeon “Shim” Maslin, a 
national leader in the Reform move-
ment who pushed Reform Jews to 
embrace lifecycle traditions and a 
more substantive interpretation of 
mitzvah, died from cancer on 
Jan. 29, 2022. He was 90.
Maslin was the senior rabbi at 
Reform Congregation Keneseth 
Israel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 
for 17 years, from 1980 to 1997 — 
his last stop in a 50-plus-year career 
that included positions in Chicago, 
Curaçao and Monroe, New York. 
He also served as president of the 
Central Conference of American 
Rabbis, an organization uniting 
about 2,000 Reform rabbis.
As a Reform leader, Maslin wrote 
the book Gates of Mitzvah in 1979, 
which introduced classic Jewish 
life cycle practices into the Reform 
movement.
Maslin’s insight helped modern 

Jews go deeper and conduct baby 
namings, marriages and funerals in 
an authentic fashion. 
“He played that role of reintroduc-
ing tradition into Reform Judaism,
” 
current Keneseth Israel Rabbi Lance 
Sussman said.
The book was so influential that 
Sussman had read it before he’
d even 
met the leader of the congregation 
he would one day lead.
Maslin was a proponent of other 
innovative ideas within the Reform 
movement, including interfaith hos-
pitality.
Maslin described himself as a 
“religious naturalist.
” In a 1997 piece 
for the Inquirer, he wrote: “The func-
tion of a Jew is to be co-creator, with 
God, of the world. The task of the 
human being is to perfect the world, 
using the tools God gives us.
”

Source: Philadelphia Jewish Exponent via JTA

