24 | AUGUST 11 • 2022

W

hat do you do
next when you
retire after a long
and successful career? David
Goodman faced that problem
when he completed his career
as a journalist in Detroit with
Associated Press.
Surprising even
himself, Goodman
registered at the
Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College
in Wyncote, Pa.
He graduated in
2022 and now
works as the rabbinical leader of
Nafshenu, a Jewish community
in Cherry Hill, N.J., across the
river from Philadelphia.
How that happened is a long
story.
Goodman first came to
Michigan as a student at the
University of Michigan. After
graduation, he moved to Detroit

in 1979, working as journalist
for United Press International,
then for the Flint Journal before
beginning his long tenure with
Associated Press in 1984. His
retirement from AP in 2015 left
Goodman with the question of
what to do next.
The option of doing some-
thing Jewish had become
increasingly appealing to
Goodman over his years in
Detroit, which he describes as
“the place where I came of age
Jewishly.
”
Growing up, Goodman
had a strong connection with
Judaism. “I was active in NFTY
(the National Federation of
Temple Youth),
” he recalls. “I
was an exchange student in
Israel for a year of high school.
”
In 1969, he took part in
Torah Corps, an advanced
Torah study camp experi-
ence. But then he became less

involved. “I was not a joiner.
And I was also not enamored of
the classical Reform-style ser-
vice,
” he says.
When, as a young parent,
Goodman read about a new
congregation in Detroit that was
innovative and lay-led, “that
appealed to me,
” he recalls. So,
carrying his 1-year-old daugh-

ter and holding hands with
his 6-year-old son, Goodman
ventured into Congregation
T’
chiyah . . . and stayed.
Goodman says, “I recon-
nected with Jewish life
when I brought my son to
Congregation T’
chiyah.
”
He adds, “I became an active
member, and then a member
of the board and then the ritual
chair, and I led a lot of services.
That reconnected me to the
religious aspects of Judaism.
”
But he wanted more. “I had
seen a lot of not-good davening
in Jewish spaces.,
” he says.
He knew there could be emo-
tionally intense services with
beautiful music. So, contem-
plating retirement, Goodman
signed up for the Davennen’
Leadership Training Institute,
“a training program for can-
tors and rabbis in the Renewal
movement, but also a stand-
alone enrichment program for
people of all kinds.
”
The Davennen’ Leadership
Training Institute at the Isabella
Freedman Jewish Retreat
Center in Connecticut involves
participants in four weeklong
sessions at a retreat, developing
intellectual and emotional expe-
riences of Jewish prayer, with
follow-up programs throughout
the two-year program. As he
watched other participants pre-

OUR COMMUNITY

Rabbi
David
Goodman

Veteran Detroit journalist
starts a new career as a rabbi.

Never
Too Late

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

COURTESY OF RABBI DAVID GOODMAN

ABOVE AND
RIGHT: Rabbi
Goodman’s
2022 grad-
uation from
rabbinical
school.