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.