OCTOBER 27 • 2022 | 25
the school year. For now, TBI has
contracted cantorial soloist Gabrielle
Pescador.
During the school year, TBI offers
monthly Shabbat services and Torah
study. TBI always has community
events throughout the year, including a
community breaking of the fast, com-
munity seder and many events around
the holidays.
The Temple B’nai Israel Religious
School meets on alternate Sundays
during the regular school year. Classes
are taught by parent volunteers. While
Friday night services are open to the
entire community, Jewish and oth-
erwise, TBI does have a membership
program.
TBI members are wide-ranging with
many families being “year-rounders”
and most of the “summer-only” folks
being retirees.
The temple is currently expanding
and trying to reach out to the many
unaffiliated Jews who have homes in
northern Michigan.
TBI is a Kulano (all of us) synagogue,
with the Anti-Defamation League pro-
viding its programming. TBI partici-
pates in community outreach, includ-
ing visiting seventh-graders in the local
middle school every year — talking
about Judaism and the culture of
Judaism to let kids and families know
there are Jews in that part of the state.
“I think, in this day and age, it’s real-
ly important for the Jewish community
to be at the forefront of the whole
community,” Meyerson said.
TBI had been an all-volunteer con-
gregation up until this summer, when
they hired their first part-time admin-
istrator.
“The reason we’ve been around for
so long is because of the strength of
the volunteers and the commitment of
everybody who’s willing to help out,”
Meyerson said. “That’s the nature of
these small, rural congregations. The
ties and relationships that have been
built here are really special.”
ABOVE: Stained glass at TBI. RIGHT: Tree
of Life artwork at TBI. FACING PAGE:
Petoskey’s Temple B’nai Israel sanctuary.