58 | SEPTEMBER 14 • 2023 

OUR COMMUNITY

O

n a semester 
abroad at Hebrew 
University in 
Jerusalem, Natalie Louise 
Shribman was told by an 
Orthodox professor that she 
was not Jewish because she 
was the child of an interfaith 
marriage: a Christian mother 
and a Jewish father. 
So, she channeled this 
frustration about this 
professor into her senior 
college thesis on how Reform 
Jews and those of interfaith 
families are regarded in Israel 
and went on to receive her 
rabbinical ordination in 2020 
at Hebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion in 
Cincinnati. 
Now, Shribman, 31, 
is stepping into her new 
position as rabbi of Temple 
Kol Ami (TKA) in West 
Bloomfield after her 
predecessor, Rabbi Brent 
Guttmann, took a position in 
Buffalo, N.Y. 
Shribman most recently 
was working as a rabbi in 
Wisconsin and has moved to 
the area with her husband, 
Rabbi Benjamin Altshuler, 32, 
who is an instructor of Judaic 
Studies at Frankel Jewish 
Academy. 
Lately, when she is not 
in her study planning for 
the Jewish New Year, you 

may find her exploring the 
Downtown of her new city or 
out on a walk or run at a local 
Metro Park. 

A LOVE OF THE 
OUTDOORS
“I love the outdoors and 
interfaith programming, 
and I am hoping to bring 
an appreciation of both 
of these facets to my new 
congregation,” said Shribman 
in a telephone interview 
with the JN as she sampled 
coffee and other offerings at a 
Ferndale café. 
“Throughout my career as 
a rabbi, I have been trying 
to find different ways to 
make interfaith families feel 
at home for both Jews and 
their non-Jewish partners. 
My focus is also finding 
ways to get congregants to 
think Jewishly outside the 
synagogue building and be 
part of the larger community.” 
Shribman has been a 
runner most of her life. She 
touts the benefit of movement 
of any kind as a way to 
relieve stress and help form 
connections to nature and 
God. In rabbinical school, she 
developed a running prayer 
practice and service where 
participants thank God for 
their bodies’ ability to walk 
or run, and to feel nature 

around them. 
“The service is aligned with 
a Saturday morning service, 
where we already find in our 
liturgy the language to thank 
God for movement, our 
bodies and the creation of 
nature around us,” Shribman 
said, reflecting on services 
she conducted in Iowa and 
Wisconsin. 
“We would then take time 
to pause, reflect and find a 
pretty vista point to recite the 
Shema together. I have not 
yet had a chance to do this in 
my new Jewish community, 
but it’s a practice I’d love to 
implement.” 
Before moving to Metro 
Detroit, Schribman served 
small Reform congregations 
in Iowa and Wisconsin as 
a part-time rabbi while 
completing her clinical and 
pastoral education at the 
Mayo Clinic Hospital in Eau 
Claire, Wisconsin, where she 
was a hospital chaplain. 
Through this training, 
Shribman said some of the 
most meaningful experiences 
as a rabbi for her are when 
she is helping congregants 
navigate through difficult 
times, such as illness, grief 
and death. 
“Everyone goes through 
difficult periods in their 
lives,” Shribman said. “I know 

I have older congregants 
at TKA, so I’m ready and 
honored to support them 
in whatever needs they may 
have. I find it to be very 
meaningful giving pastoral 
care, to be the one that they 
trust to walk down this path 
with them.” 

HER FORMATIVE YEARS
Shribman first felt this Jewish 
connection during difficult 
times in her childhood, 
which inspired her to choose 
Judaism and eventually 
become a rabbi. 
In her own formative 
experiences, Shribman said 
her family was quite secular, 
did not attend religious 
services of any faith, and her 
only exposure to religion 
was attending family holiday 
meals. 
When Shribman was 
11, her family moved 
from Washington, D.C., to 
Pittsburgh. It was around this 
time her paternal grandfather 
died. She was soon immersed 
in the supportive close-knit 
Pittsburgh Jewish community 
and began to ask questions 
about Judaism. When she 
decided to begin her Jewish 
education, it was completely 
her choice. 
“I never had a Jewish 
education until the age of 12, 

Rabbi Natalie Shribman plans on implementing more 
interfaith programming at the Reform temple.

Temple Kol Ami 
Welcomes New Rabbi

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

continued on page 60

Rabbi Natalie Shribman