AUGUST 8 • 2024 | 25
J
N

C

ongregation Shir 
Tikvah in Troy has 
hired a new direc-
tor of lifelong learning. Dr. 
Lorry Black is a teacher, 
musician and scholar of 
Jewish music. His back-
ground includes teaching 
students from preschool 
through college. He has 
worked with several area 
synagogues as a teacher and 
musician and was the asso-
ciate director of the Lowell 
Milken Center for Music of 
American Jewish Experience 
at UCLA. 
Black was born and raised 
in California. He now resides 
in Rochester Hills with his 
wife and young daughter. 
They are eager to become 
even more connected with 
the Metro Detroit Jewish 
community. He looks for-
ward to meeting family edu-
cation students and parents 
in the coming weeks. 
Many thanks to the 
search committee: Damon 
Goldsmith, Joan Firestone, 
Dana Kaplan, Maia Halson, 
Faye Blatt and Marcia 
Leibson. Changes can some-
times feel challenging, and 
the committee did a won-
derful job of helping make 
this transition possible and 
successful. 

FAMILY ED STARTS 
SUNDAY, SEPT. 8
There is much to look for-
ward to as the beginning 
of the new school year 

approaches. 
Parents will soon receive 
registration materials and 
information about the new 
curriculum being written 
especially for the congre-
gation. It’s inclusive of stu-
dents with different learning 
styles and abilities. It teaches 
students how to live in the 
broader world while being 
intentional about Jewish 
practice, and it allows Shir 
Tikvah to be flexible as class-
es shift and grow. 
The curriculum also 
includes at least one day of 
family education program-
ming a semester for each 
grade — when students and 
their adults will get a chance 
to learn together with Rabbi 
Alicia Harris and their teach-
ers about topics they may not 
otherwise explore at home. 
The program is called Family 

Education because Shir 
Tikvah deeply believes in the 
idea that Judaism happens in 
the shul and in the home for 
all ages. Many amazing inter-
faith families and families 
with adults of all backgrounds 
call Shir Tikvah home, so this 
addition is another way to 
make everyone feel welcome. 
Congregation Shir Tikvah 
students graduate from the 

program with leadership 
experience and the knowl-
edge to lead an entire Shabbat 
service. They are confident 
Hebrew readers, feel con-
nected to Judaism and to the 
Jewish community, and are 
strong, capable, spiritually 
engaged and literate Jewish 
young adults. 
This curriculum is possi-
ble because of a grant from 
the Hermelin Davidson 
Foundation to hire Stacy 
Rosenthal, a longtime Jewish 
educator with more than 
two decades of experience at 
Reform congregations. 
Rosenthal was in the first 
cohort of the Executive 
Masters program at Hebrew 
Union College and obtained 
the title of RJE (Reform 
Jewish Educator) in 2013. She 
is currently serving the Jewish 
disability community through 
Gesher Disability Resources 
of Scottsdale, Arizona, where 
she is the director of pro-
grams. She is the first vice 
president of the Association 
of Reform Jewish Educators 
and an instructor for the 
Union for Reform Judaism. 
Rosenthal has worked 
closely with Shir Tikvah lead-
ership to shape something 
that is based on the temple’s 
values. 

Congregation Shir Tikvah is wel-

coming new families to its Family 

Education Program. Enrollment is 

now open. Reach out to Dr. Lorry 

Black, lorry@shirtikvah.org, for more 

information.

Troy Reform/Renewal congregation announces new director of lifelong learning.
New Faces at Shir Tikvah

Dr. Lorry 
Black

Stacy 
Rosenthal

TESSA GOLDBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS