Welcome, Rabbi

OUR COMMUNITY

Rabbi Michael Gilboa and family

Welcome, Rabbi!

Michael Gilboa assumes the pulpit at B’nai Israel Synagogue.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF RABBI GILBOA

Rabbi Michael Gilboa, the new full-time rabbi of B’nai Israel Synagogue in West Bloomfield, is officially settled in Metro Detroit. He joined the B’nai Israel community virtually on May 1, but officially moved to Metro Detroit in mid-June along with his wife, Emily, and three children.

Gilboa received his rabbinic M.A. and his ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, American Jewish University of Los Angeles. He has served as the rabbi of Ahavath Achim Hebrew Congregation in Wichita, Kan., and Congregation Beth Jacob in Fresno, Calif. He is the founding rabbi of “The Footpath,” a community conversion program started in partnership with Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago, which now continues online.

Gilboa is a convert himself. He had encountered Judaism in one way or another throughout his formative years, but it accelerated when he was in college and ended up being active in the Hillel.

“One thing led to another, and I was Jewish,” Gilboa said.

Even with the new job, Gilboa is still teaching classes at The Footpath.

A PERFECT FIT

While speaking with B’nai Israel about where his career was and where he wanted it to be, Gilboa said that while he loves his work with The Footpath, it only consists of 24-week courses at a time. Gilboa wanted more than a temporary Jewish community.

“I was feeling like looking for something more stable and to build relationships that last longer than 24 weeks,” Gilboa said. “I’m very excited to keep doing The Footpath, and I’m also very excited to be at B’nai Israel and to begin developing those friendships and relationships.”

Gilboa believes B’nai Israel has an interesting energy, with the best of the old and the new.

“They fit me to a tee,” Gilboa said. “I am a traditional rabbi. I love the Jewish tradition and engaging with our timeless spiritual practices.

“At the same time, I love that entrepreneurial, startup energy and seeing how we can apply the old, timetested wisdom in new and innovative ways.”

Hopefully moving into the final phases of the pandemic, Gilboa believes in lessons learned from this time, such as how we could get by with less and how some things that seemed really important actually weren’t.

“The thing that turned out to be most important was other human beings, relationships and connections, and I think that’s at the heart of the synagogue I would like to be a part of,” Gilboa said.

Going forward, Gilboa believes successful synagogues are going to have a focus that puts greater attention on reaching people online and is excited for what that could look like.

“I have congregants at B’nai Israel who live in other states, but they continue to come to services, which we couldn’t do 10 years ago, it’s really fantastic,” Gilboa said. “I hope that keeps going and we find ways to use this technology to continue connecting and sharing the beauty and wisdom that comes with being Jewish.”

NCJW|MI Installs O cers and Board

National Council of Jewish Women, Michigan (NCJW|MI) held its annual installation event via Zoom, where officers and board members were installed, and three awards were presented.

The new vice president is Lauren Koenigsberg. Continuing in their terms are president: Amy Cutler; vice presidents: Evva Hepner, Carrie Kushner, Sallyjo Levine AND Susan Rollinger; treasurer, Nancy Rothfeder; recording secretary: Margo Stocker; assistant recording secretary: Amy Zeskind; corresponding secretary: Sandy Weitz.

Newly elected board members are Janice Cherkasky, Dani Gillman, Deane Safir and Cindy Weintraub. Newly appointed board members are Cindy Babcock, and Shayna Silverman.

Susan Marwil was presented with Hannah G. Solomon Award.

Paula Wolfe was presented with the Marsha Zucker Exemplary Board Member Award.

Evva Hepner was presented with the Emerging Leader Award.

Four staff members received Staff Recognition Award: Lori Eisenberg and Liana Spiegel — 5 years, Lori Passerman — 10 years, and Kathy Lamb — 30 years of service to NCJW|MI.

HAZON

Topsy Turvy Bus Meets Banana Car

Rabbi Goldberg Wins Health Hero Award

Hazon usually uses its Topsy Turvy bus as a mobile classroom. When this became unfeasible during the pandemic, it was used to deliver compost and seeds as part of Hazon’s Relief Garden Initiative.

During a compost delivery, a large, low branch took off two of the tires on top of the bus. The organization brought it back to the original fabricator, Steve Braithwaite, to replace them. “It is important that the bus is kept in tip-top shape because a book about the Topsy Turvy bus is coming out in January 2022, and the release will be followed by a bus tour,” said Hannah Fine of Hazon.

Upon picking up the Topsy Turvy bus, Hazon found that the bus’s battery was dead.

“Steve’s only vehicle is the banana car,” Fine said, “and thus, on a sunny, drizzly Monday, on a farm in Michigan, the Topsy Turvy bus was jumped by a banana car!”

Rabbi G with his award.

Kids Kicking Cancer founder Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, aka Rabbi G, received the Michigan Hometown Health Hero Award for 2021.

“This award recognizes individuals and organizations across the state working tirelessly to maintain and improve the health of their local communities,” said award organizers. The Hometown Health Hero award is a major part of the Public Health Week in Michigan. This year marks the 16th year the Hometown Health Hero award has been presented.”

It has been Rabbi G’s mission since the founding of Kids Kicking Cancer in 1999 to improve the health of sick children and families in the community, and he has made an enormous impact.

Meijer Gardens Announces Holocaust Memorial Gift

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park has received a gift from the Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids in order to establish the first Holocaust memorial in the city, anchored by Ariel Schlesinger’s Ways to Say Goodbye.

The Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids received a generous gift from the Pestka family in memory of their father, Henry, and the millions of Jews who perished in the Holocaust, for Grand Rapids’ first Holocaust Memorial.

Ways to Say Goodbye is a 20-foot-tall cast aluminum tree that has sheets of glass between its branches. The cast is taken from a fig tree in Italy that the artist selected. In Jewish culture, the fruit tree is venerated as a source of life and new beginnings. The sculpture deals with the themes of profound loss and grief and will beautifully serve as a memorial to Holocaust victims in Western Michigan.

Ways to Say Goodbye

Adam Fox First Jewish NHL Honoree

(JNS) Adam Fox, a Jewish hockey player with the New York Rangers, was named on July 6 the winner of the 202021 James Norris Memorial Trophy.

The trophy is giving annually to the National Hockey League’s (NHL) top defenseman and Fox, 23, has become the first Jewish player to win a major NHL award.

The 5-foot-11 athlete and lifelong Rangers fan joins Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins as only the second hockey player in the 67-year history of the trophy to win it in his second season with the NHL, and Hall of Famers Doug Harvey, Harry Howell and Brian Leetch as the only Rangers to take home the honor, according to the New York Post.

Fox led NHL defensemen with 42 assists while finishing second in points with 47. “It’s special,” Fox, who grew up in Jericho, Long Island, said of receiving the award. “I’ve been throwing that word around a lot the last JNS few weeks and it’s now accurate for how I feel. You hear your name with [Orr and Leetch], it’s always going to be a special, special

Adam Fox thing.” He added, “I just tried to play my best game-in and game-out and help the team win. I think personal success comes from that. The next step is just team success.” When asked by the New York Post in 2019 about being one of the few Jewish athletes in the NHL, he said, “It’s definitely nice to represent a community, for sure.”