Taking Time to Enjoy Family

OUR COMMUNITY

COURTESY OF RACHEL SHERE

“I WAS MISSING OUT ON IRREPLACEABLE MOMENTS WITH OUR FAMILY.”

— RABBI RACHEL SHERE

Rabbi Rachel Shere

Taking Time to Enjoy Family

After 16 years, Rabbi Rachel Shere steps down from Adat Shalom pulpit.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rachel Lawson Shere has resigned as rabbi at Adat Shalom Synagogue after serving more than 16 years. She said the COVID experience made her appreciate her time with her family and she wanted to concentrate on that aspect of her life.

Her decision was announced to congregants at the 970-family Farmington Hills congregation in a Jan. 22 letter from President Joan M. Chernoff-Epstein, who noted it was effective immediately.

Shere had been on a leave from the pulpit since July, shortly before her eldest son, Eitan, 18, left for a year at a yeshivah in Israel. She was due to return in May and promised the congregation’s leaders that she would let them know by the end of January if her situation changed.

“In July, before our son left for Israel, I decided it was time to take a 10-month sabbatical from Adat Shalom,” said the rabbi, in her own letter to congregants, sent on Jan. 25. “My intention, at that time, was to spend the COVID quarantine focused on our family and to return to the synagogue at the end of the school year.

“However, five months into the sabbatical, it became clear to me that in committing myself so deeply to work, I was missing out on irreplaceable moments with our family.”

Shere, 46, whose family belonged to Adat Shalom while she was growing up in West Bloomfield, became the first woman in Michigan to hold a Conservative movement pulpit position when she returned to be rabbi in 2004. She had graduated from Andover High School, the University of Michigan and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, where she won an award for excellence in rabbinic studies.

Her husband, Dan Shere, a singer-songwriter and screenwriter, is also from Detroit; he and the rabbi first met as teens.

In addition to Eitan, the Sheres have two younger sons, Avi, 14, a freshman at Frankel Jewish Academy, and Ezra, 12, in seventh grade at Hillel Day School.

Shere says her decision was prompted by one of her children. A few months into the COVID shutdowns, while she was still working fulltime, he said, “As bad as COVID has been for everyone, it’s been nice to have you home so much.”

His comment made her reflect on what is most important to her. “I believe that COVID has given us all pause to think about the ways we spend the precious hours God has given us to walk the Earth,” she said.

The decision to leave was Shere’s alone, and she “more than earned that right,” said Rabbi Aaron Bergman.

SPIRITUAL ENRICHMENT

During her years at Adat Shalom, Shere started a Nosh & Drash program for teens and helped lead the confirmation class. She started a popular “Soulful Yoga” gathering on Shabbat mornings that combined worship with yoga and meditation and led a women’s spirituality retreat.

“She provided significant spiritual involvement for the women of the congregation,” said Executive Director Alan Yost.

Chernoff-Epstein said Shere helped her family get through a difficult time following a death, noting the rabbi’s ability to connect personally with congregants.

Shere has been on the board of Kadima, a Jewish mental health advocacy organization, and was a chaplain at Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network. She also served on the board of South Oakland Shelter.

Shere says her family will remain members of Adat Shalom and that she will continue to be active in the spiritual life of the congregation.

“My love for Adat Shalom runs deep, as it has always been a second home for me,” Shere said. “My heart and soul are deeply rooted in Adat Shalom and are intertwined with all the people who walk through its doors. Our family is not going anywhere.”