Vivian DeGain Better at 50 Blog
Columnist and arts writerTemple Emanu El, Oak Park, Michigan
TEMPLE EMANU-EL changes promise a prosperous future
By Vivian DeGain
Detroit Jewish News 6/16/2005
Members of Temple Emanu-El gathered July 29, 2008 to welcome a new cantor, a new Director of Education, to unveil a beautiful mosaic wall and to celebrate the achievements of its Lech Lecha Endowment campaign.
“This is an exciting time for Temple Emanu-El and this wall celebrates those achievements and the commitment of our members to a long and bright future,” said Dolores Galea, president.
Rabbi Joseph Klein said, “Tonight we are making history for Temple Emanu-El. We communally share the pleasure of this gathering and achievement. The endowment fund was initiated and named Lech Lecha, which means go to yourself, go for yourself, go forth – even like Avram goes forward without knowing where he is going, but goes because God tells him to. This gift means that we are going forth into our future.”
The Lech Lecha Donor Wall is hand-chiseled stone some 8 feet tall by 10 feet wide. It frames an original mosaic piece, 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide, created by temple congregants and artists Jo Strausz Rosen and Mary Gilhuly. The mosaic is composed of 7,000 pieces of hand-cut Van Gogh and Venetian glass tiles that glitter and refract and “almost move” with changing daylight. It features three raised figures, up to 2 feet high, set into the background.
Strausz Rosen, director of the Detroit Chapter American Technion Society, conceived the figures and imagined the family of Abraham going forth and connected this image to the spiritual temple family.
“The people I designed are multi dimensional and represent the many sides of the human psyche and soul,” she said.
“Our Temple family is made of different configurations of people — traditional matriarchal and patriarchal systems – and contemporary families comprised of a variety of people, friends, lovers, siblings and grandparents who live together not always in traditional ways. I visualized people walking toward the future, some alone, others touching hands, and still others ahead in lines that blur past and future mingled, existing as a moment in time. I hope these representations bring inspiration to our temple for years,” Strausz Rosen said.
Gilhuly, owner of a graphic and design business in Oak Park, designed the mosaic background, hand-cut all the tiles and created the mosaic.
She said, “I studied the text of Lech Lecha and visualized a dramatic backdrop that would incorporate God’s promises to Abraham, ‘to make his descendants more numerous than the stars in the heavens and the grains of sand at his feet.’ I wanted the sky and landscape to reflect the both the promise and the challenge facing Abraham.”
Gilhuly estimated the mosaic took three intensive months to complete in her studio, and began her work while recovering from shoulder surgery.
“I loved it. I am honored to have been chosen to create this lasting piece for the community that means so much to my family. I know every family named on this wall.”
Members Don Cohen, Bruce Gordon, Elaine Driker and Glenn Liebowitz spearheaded the Lech Lecha Endowment campaign.
“Work began in 1994,” said Liebowitz. “Our board had identified some tough financial obstacles. We knew that we needed to foster a culture of endowment giving in order to sustain our community.”
Driker said her commitment to making this fund possible grew from her deep connection to Temple Emanu-El, where her two children completed their religious school and life-cycle events and where her five grandchildren are doing the same today.
“As I look at this magnificent work of art, I am thinking about all the good things that come to those who wait,” Driker said. “The wall is beautiful beyond all our expectations.”
Cantor Darcie Sharlein joins Temple Emanu-El
Cantor Darcie Sharlein, a recent graduate of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, School of Sacred Music in New York, joins Temple Emanu-El as its full-time cantor.
Rabbi Joseph Klein said she is the only HUC trained and invested cantor serving a congregation in the State of Michigan.
“Temple Emanu-El is thrilled to have Cantor Sharlein join our professional staff. Her warm personality and gentle spirit have already endeared her to us. She will become an important part of our educational staff, teaching not only our B’nai Mitzvah students, but also working with students in our nursery, religious and high school programs, and adult education classes. I look forward to sharing the bima with her.”
Cantor Sharlein is pleased to join the totality of synagogue life.
“Temple Emanu-El prayer services are warm, welcoming and truly a community event,” she said. “I believe my role is to be a facilitator of prayer and make the worship experience meaningful for each person who comes into our sanctuary. The subtext is that I am trying to forge moments of connection. By choosing melodies that speak to the words of our prayers, and praying myself, I help congregants connect even more deeply to our sacred texts. In that worship space, we seek to feel the power of a communal voice, a personal and inner connection, and moments of connection with the Divine.”
Temple Emanu-El was committed to bringing a full-time, invested cantor to its liturgical staff since the retirement of Cantor Norma Rose, z’’l in 2003.
According to Fred Frank, chair of the Cantor Search committee, “Cantor Rose brought a voice of song to our religious experience. With his retirement, we lost the richness of his voice. Our committee was searching for a cantor who could not only bring new energy and spirit to our worship, but would also serve as second clergy person for our congregation. We believe we found that with Cantor Sharlein.”
Cantor Sharlein was born and raised in New Jersey. She received her BA from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. as a music major, where she directed and sang with the a capella MazelTones. At HUC, she served as student cantor at Temple Sholom in Fanwood, New Jersey and at Congregation B’nai Yisrael in Armonk, New York. She has taught Jewish ethics, Hebrew prayer and established Jewish music curricula for all age groups and at NFTY and URJ camps.
Cantor Sharlein and her husband Jeffrey met at Wesleyan, where he received his degree in English. Jeff is the son of a rabbi. Jeff holds a Masters degree in Social Work from Hunter College.
Geoffrey Berdy begins as Education Director
New Education Director Geoffrey Berdy brings his passion for Jewish life and learning to Temple Emanu-El.
Berdy, who holds a Masters degree from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on Judaism and education, said he became a Jewish Educator to share that passion.
“I’ve had the benefit of an unusually diverse Jewish education, from traditional yeshiva, to studying the Holocaust and shtetl life with Elie Weisel at Boston University, to Jewish philosophers at Harvard,” Berdy said. “I realized that few Jews are as fortunate as I have been to be exposed to the full spectrum of Jewish learning. Sharing that became my mission.”
Berdy said, “Jewish education honors the uniqueness of each individual’s path and contribution to creating community. I am honored to join Temple Emanu-El to empower individuals and families to make Jewish life and learning a meaningful part of their lives.”
Temple Emanu-El President Dolores Galea said, “Geoff, his wife Dina and son Lev were living in Toledo prior to his recent arrival, but were originally local. Geoff’s parents live in Oak Park and Dina’s parents live in Beverly Hills.”
“We feel very excited that Geoff, who is an extremely accomplished Jewish educator, is returning to our area, not leaving it,” Galea said. “His skills will flourish and build on our already excellent programs. He is incredibly creative and will make Jewish education engaging and fun not only for our students but for their parents as well. We are very happy he’s joined our professional team.”
Berdy said, “One thing all Jews across the spectrum agree on is that learning is the core and the essence of the Jewish experience. A unique conversation between the past and future happens through us. To me, the compliment to the Talmudic notion that to ‘save one life is to save the world,’ is that we change the world, one student at a time.”
At Harvard he learned other religious traditions esteem Jewish learning.
“The world needs Jews to be engaged in exploring and expanding our tradition. We set a very important example and can do an enormous amount by fulfilling our religious obligation to learn and support learning.”
Berdy has resided in Israel, England and Columbus, Ohio.
He has served in a variety of settings over 15 years, at congregational Hebrew schools, camp, day school, Jewish communal organizations (as the assistant director of the Anti-defamation League, New England) and adult education.
His parents met as volunteers during the six-day war and “stuck around for the Yom Kippur War.”
Berdy met his wife, a social worker, as undergraduates at Michigan State.
