Throughout history, the Jewish people have responded to crisis with resilience and reimagining. This year, for our Days of Awe, we have created both in-person and virtual ways to be in community and experience the holidays. Deep thanks to our amazing streaming team. In whatever manner you are gathering with us, we welcome you to share in the very human need for community while we stay healthy and safe. Together, we recommit ourselves to resilience and reimagining.

Over the past year, as we have navigated the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic, the Downtown Synagogue has continued to provide thoughtful and interesting programming, including our educational presentations and discussions, deep-dive Torah study conversations with Rabbi Silverman and Pastor Hinds, and exciting holiday programs. Through our JTot Shabbat services and holiday events and Dor Hadash, our collaborative child and adult education program, we provided connectedness and learning, engaging our ever-growing cohort of young families . We joined with area synagogues, Jewish community organizations, and other partners to provide education, holidays, worship, and programming. Shabbat services, even via Zoom, brought us together to worship. We have grown at a time when synagogue membership elsewhere has been in decline. We invite you to join our vibrant and growing community – you will find membership and donation information on our website. If you are not already, we hope you will become a member, an active participant, and, if you are able, we hope you will contribute a heartfelt gift. We welcome you to join us in our Shabbat services, holiday observances, enlightening programming, family programs, or to participate in whatever ways you find your unique connection with us. Please visit our website for information on all our Synagogue programming, sign up for our e-newsletter, and find us on Facebook and Instagram. Thank you for joining us – especially in this year of extraordinary challenge. We appreciate your presence, your participation, and your gracious support.

Our centennial year is upon us in December, and we hope you’ll celebrate with us beginning with a gala event on December 4th - a kick off to a year of celebrations. In addition to celebrations, we are collecting stories, memories, documents, and photos from those who have connected with the Downtown Synagogue over the years. This collection will add to our archives, fuel a documentary, and enliven our Centennial events. We invite you to share your memories about the Downtown Synagogue with us and you can do so, as well as find other information, at our Centennial page on our website.

We are proud of our history, proud of our service to the Detroit Jewish community, proud of our long-time commitment to a communal Jewish existence in Detroit, proud of our legacy of providing an inclusive and welcoming congregation, proud of our expansive range of Shabbat, holiday, education, and social justice programming, proud of our interfaith and racial justice work. 

As you’ve read about, we are reimagining the Downtown Synagogue’s future! Deep gratitude to the incredible, hardworking team of Board members, lay leaders, and staff who have successfully shepherded our incredible capital campaign to a remarkable outcome. Their laser-focused and heartfelt engagement of so many supportive and generous donors has brought us within reach of our fundraising goal to renovate, reinvigorate, and reimagine the Downtown Synagogue and our hub of Jewish life in Detroit. If you are as excited as we are about our next 100 years, and I hope you are, please consider contributing to our capital campaign and be a partner in our amazing future!

As we look to the past, our legacy, and the tremendous work and programming that has already been achieved at the Synagogue, we correspondingly look to the future and to the continued revitalization and reimagining of our unique and historic Synagogue and community. As I recount what we have accomplished in the past year, I want to be sure to communicate our promise for the future. As Jews throughout history have exhibited resilience and reimagining, the Downtown Synagogue has done so for 100 years. As we beautifully renovate our building and welcome Jewish organizations to share our space and collaborate in programming, we will deepen our connection and commitment to our synagogue community, to the larger Jewish community, and to the city of Detroit. And, while we’ll have a new, modern, functional structure, we’ll continue to be the warm, inviting, welcoming, heymish presence we’ve always been.  The Downtown Synagogue has a storied past and a relevant, exciting, and incredibly bright future with an inclusive vision for our congregation and our community.

As we listen to the ancient cry of the Shofar during the Days of Awe, we are reminded that it motivates us to triumph over despair and welcome the promise of a better world. And that ancient cry calls on each of us - individually and collectively - to be resilient and to reimagine.

Shana Tova, a gut yor, a better year, to you, to our nation, and to our world, and may we continue through the year with honest and soulful reflection. 

Blaybt gezunt un shtark – stay healthy and strong.