HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
SHALOM Y’ALL
Though its neighbor two-and-ahalf hours east was also founded
as a railroad town in the mid-19th
century, the growth spurt that hit
Atlanta never transferred to Birmingham. Many Birminghamians
will lament the conservative Christian culture that pervades everyday life outside the area’s urban
core where more than a third of
Alabama’s counties ban alcohol
sales. They’ll half-jokingly call the
city, where a 24-hour restaurant is
rare, “Boringham.”
EXPRESSING YOURSELF
“JEWISHLY”
“Our growth really depends on
the fortunes of the city of Birmingham,” says Rabbi Jonathan
Miller, a Reform rabbi who has
led the city’s largest and oldest Jewish congregation, Temple
Emanu-El, for 21 years.
He points to the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, home
to one of the best medical research programs in country,
which has attracted an increasing number of the region’s new
Jews and temple members.
He mentions the University of
Alabama in Tuscaloosa — about
an hour from Birmingham and a
feeder to the city — where a vig-
orous campaign to recruit Jewish students recently resulted in
a 50 percent increase in Jewish
enrollment over just a few years.
Similar to Seligman’s program,
the university’s efforts included
visits from admissions officials
to far-flung Jewish communities
in Maryland, Texas and Georgia.
A new Hillel building opened in
2010 that serves 675 students,
and the Jewish fraternity and sorority have grown.
The Birmingham Jewish Federation’s recruiting, which began
six years ago, has so far netted
a few dozen new or returning
young Jews to the city, and Miller
has gleefully offered a spiritual
home to many of them.
His congregation, which dates to
1882, has about 690 members, according to Miller. About a quarter
of them attend services in its airy,
62,000-square foot temple that
includes a sanctuary with colorful
stained glass windows, small chapel, religious school and banquet
hall. While Miller boasts that membership has barely budged during
his time, he admits it’s graying.
Last year, Miller hired a 27-yearold rabbi to increase young adult
involvement in the temple. Rabbi
Laila Haas, who was raised in Mi-