HUFFINGTON
08.05.12
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA HILLEL
SHALOM Y’ALL
ami Beach and studied in Cincinnati, has started discussion groups
at members’ homes on religious
and cultural topics, including lessons, she says, “on how to express
myself Jewishly in a non-Jewish
place.” While synagogue memberships can typically cost thousands
of dollars, Haas says she encourages young people to join by asking
them to both pay and get involved
“at their comfort level.”
For traditionally religious Jews,
Birmingham is a harder sell, but
improvements to religious life
have been made recently. The
region’s first kosher restaurant
opened a year ago, and the Modern Orthodox synagogue hired a
lively 30-year-old rabbi to reinvigorate its small congregation.
Still, a mohel, a rabbi trained in
performing ritual circumcisions
on newborns — a segment of the
population the city needs if it is to
grow — is harder to find.
Some Birminghamians have a
physician do the medical procedure
while a local rabbi says prayers. But
for the group of mostly young couples and less traditionally religious
Jews that regularly seeks a mohel’s
services, the most popular choice is
farther away.
He’s in Atlanta.
Students
gather at a
University
of Alabama
Hillel event.