Huffington Magazine Issue 8 | Page 57

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.