Song and Study Bring Temple to Life

To understand how Rabbi Morley Feinstein has re-energized University Synagogue, just peek in on his Friday night services, which have been attracting upwards of 125 people every week.

Music fills the sanctuary as Feinstein, Cantor Jay Frailich and Assistant Rabbi Zachary Shapiro collaborate in a trio of vocals, guitar and piano.

Just as the congregation is ready to greet Shabbat, Feinstein asks everyone to greet those around them.

The Friday night Torah reading — an old Reform tradition that Feinstein revived at University Synagogue — has become the centerpiece for many congregants. Using a technique he learned in his first rabbinic job as an assistant rabbi in San Antonio, Texas, Feinstein reads the Torah in Hebrew, translates it into English and offers interpretive commentary in an uninterrupted flow.

"Rabbi Feinstein has breathed new life and energy into the Friday night services through his reading of Torah," said Roy Weinstein, synagogue president. "[Congregants] smile; they are engaged, and that is why they keep coming."

In the 10 months since he took over for Rabbi Allen Freehling, who became the synagogue’s first rabbi emeritus after serving for 31 years, Feinstein, who with his graying beard and ready smile exudes an avuncular warmth, has won over many of the congregants.

After Freehling reached the synagogue’s mandatory retirement age, contention arose about whether and when Freehling should retire.

"Now we have the best of both worlds — we have Rabbi Freehling, who continues to be the rabbi in many ways to the people he’s been with for decades, and we have Rabbi Feinstein, who came in a relatively seamless way and is well along toward establishing himself," Weinstein said.

Coming to University Synagogue has been a homecoming for Feinstein, who grew up in Beverly Hills. Feinstein’s own successful Jewish upbringing — with parents and sibling actively involved in Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills — has shaped the way he approaches Jewish

continuity.

"Too often we look at synagogue as a pediatric center. We drop the kids off and pick them up after their bar mitzvahs, and that’s that," said Feinstein, who has two grown sons and whose wife is expecting twins this fall. "If we, as adults, find meaning in Judaism and we are setting the agenda, the children will follow."

For that reason, he has focused as much attention on adult and family education as he has on revamping the Hebrew school and turning around the post-bar and bat mitzvah attrition rate.

While his commitment to creating a spiritual home is primary, Feinstein plans to retain Freehling’s focus on social justice. Feinstein built up a record of interfaith cooperation and tikkun olam (healing the world) at his congregation near University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., where the governor awarded him the state’s highest honor.

At his congregation in South Bend, he said, "the more we provided education and had a commitment to Hebrew and were concerned about Israel, the more we were engaged in the prayer process in our congregation, the more people understood that there were mitzvot to fulfill for others as well."

"So," Feinstein added, "a deepening of our religious lives only led to a deepening of our ethical lives."