Travelogue
Congregation Beth Ahm hosts series about Jewish diversity
With travel restrictions once again tightening and COVID cases ramping up, for some, the suitcase and passport still remain untouched in the back of the closet. Thank goodness for the Travel Channel, right?
For West Bloomfield resident Sharona Shapiro, traveling is an important part of life and as she discovered, another way to learn about her Jewish heritage.
“I haven’t been able to travel because of the virus so I’ve spent time signing up for travel programs to a variety of countries,” she said. “I realized that I was lacking a sense of connection to my own faith and culture.”
Shapiro soon became interested in learning about Jewish communities around the world and wanted to share that rich, and sometimes forgotten, history with her community at Congregation Beth Ahm in West Bloomfield.
Organizing a Zoom series called ‘Visiting Jewish Communities Around the World,’ every Sunday throughout the month of February, Congregation Beth Ahm will host a travel guide specialist representing Jewish communities from four different countries.
The series was modeled after another program Shapiro helped spearhead last year that explored different areas off the beaten off in Israel. Shapiro took that concept and stretched it across the map.
From 7-8:15 p.m., congregation members can tune in and learn about the cultural background and current status of Jewish communities in China, India, Spain and the Netherlands.
“These countries were selected because they are far flung and not usually what comes to mind when thinking about traveling to an international Jewish community,” said Shapiro.
Shapiro is interested in each country’s significant historical contact for the Jewish community.
She wanted an authentic experience and found travel agents who have spent a significant amount of time studying their country’s Jewish cultural background and current lifestyles.
What each community has in common is that they are part of the Jewish experience being in the diaspora, according to Shapiro. Jews have dispersed globally finding a path to different countries and adapting Jewish life and culture to their new home.
According to Shapiro, the Jewish community in metro Detroit is quite diverse, with Jews from around the world including Russia, Hungary, Germany, India, Africa and Ethiopia.
“Many synagogues have evolved to include cultural diversity,” she said. “We have a synagogue in West Bloomfield that celebrates Middle Eastern Jews and we’ve had Rabbis from South America.”
For Shapiro, diversity is something that should be celebrated and appreciated. Despite the restrictions that COVID has placed on everyone, there are other ways to explore the world.
“We ought to embrace and appreciate the fact that there are Jewish communities in these lands that one day we may be able to walk and experience in person,” she said.
Her goal is to open the door to new travel experiences and countries that westerners forgot have Jewish roots.
“A very important value the Jewish community has is Klal Yisrael, meaning the Jewish people,” she said. “That is when the whole community is interdependent on one another. We look after one another and are connected. This program reinforces this connectivity.”
For more information about Congregation Beth Ahm visit, cbahm.org