Rabbi Michael Stern moved to Milwaukee last spring with a head and a heart full of visions, a unique approach and a lot of experience fulfilling those visions.
What Stern envisions is American Jews who are inspired to bring Judaism into their hearts, homes and lives as well as to take responsibility to ensure Jewish continuity in the next generation.
In addition, he sees in the Milwaukee community the potential for national leadership in Jewish unity.
Brought here from Philadelphia by the Milwaukee Kollel Center for Jewish Studies to be its director of outreach, Stern nurtured Jewish growth in thousands of people there with his innovative philosophy of Jewish educational outreach, he said during a recent interview.
And that’s a big part of the reason that he was chosen to join the 15-year-old Kollel, which has focused primarily on its West Side center, according to executive director Rabbi Pinchas Avruch.
Feeling the need for a broader plan and finding in Stern a man of vision and experience and a “people person,” the Kollel is now launching an initiative based on his model called “Judaism Without Walls.”
“The goal is to offer people an opportunity to have a more intense relationship with their Judaism through individual [one-on-one] education,” Avruch added. “Using Torah study as a vehicle we want to help every Jew reach their Jewish potential.”
“Rabbis, synagogues and other Jewish institutions alone cannot ensure our future,” according to the JWW brochure. “The point is to make a personal connection to Torah, which has been the life-force of our tradition for 3,300 years,” Avruch said.
The program’s focus is
• Work with a broad spectrum of Jewish community organizations and synagogues to offer a comprehensive, community-wide education program.
• Provide lectures, seminars and workshops throughout the community.
• Educate as many Jews as possible to develop a strong Jewish identity and help take responsibility for others.
Its educational centerpiece is Partners in Torah, which pairs individuals for personalized Torah study, either in person or on the telephone.
In addition to Stern and Avruch, JWW is staffed by Rabbi Yosef Schlussel, director of programming; and Ali Begoun and Denise Stern, who oversee Jewish Family programs.
The team also includes community mentors, who will work one-on-one with Jews “at all levels of knowledge, observance and growth,” said Stern.
JWW will officially launch with an event on Sunday, Nov. 20, at the Mequon Country Club. After a dessert and coffee bar reception from 7-8 p.m., author and speaker Lori Palatnik will deliver the keynote address, entitled “The Kabbala of Love: Judaism’s Timeless Wisdom for a Great Marriage” from 8-8:45 p.m.
Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. There are also several sponsorship levels that include a private dinner with Palatnik.
Jewish potential
“I want to change the way people do their Judaism,” Stern said in a telephone interview with The Chronicle. “But information doesn’t change people. People change people.
“Judaism is not a religion where you just attend synagogue for the Sabbath and the holidays. Judaism is how you live your life.”
Stern said that he thinks Judaism has become ridiculously intellectual; and rather than instructing people, he wants to inspire them through relationships and through modeling.
And he has many practical ideas. “I am very tool-oriented,” he said. “I like to teach people how to use the tools [of Judaism].”
Rather than beginning by teaching the blessings, Stern said, “I would teach you that gratitude is fundamental to happiness. The blessings are the tools” for expressing that, but you have to be inspired by gratitude first.
Stern, who said he was “raised with Santa Claus and bacon,” began to be inspired by Judaism in his 20s. A University of Maryland graduate with a degree in organizational development, he began his career working as a management consultant.
Interested in personal growth, Stern remembers being inspired by a friend who had studied in Israel. He spent several months in Israel and later entered Yeshiva Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem. He studied there for seven years and eventually received his rabbinical ordination.
His secular background also affects his approach, which he said is “very broad.” He believes in modeling Jewish life and accepting people as they are. I’m not just teaching Judaism, I am a friend, confidant, coach. To build a relationship, growth on the other person’s part is not a precondition,” he said.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student Stacie Walerstein, 23, seems to feel that acceptance. Jewish by birth, she has “always been searching for a gateway” into Judaism, she said in a recent interview with The Chronicle. “I was intimidated by it.”
Then recently one of her professors introduced her to Stern and they met in a coffee shop. She was impressed by his informality and accessibility, which contradicted her vision of Judaism as remote and formal.
Not long ago he invited her and her parents to Shabbat dinner at his home. “I was so honored that he opened his home and family to me,” she said. Expecting a very orderly, “strict” atmosphere, her parents were “shocked by how laid back it was and they have not stopped talking about it.”
“I am going to Israel in December but up until I leave we have planned a study schedule. He’s a great listener. He’s patient and explains everything in a way that is easy to understand. He makes Judaism fun and interesting,” she said.
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