Deborah Dash Moore and MacDonald Moore joined the Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Havurah in 2005 when they moved to the city to teach at UM (Deborah is Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies). Both had long been members of a Reconstructionist congregation in New York, West End Synagogue, participating in a family tradition on Deborah’s side that extended to her maternal grandparents’ support for Mordecai Kaplan and membership in the Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ). Deborah attended Hebrew school at the SAJ and became Bat Mitzvah, a ritual not widely available in those years.
Deborah and Mac write: “Our sons, Mordecai and Mikhael, mostly grew up as the fourth generation of Reconstructionists. Because of strong ties with family in New York City where Mordecai and Mik (now married men with children) and Deborah’s parents live, we tend not to stay in Ann Arbor for the major holidays, but we appreciate AARC and try to attend Shabbat.”
