Forward Newspaper Article: A Renewal Retreat Grows in Northern Michigan

By Andrew Muchin.

Like Noah with his ark, Oran Hesterman and Linda Kurtz have accomplished some of their most significant work thanks to a boat.

They dock their 27-foot Pearson sailboat at Suttons Bay, Mich., a resort town 250 miles northwest of their Ann Arbor home. "We basically live aboard all summer," Kurtz said.

Not on the Sabbath, however. Then the couple drives down Highway 22 to Congregation Ahavat Shalom, a 40-plus family Renewal congregation in Traverse City, Mich., a small port city with 200 Jews. The maritime couple feels "part of the community," Kurtz said. "We've become a mishpokhe."

Securely anchored Jewishly, Kurtz said she and Hesterman considered how Ahavat Shalom could "expand this wonderful feeling of love and joy" to other travelers. Their solution: Create a retreat center in northern Michigan that draws on the area's natural beauty as well as its growing Jewish Renewal community. Their plans docked nicely with those of Ahavat Shalom's energetic Rabbi Stacie Bahle (pronounced "Bailey"), who had been dreaming of establishing a Midwestern version of the Elat Chayyim Jewish retreat center in upstate New York....