Fair-weather shulgoers, be inspired by the “Frozen Chosen,” profiled by Sam Holcomb in Northern Michigan University’s The North Wind.

Fresh snow covered the road as the Jeep drove out of Marquette along U.S. Highway 41. It was a Friday night and Mike Kann, a senior entertainment and sports promotion major, peered through the blowing snow on his way to the Temple Beth Shalom in Ishpeming. Tucked away on a side street, the small Jewish temple holds monthly services for roughly 35 Jewish families in the area. And in the past two years, a small circle of Jewish students from Northern have begun attending services.
Kann is the president and founding member of the Jewish Student Union (JSU), whose roster tallies 41 students, though Kann emphasized only about a dozen actively participate.
“I started [JSU] trying to find other Jewish students to hang out with,” he said, and in the winter of 2004 he and several other students began making the monthly drive to Ishpeming.
In the passenger seat beside Kann sat Matthew Marcus, a senior hospitality major, who joined JSU this year. Marcus grew up in Boston and arrived at Northern not seeking a connection to his Jewish heritage, but said he has found something worthwhile in JSU.
“I’m not religious, but I do it to be a part of something,” he said. “I don’t know anything about my faith and [I want to] learn a little bit.”
Piling out of the Jeep and trudging through the snow, Kann and Marcus opened the door of the temple to find that three other JSU members had already arrived. Jen Weiner, Melissa Conner and Kevin Fishbein sat chatting in the back of the temple. Out of the conversation, one thing clearly emerged — like Marcus, none of the students came to Northern for Jewish programs.
“I didn’t even think there were Jews up here,” Conner, a senior English major, laughed.

Pictured above are Kevin Fishbein, Michael Kann, Melissa Conner and Jen Weiner; Sam Holcomb took the picture for The North Wind.