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1LIPP•1181W -
Downtown Jewish Group to Save Remains of Hastings Synagogue
By PHILLIP APPLEBAUM
The former synagogue
of Congregation Mogain
Abraham on Farnsworth
between St. Antoine and
Beaubien will soon be.
demolished, but a deter-
mined group of young
Jewish families will sal-
vage relics of the 63-
year-old building, to one
day be incorporated into
the building of a new
synagogue.
The group is mainly
composed of Jews living
downtown in the
Lafayette Park area, and
iLled by Judy and Ira
rris, Toby Citrin, and
troit Common Council
President Carl Levin.
. The nascent congrega-
tion, as yet unnamed, has
its origin in late 1974
when six , downtown
couples began - holding
m
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monthly Friday evening
services in each other's
homes, using prayer
bkooks borrowed from
Adat Shalom Synagogue.
Participants came not
only from Lafayette
Park, but from other
downtown areas such as
Indian Village, Elmwood
Park, and the pensioners'
.apartments, Allan Tow-
ers.
At the same time, Carl
Levin had been thinking of
either rebuilding or mov-
ing an oldsynagogue to the
downtown area. Through
Citrin, he became aware of
the Lafayette Park group,
and-the two came together
and formulated a plan for
formally establishing a
- downtown neighborhood
synagogue.
When Levin became
aware that the former
synagogue of Mogain Ab-
raham (now Mt. Olive
Baptist Church) was to be
demolished as part of tile
Medical Center Rehabili-
tation Project, he pro-
posed that the group
make a bid to the' city,
which had purchased the
AMERICAN JEWISH CONGRESS
congratulates one of ouedistinguished leaders
MARIAN SHIFIVIAN
on receiving
1977 HEART of GOLD AWARD
previoes AJCongress recipients have been
1974—Mrs. Louis Redstone 1975—Mrs. George Rubin
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group to ever save from
hopes to have erected in the wrecker's ball sig-
the Congress-St. Antoine nificant physical remains
area, a marker corn- of Detroit's Jewish past.
memorating the begin-
nings of Jewish settle-
ment in Detroit more
than 100 years ago. The
downtown Jews feel that
with the establishment of
their congregation, they
Open To All Women
will be bridging this
Who Love The Game
century-old gap, and re-
establish the continuity
Friday-Feb. 25th
of 'Jewish settlement
within Detroit.
1:00 P.M.
Abraham
Mogain
Lincoln Towers apt.
synagogue, with its adja-
- Club Room
cent Hebrew Free School,
15075 W. Lincoln Blvd.
which later became
Oak Park
Yeshivath Beth
Yehudah, was built when
For Reservations
the .Hastings St. Jewish
Phone Li 6-2733
settlement was at its
height. Few of the . other
neighborhood syne'-
AWARDS
gogues remain' standing,
REFRESHMENTS
and Hastings St. itself no
longer exists, having
been replaced by the
$3.00 Donation •
Chrysler Freeway.
Yet the Lafayette Park
Sponsored by: The Elaine
group, which has a long
Levin Chapter of the Na-
way to go in establishing
tional Asthma Center
itself in the eommunity,
has become the first
LADIES
RUMMIKUB
TOURNAMENT
The former synagogue of Congregation Mogain Ab-
raham on Farnsworth is shown with its Hebrew Free
School (right), which later became Yeshivath Beth
Yehudah. Mogain Abraham, the first synagogue in the
upper Hastings area, was built in 1914, and sold in the
early 1940s. The building today houses Mt. Olive Baptist
Church.
structure, for the interior
fixtures.
The bid was accepted,
and now the group is
waiting for the church
congregants tovacate the
building so that its in-
terior may be salvaged
before the wreckers come:
The group will be taking
only those fixtures origi-
nal to the synagogue,
such as pews and chan-
deliers. They will also
save some bricks, and if
' possible, the cornerstone,
the Hebrew inscription of
which is still legible.
In the meantime, the
group has been offered
temporary quarters in
the school of Old St.
Mary's Church, on the
corner of Monroe and St.
Antoine. Father John
Nader has granted them
use of the third and
fourth floors of the school,
long since vacant. The
group will store the pews
and other salvaged items
in the fourth-floor .audi-
torium, where services
will eventually be held on
a weekly basis.
The downtown group is
motivated by an ideal of
restoring a Jewish pre-
sence to the city of Detroit,
in the face of flight to the
suburbs which has left
only three functioning
synagogues within the city
limits. They hope their
new congregation will be,
according to Citrin, a "vis-
ible sign of commitment to
the city."
Also, the group, along
with the Jewish Histori-
cal Society of Michigan,
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FEB. 10-11-12
To CELEBRATE
LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY
U.S. Presidents and Israel
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1977, JTA, Inc.)
We never knew until
the other night, watching
the Mery Griffin Show
that President Carter
once visited Israel. Pre-
mier Yitzhak Rabin told
the television audience
that he had met Carter
-twice. The first time in
Georgia, when Carter was
governor of that state
and Rabin was Israel am-
bassador to America. The
second time was when
Carter visited Israel and
Rabin was premier.
Carter's special in-
terest in Israel, according
to Rabin stems from his
Christian beliefs. After
all, if you are a Christian,
you have to be a Zionist,
because the return of the
Jews to their old home-
land is prophesied in the
Bible.
The only President to
visit Jerusalem before was
Grant. After his retire-
ment from the Presidency,
Grant visited the Holy land
-while on a tour of the
world.
- One of the Lincoln biog-
raphers says that Lincoln
shortly before his death
looked forward to visiting
Jerusalem on his retire-
Not the place in which he
lives distinguishes the man,
but the man marks the
place.
—The Talmud
• • •
WEST SIDE
EAST SIDE
968-2620 731-6200
26000 GOWIFIELD
LWOW CENTER
OAK PARK
8184 23 M111 10.
SHELBY PLAZA
SHIM TWP.
THE DETROIT ZIONIST FEDERATION
ment. John Adams, who
had a deep interest in
Hebraic culture, no doubt
would have been in-
terested. He was the first
President to endorse the
Zionist idea. In a letter to
Mordecai Manual Noah,
who has been described
as the first American
'Zionist, Adams expressed
his approval. One of the
present day offspring of
Adams visited with
Ben-Gurion some years
back and Ben-Gurion
then reminded him of his
ancestors.
We suppose John
Adams wouldn't be very
popular in the United
States today.
presents:
OICEmAtv
A FILM COMEDY WRITTEN
AND DIRECTED BY
EPHRAIM KROH
Sunday, Feb. 20
8:00 P.M.
Tickets $2.50
Labor Zionist
Institute
28555 Middlebelt
Farmington, Michigan
Congregation Beth Achim Men's Club
PRESENTS
World of Jewish Entertainment
Sunday, February 20, 1977 7:30-9:30 P.M.
THE KOL GOLAN DUO — ISRAEL & EDNA ROSEN
plus
SY KLEINMAN
Saturday, March 12, 1977 8:00-10:00 P.M.
BERNIE DEANE (One Man Performance)
in
"The Rothschilds"
Donation:, • Individual Tickets $2.00 Sold At The Door
Beth Achim's Wasserman Hall
21100 W. 12 Mile Road Southfield, Michigan
For Tickets Call The Synagogue Office at 352-8670 or Co-Chairmen
Stewart Silverman 547-2329
Allen "Manny" Sterns 353-3773