THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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Friday, April 6, 1984

25

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The sagging main entrance after the Jan. 18, 1983 fire.

Looking into the gutted social hall after the fire.

Photos by Benyas-Kaufman

Up from the ashes

Beth Abraham Hillel Moses plans to
have its new sanctuary completed for
the High Holidays

Construction began in December on the new Cong.
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses sanctuary and social hall. A
target date of late August or early September has been set
for the project, and the congregation plans to hold its High
Holiday services in the new facilities.
The new structure is based on the Sephardi tradition.
The bimah for the reader will be placed in the center of the
round santuary, with the Aron Hakodesh on the east wall.
The bimah will be horseshoe shaped.

The sanctuary concept is based on Eastern European
wooden synagogues of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
The sanctuary will have 430 permanent seats, with
space at the back for 140 temporary seats between the
sanctuary and social hall. Seating will be expanded by an
additional 830 seats in the social hall for the High Holi-
days.
The BAHM facilities were 11 years old when the Jan.
18, 1983 fire gutted the building. Only the school wing was
left intact. After a one-month cleanup, during which time
services were held in a nearby church, the congregation
held services in the school wing. High Holiday services last
year were held in a Royal Oak theater.

An architect's drawing of the new sanctuary and social hall,
attached to the existing school wing.

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Work is moving swiftly toward completing Beth Abraham Hillel Moses' new sanctuary and social hall by late August or early September, in time for Rosh Hashanah.

`Shalom Seders' talk of modern freedom

"The Shalom Seders,"
compiled by New Jewish
Agenda, introduction by
Arthur Waskow. Preface by
Grace Paley. Adama Books,
1984. $12.95.

BY NANCY SINKOFF
Why are these three Hag-
gadahs compiled by New
Jewish Agenda different
from all other Haggadahs?
Well, for one, we learn
from the traditional Hag-
gadah that freedom re-
quires a faith in God and the
discipline of commandment
— with the liberation of the
Israelites from Egyptian
slavery followed by the giv-

Nancy Sinkoff is a re-
searcher for the television
series, "Heritage: Civiliza-
tion and the Jews,". cur-
rently in production at
WNET in New York.

ing of the Law at Sinai as
the first and central exam-
ple in all history for the
Jews.
For the interpreters who
have produced The Shalom
Seders, God and com-
mandment may play a part,
but freedom requires a con-
sciousness of the present as
well as the past — and the
discipline of political action
to address contemporary
concerns of freedom.
By re-enacting the story
of the Exodus each year at
the Passover Seder, Jews
have alivays been reminded
of their past - and asked to
struggle with its meaning.
The traditional Seder has
thus ensured that the col-
lective experience of the
Jewish people will be re-
called by every generation,
and guarantee the con-
tinuity of Jewish collective
memory. But, with its corn-

pelling,
multi.layered disarmament, feminism then, and The Rainbow
theme of freedom, Passover, and peace in the Middle Seder reflects his spiritual
the most universally cele- East
and political evolution.
brated of Jewish holidays,
Rainbow still hints at the
All three Haggadahs re-
has long been irresistible to flect these concerns and re- history of black slavery and
many Jews who also see it cast the liturgy in contem- includes the songs We Shall
as relevant to universalis- porary language. But, be- Overcome and Go Down,
tic, contemporary concerns cause each Haggadah was Moses. But it is now firmly
they feel as members of a created by a different group rooted in the structure of
broader humanity.
of individuals, each telling the traditional Haggadah
The Shalom Seders re- of the Passover story is and is more religious than
secular. It is, in fact, the
present an attempt by such unique.
Jews to harness the tradi-
The Rainbow Seder, most traditional in
tional themes to the broader which opens the book, is ac- structure of the three Hag-
contemporary ones.
tually the fifth reincarna- gadahs in the collection.
These days, the threat of a
The book is the effort of tion of The Freedom Seder
three separate groups of written by Arthur Waskow thermonuclear catastrophe
progressive Jews brought in 1969. Sixteen years have is Waskow's primary con-
together by New Jewish passed since the death of cern, though concern about
Agenda (NJA). Founded in Martin Luther King Jr., the racism continues to play a
1980 as an institutional al- event which catalyzed the part. For example, the
ternative to the organized writing of the original Hag- blessing over the festival
Jewish community, each gadah weaving together the lights reads:
chapter of the national history of Jewish slavery in We are the generation
organization is auton- Egypt with the struggles of That stands between the
omous. Most, however, are the Civil Rights movement fires.
actively engaged in work of the 1960s. Much has Behind us is the flame and
around issues of nuclear changed for Waskow since smoke

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That rose from Auschwitz
and from
Hiroshima
. . .
We light this fire to see more
clearly
That the earth, the human
race, '
is not for burning.
We light this fire to see more
clearly
The Rainbow in our many-
colored faces.
The Rainbow Seder also
confronts domestic issues,
such as political oppression,
hunger, homelessness, and
unemployment, and asks
Seder participants to ask
additional questions about
these subjects after the reci-
tation of the traditional
Four Questions.
A Haggadah of Liberation
had its beginnings infor-
mally, when a group of

Continued on Page 26

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