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Friday, July 12, 1985

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Mazel Toy

CLOSE-UP

JULIE KITTEN

On The Move To Your New Office

We Wish You Continued Success
— In Your Business
WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!
With Love, Mom & Dad

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SUNSET STRI P •

01

CHARLES JOURDAN
XAVIER DANAUD
MIGNANI
ANDREW GELLER
EVAN PICONE
JOAN & DAVID
PHYLLIS POLAND
LIZ CLAIRBORNE
PALIZZIO
DeLISO

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Beacons

Continued from preceding page .

raham Hillel Moses was the
second such fusion, in 1977.
Beth Aaron and Ahavas
Achim came together in 1968
to form Beth Achim.
Congregations have
changed religious orientation.
Beth El and Shaarey Zedek
were founded as Orthodox.
Beth El became Michigan's
first Reform congregation in
1856, and Shaarey Zedek
helped found the national
Conservative body, United
Synagogue of America, in
1913. Many of the old Or-
thodox congregations turned
Conservative when they left
the Linwood and Dexter
neighborhoods for northwest
Detroit or the suburbs, where
a new element of synagogue
architecture, the parking lot,
was born.
Most of the old syna-
gogues are still there. But a
journey backwards cannot
take us back to the original
Jewish neighborhood, Hast-
ings Street. It is gone, obliter-
ated by the construction of the
Brewster Douglas Housing
Project and the Chrysler
Freeway (I-75). A few relics
remain. The burned-out hulk
of Shaarey Zedek's Winder
Street synagogue still stands.
B'nai Israel on Ferry and St.
Antoine, along with the
United Hebrew Schools build-
ing on Kirby are all that re-
main of the upper Hastings
area. A pile of rubble on
Palmer just east of Beaubien is
all that is left of the former
Beth Abraham synagogue.
Look at the old shuls. The
faces are the same, only the
names have changed. The old
Nusach H'Ari on Holmur and
Duane is now the Greater
Love Baptist Church; what
was Adas Shalom on Curtis
and Monica is the Bailey
Cathedral Church of God in
Christ; the former front
entrance of Ahavas Achim on
Schaefer and Cambridge now
proclaims "Jesus Saves." Al-
most every former Jewish
• house of worship still standing
in the city of Detroit is today a
church. The one exception is
the old Temple Beth El on
Woodward and Eliot — it
houses Wayne State Univer-
sity's Bonstelle Theatre.
Drive through some of the
more obscure neighborhoods,
places you would never think
Jews would have settled, and
you'll see the synagogues, re-
minders of a time when Jewish
peddlers and storekeepers
ventured throughout the city
to seek a livelihood.
There were synagogues
on the east side beyond Hast-
ings; the major congregation

was on Fisher near Mack. The
far west side had its Jewish •
congregations as well: 29th
Street and Michigan Ave., the
W. Warren and Grand Blvd.
area, and the W. Vernor and
Springwells area all had
synagogues between. 1910 and
1940. Delray, Hamtramck,
Highland Park, upper Brush
Street, and the Fenkell-
Linwood area were home to
Jewish communities with
their own synagogues. Some
Jews moved downriver. River
Rouge and Wyandotte had

Drive through some
of the more obscure
neighborhoods,
places you would
never think Jews
would have settled,
and you'll see the
synagogues.

synagogues; Trenton still has
a viable Jewish community
and synagogue.
In the mid-1950s, some
young Jewish families saw
Livonia as the logical exten-
sion of the northwestern set-
tlement pattern. An area be-
tween Six and Eight Mile
roads and Inkster and Far-
mington roads (surrounding
the Livonia Mall) was the cen-
ter of Jewish settlement. In
1962 the United Hebrew
Schools opened a Livonia
branch. Most Detroit Jews,
however, chose to settle in the
suburbs of Oakland, not
Wayne, County. By the mid-
1970s, many Livonia Jews
joined the movement to Far-
mington Hills and West
Bloomfield. The Livonia
Jewish Congregation remains
active, however.
In the span of roughly 140
years, the Jews of Detroit have
wandered from the heart of the
city to the far reaches of sur-
rounding countryside await-
ing suburban development.
Their wanderings can be
traced by the landmarks they
have left behind, the syna-
gogues. ❑

Pardon
Requested

Prague — Fourteen Czech dis-
sidents have asked the
Prosecutor-General of Czechos-
lovakia to grant a pardon to 56-
year-old Jiri Gans, sentenced in
1977 to 15 years imprisonment on
charges of espionage.
Gans, of Jewish origin, is
dangerously ill.

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