COMMUNITY

Local Leaders Honored
For Jewish Seminary

Leonard
Baron

Dr. Eli and
Estelle Brown

Several leaders in the
Detroit area will be honored
by the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America at 6
p.m. June 15 at the annual
community-wide dinner at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
Leonard Baron, Dr. Eli and
Estelle Brown, Bertha Chom-
sky, Dr. Harris Mainster, and
Florine Mark-Ross will be
presented with the
seminary's Second Century
Award "for their dedicated
service to the community in
advancing the religious and

Seminary
Chancellor lsmar
Schorsch will
speak at the June
15 event.

cultural traditions of Conser-
vative Judaism."
Presenting the awards to
the honorees will be Dr. Ismar
Schorsch, chancellor of the
seminary. Dr. Schorsch will
also deliver the Sybil
Goldman Memorial Lecture,
established in 1987.
Dr. Richard Brown and Dr.
Martin Hart are the dinner
chairmen. Marjorie Saulson
is the patrons' chairman and
Dr. Mathew Borovoy is the
Chancellor's Council chair-
man. Harold Berry is the
seminary's general chairman.
Baron has held several of-
fices in Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, is a past
president of Hillel Day School
and past president of the
Michigan Region, United
Synagogue of America.
He is on the executive com-
mittee of the Jewish Com-
munity Council, a board
member of the Jewish Home
for Aged, president of the
Synagogue Council of Metro
Detroit and national vice
president of the United
Synagogue of America.
Dr. Brown is past president
of the American Society of
Anesthesiologists. His com-
munal activities include:
Ma'ot Chittim Society and
past chairman Professional

Bertha
Chomsky

Dr. Harris
Mainster

Division, Allied Jewish
Campaign.
Mrs. Brown performed as a
ballerina at Radio City Music
Hall and also appeared in
Broadway shows. After a
career change, she returned
to the field of education and
became a teacher. The
Browns are long-time
members of Congregation
B'nai Moshe.
A board member of Con-
gregation Beth Shalom, Mrs.
Chomsky was president of
Sheruth League, vice presi-
dent of education of Detroit
Chapter of Hadassah; board
member, Midrasha-United
Hebrew Schools; ex-officio
board member, Fresh Air
Society. She is chairman of
the Institute of Retired Pro-
fessionals; board member of
the Jewish Federation Apart-
ments; life member of Na-
tional Council of Jewish
Women and life member of
Hadassah.

Florine
Mark-Ross

A certified surgeon of the
American Osteopathic Asso-
ciation and a member and
fellow of the American Col-
lege of Surgeons, Dr. 'Main-
ster has been affiliated with
the board of the Jewish Corn-
munity Center, the Hillel Day
School, and the national af-
fairs committee of the Jewish
Welfare Federation. He is
president of Congregation
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses.
Mrs. Mark-Ross is an ex-
ecutive trustee on the board
of Sinai Hospial and
president-elect of the Fashion
Group of Detroit. She is the
assistant treasurer of the ex-
ecutive board for the Boy
Scouts of America, and is an
advisory board member for
the Detroit Symphony Or-
chestra Hall Associates. She
is a member of Adat Shalom
Synagogue.
For dinner information, call
the Metro Detroit seminary
office, 559-9112.

Envoy To Speak
To AJCommittee

Ambassador Harvey J.
Feldman will be the featured
speaker at the annual
meeting of the Detroit
Chapter of the American
Jewish Committee at 7:30
p.m. June 5 at Temple Beth
El.
Ambassador Feldman is a
veteran diplomat with a
broad background in human
rights and multilateral
issues. He became the first
U.S. ambassador to Papua,
New Guinea, in 1979 and two
years later was chosen by
Ambassador Jeane Kirkpat-
rick to run her cabinet-level
office in Washington. In 1984,
he became the alternate U.S.
representative to the U.N.
with rank of ambassador.
He also represented the U.S.
at the U.N. Commission on
Human Rights and the Corn-
mission on the Status of
Women, and served as the
U.S. expert on a special panel

Ambassador Feldman

on refugee problems estab-
lished by the General
Assembly in 1982.
There will be a wine and
dessert buffet. The public is
invited. For information, call
AJC office, 965-3353.

Rabbi Milton Arm: 35 years of service.

Rabbi Arm To Retire
In January, 1990

ELIZABETH KAPLAN

Features Editor

M

ilton Arm will retire
from his post as
rabbi of Congrega-
tion Beth Achim in January
1990 and be replaced by Rab-
bi Martin Berman of Denver,
Colo. .
Rabbi Berman, who was
confirmed this week by the
congregation, will begin at
Beth Achim on July 1. He
will serve as associate rabbi
until he takes the helm of the
synagogue on Dec. 31.
Rabbi Arm will stay in the
Detroit area, but said he has
not made other plans.
"It's always been a great
pleasure dealing with Rabbi
Arm," said Beth Achim Ex-
ecutive Director Philip
Vainik. "I know a lot of peo-
ple share that sentiment."
Rabbi Arm came to Detroit
from Glen Cove, N.Y. in 1954,
when he assumed leadership
of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek during Rabbi Morris
Adler's sabbatical.
In 1959, he accepted the
post of rabbi at Congregation
Ahavas Achim in Detroit,
where he served until 1964
before being named assistant
to the president of the Jewish
National Fund. He returned
in 1966 to Ahavas Achim,
then stayed on as rabbi when
the congregation merged in
1968 with Beth Aaron
Synagogue. It was renamed
Congregation Beth Achim.
At Rabbi Arm's suggestion,
a mikvah was included in
building designs for the new
congregation in Southfield.
Members of the Orthodox
community, he explained, did
not open the local mikvah to
all Conservative Jews.

The building for Congrega-
tion Beth Achim was com-
pleted in the early 1970s, a
forerunner for other Conser-
vative synagogues in the
United States that followed
suit by building their own
mikva'ot.
Rabbi Arm calls himself a
traditionally Conservative
Jew. While insistent upon a
mikvah in his new shul, his
congregation allows b'not
mitzvah only to speak on cer-
tain subjects from the bimah;
they may not read • from the
Torah.
In 1985, Rabbi Arm was one
of 10 U.S. rabbis who par-
ticipated in a seven-day study
mission to West Germany.
During their visit, the rabbis
attended a ceremony mark-
ing the anniversary of the
Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi
attack on Jews and Jewish-
owned businesses, and the
groundbreaking of a new
Jewish community center in
Frankfurt.
The trip marked Rabbi
Arm's first visit to Germany
since he was a child, when he
stopped in the country on his
way to visit his grandfather
in Poland.
Rabbi Arm holds bachelor's
degrees from the Jewish
Theological Seminary, where
he was ordained, and from
Columbia University. He
received master's degrees
from the Seminary and the
University of Detroit.
In 1975, Rabbi Arm was
awarded an honorary degree
of divinity by the Jewish
Theological Seminary of
America. The next year, Beth
Achim granted him a lifetime
contract "in recognition and
appreciation of his ser-
vices."

❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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