"We got caught in
this conundrum.
They are extremely
anti-development.
I can't say it is
anti-Semitic."
Rob Roth

Trustee Judith Holtz, above top, questions the board's
intention on the college ordinance. Trustee Sharon Law,
middle, listens intently. Supervisor Sandy Draur, bottom,
holds the gavel.

26

FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1990 ,

Many people view the rush to approve
the new ordinance as a slap at Lubavitch,
who say they will submit a site plan in
early April. But the trustees — all except
Holtz and Ray Holland — maintain the
action was merely an attempt to protect
the township.
"We are not raising the issue of anti-
Semitism," says Rabbi Yitzchak Kagan,
associate director for the Lubavitch
Foundation. "They just don't want our
project. I don't know why."
Kagan is optimistic the retreat will be
built. He doesn't want to play politics. He
just wants Lubavitch to maintain a vis-
ible presence in an area he views as the
demographic center of the Jewish
community.
"I don't know what I can say. There is
no overt, conscious anti-Semitism. I am
confident of that," trustee Holtz says.
"But there is some ignorance over the
multi-faceted expression of Jewish re-
ligion and our beliefs."
Trustee Dennis Vatsis disagrees.
"These people (Lubavitch) are unin-
formed," Vatsis says. "They don't under-
stand the history of what we want to do in
our township.
"I don't like these religious overtones,"
he says. "Many developers are not getting
their way. We have one group of de-
velopers being substituted by another. I
hate to be so callous. But that is the way
it is. This has nothing to do with pro-
Jewish or anti-Jewish, pro-Christian or
anti-Christian.
"We've appointed more Jewish mem-
bers to our boards than in the history of
this township."
Allen Adelberg last week was appointed
to the zoning board. In the last year, the
only new Jewish appointees were Adelberg,
Michael Schwartz, Steven Budaj and An-
thony Spokojny, the latter three original
members of OUST.
B'nai Moshe's Robert Roth isn't con-
vinced by appointments. Far more telling,
he believes, are the actions of the trustees
who have been turning down new projects
such as B'nai Moshe. He says it is time for

an organized response by members of the
Jewish community.
"Either this is anti-development to the
extreme or this is a terrible reaction to
what these people perceive as the inva-
sion of Jews," Roth says. "Maybe this will
wake people up. If nothing else comes out
of it, Jewish people will need to rethink
their votes."
Ben Marks, former mayor and long-
time elected official for the neighboring
city of Farmington Hills, describes West
Bloomfield as a rat's nest. But, he says,
Jewish interests will not be protected
unless Jews participate in local politics.
"It's a crime," Marks says. "We've got
to be a voice. If you want to sit home and
watch television that is fine. But then you
lose your rights to complain about how
things are going.
"Jews could be a force if they would con-
tribute to the philosophy of a city," Marks
says.
Federation Executive Vice President
Robert Aronson says community leaders
are concerned with the recent actions in
West Bloomfield. The Jewish Community
Council is assessing the situation.
Although Federation leaders are track-
ing township developments, there is no
need yet for an institutional community
response, Aronson says.

Jewish movement
to West Bloomfield

DEVELOPERS CONTEND THAT WEST
Bloomfield has always been one of the

toughest places in the Detroit suburbs to
build a project — even when it was run by
the late John Doherty, described by those
who knew him as a decent supervisor who
played a large role in an old boys' network.
He came on board in 1967 around the time
of the Detroit riots. That was the same time
Jewish developers started purchasing land
in the western suburbs, including the still
sparsely populated West Bloomfield.
Township history since that time in-
cludes an exhaustive list of Jewish de-

