The site of the former
Talmud Torah, today
the Brewster-Douglas
Projects.

living by working as a tutor.
He married one of his
students, the daughter of a
wealthy landowner. When
his father-in-law died,
Aleichem took over ad-
ministration of the estate,
through which he met a
number of upper-class Jews
whom he would eventually
parody in his plays, novels
and short stories.
Always in love with the
written word, Shalom
Aleichem. in 1888 became
editor of The Jewish Folk
Library, a Yiddish annual he
founded. His literary career
was so successful that by
1900, Shalom Aleichem was
able to concentrate solely on
writing.
Before his death, Shalom
Aleichem would produce
works totaling 40 volumes.
Most of his books and stories
focus on the characters of
Tevye the Dairyman,
Menakhem-Mendel, the man
who lives on dreams, and
Motl the cantor's son.
In 1914, Shalom Aleichem
left Russia and settled in the
United States. His contacts
broken with Yiddish
publishers back home,
Shalom Aleichem made only
limited money from his
books printed in the United
States. To supplement his
income, he made reading
tours throughout the coun-
try.
One of Shalom Aleichem's
stops was Detroit, which he
visited on May 15, 1916, the
guest of the Progressive Lit-

erary and Dramatic Club, a
Yiddish group that disband-
ed in 1917.
Shalom Aleichem's per-
formance, at the Detroit
Opera House on Woodward,
was sold-out. Represent-
atives of all the Jewish
organizations from
Hadassah to Mogan David
Adorn were in the audience.
Following a performance
of a number of Shalom
Aleichem's skits, the author
took center stage. He read
his stories "A Sixty Six" and
"Berel Isaac's."
His reading "brought the
audience to their feet,"
recalls Philip Gilbert in a
1977 article in Michigan
Jewish History. Gilbert, who
helped bring Shalom
Aleichem to Detroit, writes:
"Children from Hebrew and
Yiddish schools walked up to
the stage, greeted our
distinguished guest and pre-
sented him with bouquets of
flowers."
The Detroit Opera House
is no longer extant. It stood
on what is now the corner of
Woodward, Monroe and
Michigan Avenue.
Shalom Aleichem died on
May 13, 1916. More than
150,000 people attended his
funeral.

SOMETHING FOR NOTHING

Few sites in early Detroit
were more elegant than the
first Temple Beth El struc-

Temple Beth El in 1904, when it became the first synagogue in the
United States to give free seats to congregants.

ture at 3424 Woodward and
Eliot, with its smooth,
rounded roof and massive
stone front designed by
noted architect Albert Kahn.
Beth El was the most
prestigious congregation of
its day, but membership was
not expensive. In 1904,
Temple Beth El became the
first in the country to give
away free seats.
Rabbi Leo Franklin, born
in Indiana in 1870, was the
man behind the free seat
concept. Disturbed by the
European Jews' tradition of
selling synagogue seats,
Rabbi Franklin insisted
Beth El's seating should be
allocated on a first-come,
first-served system.
Rabbi Franklin's decision
to institute free seating was
not well received by all his
congregants. Seven families
resigned in protest, though
they eventually returned.
Open seating was one of
the many new programs
Rabbi Franklin introduced
to revitalize his congrega-
tion. He also created a chil-
dren's choir, Bible classes, a
Shabbat morning service for
children and reinstated Fri-
day evening services. Rabbi
Franklin was instrumental
in the temple's decision to
build the new facility at
3424 Woodward.
The Woodward building
housed the Beth El con-
gregation from 1903-1922.
Today, it is the home of
Wayne State University's
Bonstelle Theater.

Writer Shalom Aleichem, who
visited Detroit in 1914.