"I'd have to get up around
6:30 in the morning, and I
wouldn't get home until
eight or nine at night," Mr.
Jarcaig said. "We always
tried to liven up the car
rides, though.
"We all had this game
we'd play. Like we'd try to
think of as many names of
things starting with the first
letters of the alphabet.
When we got bored of that,
we'd just sleep."
According to Rabbi
Rosensveig of the Shaar,
Windsor once ran a Talmud
Torah but it had no high
school and didn't last more
than about three years.
Rabbi Rosenzveig, who
grew up in Windsor and was
a member of the Shaar choir,
is now the synagogue's spiri-

"The Windsor
Jewish community
has everything
Detroit has — just
in miniature."

Alan Juris

tual leader. He and his fami-
ly returned to Windsor a
year and a half ago for what
was supposed to be a tern-
porary High Holiday job.
"It had always been a sort
of fantasy with me," Rabbi
Rosenzveig said. "I was bar
mitzvah in this shul, and
now I'm the new rabbi.
"I walk down the streets in
my neighborhood, and I
think the rabbi lived there,
the cantor lived here. And
here I am, living down the
street from my parents on

the very same block in which
I grew up."
As a child, Rabbi Rosenz-
veig also commuted to
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in
Detroit.
"My nickname in Windsor
was Kosher Joe," he said.
"There must have been
about 250 Jewish kids my
age in Windsor then. But
then, only a few of us car-
pooled to yeshiva together."
This is why Rabbi Rosenz-
veig and his wife, Kathy,
have decided to stay in
Windsor, even though four of
their five children commute
to schools in Detroit.
He hopes for the day when
Jewish kids will go to an all-
day yeshiva in Windsor. To
this end, he's been working
closely with Rabbi Howard
Folb of Temple Beth El.
Both synagogues operate
afternoon Hebrew schools as
well as youth and young
adult groups. Despite ob-
vious ideological differences,
the two congregations still
cooperate.
"We're probably unique
that way," said Rabbi Folb,
born in Ohio, who's lived in
Windsor for seven years.
"This congregation (Beth El)
has always had a strong feel-
ing for Jewish tradition and
religious ceremonies."
In 1959, four families met
with Rabbi David Baylinson,
then assistant rabbi of Tem-
ple Beth El in Detroit. They
discussed forming a Reform
congregation in Windsor.
Sherwin Wine, another
assistant and later the
founder of Humanistic
Judaism, agreed to become

the congregation's first
rabbi, serving on weekends.
In 1961, the congregation
accepted a gift of land in
Windsor and left the
downtown area.
Although Reform, Beth El
was affiliated with Wind-
sor's Jewish Community
Council and the Va'ad
HaKashruth, the kosher
supervisory board. They also
worked to obtain their own
cemetery in conjunction
with the Orthodox congrega-
tions.
"With the new ad-
ministration at the Shaar,"
Rabbi Folb said, "there's
been more of a coming
together. We have the same

goals in mind —to make
Windsor a stronger Jewish
community."
Rabbi Rosenzveig recently
hired Chaim Daskal as the
school's new principal. Ap-
proximately 80 students at-
tend the Shaar's school —
nursery through eighth
grade.
"The trick is keeping kids
interested after a full day of
classes at public school,"
Reb Chaim said.
"We don't want our Heb-
rew school kids to regard
their bar or bat mitzvah as a
stop sign in the road," he
said. "We want them to look
at it as a yield sign, and
come back for more." ❑

Rabbi Yosil Rosenzveig:
From choirboy to rabbi
of Shaar Hashomayim.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

49