DETROIT
Affording the best is not the
question...finding the best is.
Beth Achim Expects
Opposition To Merger
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
O
A first ...
Apartment living in a
Skilled Nursing Facility
For the discriminating person
requiring an elegant environment
Bortz
Health Care
Medicare approved
Family owned and operated for over 33 years
CALL 363-4121
For our limousine to pick you up for a personal tour of our facility
6470 Alden Drive, Orchard Lake
WE DELIVER!
Your Old Fur Can
Be Styled Into A
Zip In And Out
All Weather
Poplin Coat
TELL US THE
OCCASION .. .
WE'LL DO THE REST
6RObert 6Mann
cnag
Northwestern FkliwJay
at Inkster
354-3499
• Cookie & Candy Trays
• Hotel & Hospitality
Baskets
• Custom Orders
Welcome
352-7112
giOri0 143
We've Moved!
29512 Northwestern
Southfield
We are winning.
ft*
0100.9'
Sandee Naba t
I
AMERICAN
Elaine Kovinsky
Brookside Office Park
10 Mile West of Haggerty
Custom Bedrooms
Next to Providence Hospital Satellite
NOVI
at Factory Direct
Prices
Medical /General Office Space
CALL TODAY
vow
Jonathan Brateman Properties
474-3855
I II
BEDROOMS, ETC....
Call Nancy Blau
at
399-2311
fficers of Congrega-
tion Beth Achim are
walking a tightrope,
trying to balance between
congregants in favor of and
opposed to a proposed
merger with Congregation
B'nai Moshe.
Beth Achim is planning a
series of informational
meetings for the congrega-
tion before an August or
September vote on the
merger. B'nai Moshe's
membership must also ap-
prove the merger.
Beth Achim Vice Presi-
dent Jerry Keller said he has
heard comments from con-
gregants on both sides of the
issue.
One opponent is Alan
Sukenic, one of seven Beth
Achim board members who
voted against the proposal
June 27. Twenty board
members voted in favor.
Mr. Sukenic, who resigned
from the board after the
vote, said he is moving to a
home within a mile of B'nai
Moshe's site in West Bloom-
field, but remains opposed to
the merger for religious and
other reasons.
"My feeling is a gun was
held to our head by B'nai
Moshe — 'This is the
package. Take it or leave it.
We have to know now.' —
This is my feeling," Mr.
Sukenic said.
Mr. Sukenic served on
Beth Achim's merger corn-
mittee which had discus-
sions with Congregation
B'nai David last year. As
part of those discussions,
"seven or eight months ago
our membership voted in a
9-1 ratio not to move from
Southfield," Mr. Sukenic
said.
The merger with B'nai
Moshe calls for Beth Achim
to move to the B'nai Moshe
site in West Bloomfield in
approximately two years.
Mr. Sukenic believes the
Beth Achim board did not
want to kill the B'nai Moshe
merger without a vote of the
general membership.
A Beth Achim congregant
who asked to remain anon-
ymous said there will be
organized opposition among
the membership. "It's a
groundswell," he said.
"There is a strong base at
Beth Achim who live in
Southfield and like
Southfield, and they don't
want to move. Nobody on
either side should take the
vote for granted."
Marcia Harris, a Beth
Achim board member, said
she is opposed to the merger
for several reasons but
declined to elaborate. Her
husband Ron, a Beth Achim
past president, said the
membership should not
discuss the issue in the press
and should make the deci-
sion privately.
President Eric Gordon
declined to comment on the
issue.
Construction crews began
working on the B'nai Moshe
"Nobody on either
side should take
the vote for
granted."
Beth Achim member
site on Drake Road this
week. B'nai Moshe Presi-
dent Michael Grand is con-
cerned about Beth Achim
opposition to the merger, but
said, "Our board voted mon-
ths ago to go ahead with this
project, and that is what we
are going to do."
Mr. Grand said failure of
the merger would limit the
construction to phase 1 —
synagogue, social hall and
offices — "but we've raised
$850,000 from our congrega-
tion on a dream, and now
we'll have something to
show."
But in order to have a full-
service synagogue, complete
with a school, Mr. Grand
said, the two congregations
need each other. ❑
Lubavitch Plan
Hearing Delayed
The West Bloomfield
Planning Commission has
postponed until July 23 con-
sideration of the Lubavitch
Foundation of Michigan's
plan for a synagogue and
rabbinical school develop-
ment west of the Jewish
Community Center.
Rabbi Yitzchok Kagan of
Lubavitch said the meeting
was delayed because of the
July 4 holiday and vaca-
tions.
Correction
Figures in the Cam-
paign allocations chart
were incorrectly stated
July 5 for the Jewish
Vocational Service. JVS
received $698,625 for
1990-91 and $729,453 for
1991-92.