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.