SECOND CLASS
THE JEWISH NEWTS
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
OCTOBER 18, 1991 / 10 CHESHVAN 5752
B'nai David Board Plans
Maple Road Construction
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
C
How the laws of mikvah
and family purity
unlock Jewish femininity.
Page 24
ALSO INSIDE:
ongregation B'nai
David's board voted
nearly unanimously
Oct. 10 to go ahead with con-
struction of a new synagogue
in West Bloomfield.
The vote "re-affirmed the
action we took when we
voted to sell our present
building," said B'nai David
President Alex Blumenberg.
"We voted again because of
the merger negotiations we
had been having with other
congregations."
B'nai David sold its
Southfield Road building to
the City of Southfield early
last year for $1.45 million.
The city plans to use the
building for art and perform-
ing arts classes and pro-
grams. The congregation has
an option to stay in the
building until March 1994.
B'nai David members, ac-
ting on behalf of the syn-
agogue, purchased a nine-
acre West Bloomfield site in
1987. The site is on the south
side of Maple Road, between
Halsted and Haggerty.
At the same time, B'nai
David, which considers itself
traditional, had been active-
ly participating in merger
talks with several area Con-
servative congregations, in-
cluding Beth Achim and
B'nai Moshe. Beth Achim
and B'nai Moshe will vote
Nov. 12 on merging. B'nai
Moshe has a new synagogue
under construction in West
Bloomfield, on Drake Road a
quarter mile south of Maple.
B'nai David's Mr.
Blumenberg said his board
voted 28-0, with two absten-
tions, to begin construction
planning. He said a building
committee is being selected,
chaired by Jerry Soble and
Ernest Klein, and "nothing
has been pre-determined"
about the size or cost of the
new facility.
"We are at the beginning,"
Mr. Blumenberg said. B'nai
David has 325 member
families, he said.
Rabbi Morton Yolkut of
B'nai David said the move
would be a difficult process,
but "the unanimity of the
board and within the con-
gregation" will ease the
transition.
Merger Vote Due Nov. 12
Congregations B'nai
Moshe and Beth Achim have
set Nov. 12 for separate
votes on whether to merge
the two congregations. The
proposed merger was ap-
proved by the synagogue
boards last spring.
Beth Achim members will
vote at 7 p.m. at their syn-
agogue. B'nai Moshe mem-
bers, who normally meet at
the Maple-Drake Jewish
Community Center, will
meet 7:30 p.m. at the United
Hebrew Schools Auditorium
in Southfield because of
Book Fair events at the JCC.
Beth Achim has also
scheduled four identical
meetings for its members to
discuss the synagogue's
membership, finances,
recruitment and answer
questions about the proposed
merger. Each meeting at the
synagogue will cover the
same information; four were
scheduled to give as many
members as possible an op-
portunity to attend.
The meetings are set for:
10 a.m. Oct. 20;
3 p.m. Oct. 24;
7 p.m. Oct. 28 (tentative);
7 p.m. Nov. 7.
Muskegon Talks Ponder
Jewish-Christian Ties
)
N
NOAM M.M. NEUSNER
Staff Writer
O
Ukrainians try to maintain
their culture in the melting pot.
Page 41
n Monday, Muskegon
became the world's
center for Jewish-
Christian dialogue.
Theologians, pastors and
rabbis converged on this
small west Michigan city for
a one-day conference that in-
cluded speeches, group
discussions and public
debate on the meaning and
future of Jewish-Christian
relations.
Featured speakers David
Hartman and Krister Sten-
dahl, in often confusing and
difficult discussions,
highlighted some of the
philosophical issues of inter-
religious dialogue.
Muskegon, with only 250
Jews, held the conference as
a continuation of its Jewish
Centennial Celebration of
1989. Events on Jewish cul-
ture, religion, history and
language were held then to
honor the city's 100-year- old
Jewish community.
"Maybe God's spirit said,
`Why not Muskegon?' ," said
Donald Mathews, chairman
of the West Shore Committee
for Jewish-Christian Dia-
logue, the conference sponsor.
"We have to start where we
are. We are here."
Rabbi Hartman, director of
the Shalom Hartman In-
stitute in Jerusalem, said
that while Judaism em-
braces its covenant with
God, it does not need to deny
the existence of other
covenants.
"The problem with re-
ligion is revelation," said
Rabbi Hartman, an Or-
thodox Jew. • "When God
speaks to humans, Ilq
becomes tribal."
Trying to strike a differ-
ence between the "univer-
salism" of secular ethics and
the "particularism" of
religion, Rabbi Hartman
sought to explain Jewish-
Christian relations as a
"capacity for dissonance, a
capacity for permitting others
to enjoy themselves while do-
ing something else."
The "adversarial model"
that Judaism — like other
religions — often takes for
itself is mistaken, Rabbi
Hartman said, and has no
place in the faith.
Continued on Page 14