Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah SECOND ANNUAL RUMMAGE SALE November 18, 19, 21 at Sarah and Ralph Davidson Hadassah House PLEASE DONATE CLEAN, GENTLY-USED RUTH ROVER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS • Clothing On Hangers, if possible Women's • Men's • Children's • Furs, Jewelry, Toys, in good condition • Linens (Bed and Table), Bric-a-Brac • Small Household and Electrical Items (in working order) Drop off at SARAH AND RALPH DAVIDSON HADASSAH HOUSE 5030 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield (Between Walnut Lake and Lone Pine Roads) Mondays-Fridays 8:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. October 27 - November 10 FOR INFORMATION CALL 683-5030 or 357-2920 Tax receipts will be available Dealt qtee/hcio, ( (gave you beep lookiltg fog Of so, we aye pleased to a/whoa/hoe the fo~~atrdk of CL.OSET COMPANY) INC. Foremost in Design, Installation and Service 626-5520 We have 00111bl/heal oeittie goti betted. ( khowiedge expeittege to Evhceiteig, olt Cat4e Oaltelt Voyage To Past To Trace History ago (P.E. ( We o5t 90t deocoott 0/11 aii closet occe000ltieg wit4 Khotallatio/k. I n the quiet central square called Synagogenplatz, sev- eral visitors expectantly en- ter the stone building that dominates one side of the square. Inside, we see a spare, high- vaulted room with narrow win- dows, six brass chandeliers, a central bimah and wooden pews. This chapel draws travelers from far-flung places — 30,000 every year — who come to Worms, Germany, to see one of the oldest synagogues in Europe and one with an illustrious his- tory. "I wanted to see it, because it has a very important place in Jewish history," says Chanai Golov, a visitor from Tel Aviv who, traveling in Germany, came by train from Frankfurt to visit the synagogue. I, too, made a special trip to this ancient city, coming from nearby Mainz, where I was staying, so that I could visit the Jewish sites of Worms, which include not only the synagogue but also the oldest cemetery in Europe. The sites are so special that they are included in secular guidebooks such as Arthur Frommer's Germany '93; and the local tourist office has sev- eral books about Jewish Worms — rare for any European city — which are prominently dis- played in its window. Getting off the train, I found my way to the cemetery just be- yond the southwest corner of the city wall, stopping passers- by to ask the way. They knew of the cemetery right away and proudly pointed the way. Inside the iron gate, I stood in a tree-shaded area and gazed at row of weathered sandstone quartz tombstones: rectangles, ovals, squares, obelisks, tall tombstones and squat ones, on level ground and the hill beyond the front section. The oldest stone dates from 1076, and in all, the cemetery now has about 2,000 tomb- stones, including a separate sec- tion for eminent scholars buried here. On the stones were names, dates, towns and villages, often with both German and Hebrew — all of it evidence of the active Jewish life that flourished here centuries ago. Then I made my way through the center of town to the curving, cobblestoned street called Judengasse, so named be- cause this is where Jews once lived, which opened onto Syna- gogenplatz. Now I was standing with oth- er visitors inside the Rashi Syn- agogue, named in honor of the Talmudic commentator Rabbi Solomn ben Issac, better known as Rashi, who spent five years studying in Worms in the 11th century. At the time, the city was a center of Jewish intellectual life, drawing eminent scholars who taught at the yeshiva, includ- ing Issac ben Eleazar ha-Levi and Jacob ben Yakar. The Jewish community of Worms especially flourished The guide has learned much about German Jewish history during her 20 years on the job. from the 11th to the 14th cen- tury, with the scholars of Worms writing commentary on the Bible and Midrash. It was also in Worms that Martin Luther faced the Impe- rial Diet in 1521 and refused to retract his beliefs. By then, and in the succeeding years, the in- fluence of the Jewish commu- nity was decreasing, although Worms was one of the first Ger- man cities to elect a Jewish mayor in 1848. Since World War II, when 500 Worms Jews died in the Holocaust, the Jewish commu- nity has not been re-established. But Jewish travelers still make a pilgrimage to Worms because of its Jewish sites. Now owned by the Jewish commu- nity of nearby Mainz, 28 miles away, these sites are carefully maintained by the city of Worms. The Rashi Synagogue is not the original structure but a faithful reconstruction of the building that was first erected on this site in 1034. Guide Paulina Reuter pointed out the original dedication stone which is on the outside door, with the date "1034" clearly etched. "Visitors are Jewish and non- Jewish," says Ms. Reuter, who is available to show visitors the property and to answer ques- tions. "And they are from the whole world." On a table in the back of the room, near the box of kippot which all male visitors are re- quested to wear, the guest book VOYAGE page 68