INSIDE: FAMILY/ WITH SCHOOL BEGINNING, THE PRESSURE IS ON;
NEXT GENERATION/ AN APPOINTMENT BOOK IS FILLED WITH JEWISH MEN.

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DETROIT

THE JEWISH NEWS

29 AV 5755 / AUGUST 25, 1995

Shabbat In Beijing

Local Jewish women head to China for a
worldwide women's conference.

JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER

PHOTOS BY GL ENN TR IEST

I

Building A Dream

A building is erected
in less than a year.

Shir Shalom's dedication marks a new
beginning for a growing temple.

I

JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER

emple Shir Shalom's first Torah, a do-
nation from an anonymous Holocaust
survivor who smuggled it out of
Germany in a wedding gown, will take
another unusual journey.
On Sunday, it will be removed from
the temple's ark in a West Bloomfield office build-
ing. It will be passed 5,280 feet through the hands
of temple and community members participat-
ing in the congregation's dedication of its new
building.

"No one will feel
too far away
from the Torah."

— Rabbi Dannel Schwartz

At the end of the human chain the holy scroll,
along with the temple's four others, will be placed
at another Shir Shalom address, the newly con-
structed temple at the corner of Orchard Lake
and Walnut Lake roads.
The symbolic passing of the Torah up the one-
mile stretch of Orchard Lake Road represents
more than just a move from one building to an-
other.
"We want to bring everyone to the Torah, just
as we want them to be a part of the tangible pro-

cess of taking them to our new home," said Rabbi
Michael Moskowitz, who will join Rabbi Dannel
Schwartz on the bimah.
Sunday's dedication comes 364 days after hun-
dreds of temple members gathered to break
ground on what used to be farmland, once in-
habited by sheep.
Several years ago, Rabbi Schwartz told his
congregation: "We should be willing to design our
building as a whole, understanding its costs and
its plan as a whole and constructing it in stages.
But be proud of what we do rather than just get
it over with."
Shir Shalom's design symbolizes what's im-
portant to its congregants. The building is in-
tended to look like an unraveling Torah scroll,
although a future expansion stage will add the
second roll to the scroll.
Inside the building, which was designed by the
architectural firm of Neumann and Smith, the
entrance will soon house a series of stained-glass
windows with murals depicting the Jewish hol-
idays. The area will honor the late Wally
Sampson, the immediate past president of Shir
Shalom who died last year. •
The temple's sanctuary is designed to make
a few hundred people feel close to the bimah. For
larger crowds, a wall can be opened, exposing the
social hall and adding seating for an additional
1,300. Upstairs, opening another wall reveals sev-
en classrooms built so that chairs may sit on ris-
ers to overlook the sanctuary, to allow for total
seating of up to 2,000.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

hey've been warned not
to wear "Free Harry
Wu" T-shirts.
And they'd best not
hang around Tiananmen
Square except to eat noodles
and pose for snapshots.
But their mere presence in
Beijing and Huairou next week
for the fourth United Nations
World Conference on Women
and the Non-Governmental
Organizations' Forum '95
(NGO) will most certainly as-
sure the locals that they are
dead-serious about addressing
human rights worldwide.
Tens of thousands of worn-
en, including some 90 from the
Detroit area, will converge on
China for the forum and some,
like Fern Katz of Southfield,
will stay for the UN portion.
The two weeks will feature
workshops and lectures that ad- Fern Katz
dress women's issues ranging from
birth control to economic empow- the capital. Scattered on her desk
are envelopes, faxes and other
erment.
When she was asked just a few items of a world traveler packing
months ago to attend the confer- an agenda.
Language won't be too much of
ences as one of two delegates of
a
barrier,
she hopes, because she
the National Council of Jewish
Women, Ms. Katz started a gave up on learning Mandarin al-
"China" file in her home office. most from the get-go.
"I have a tape. Forget it," she
Today, the folder brims with
laughed.
brochures, itineraries and a thick
Ms. Katz, 67, left today for
booklet on how to avoid irritating
the local police inside or outside BEIGING page 8

Elizabeth Berkley's
driving ambition and
unforgiving determi-
nation have led her
from the halls of Miss
Barbara's Dance
Centre to the doorstep
of Hollywood success
with her new film,
Showgirls.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR

Story on page 39

STAFF WRITER

FROM TAP TO LAP