THE JEWISH NEWS

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UP FRONT

Home, Sweet Home

After years of renting space in area schools,
some local congregations are making plans
for their own educational roosts.

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Tbs Holocaust
lisolorlal Cantor

HMS

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

fter years of roaming
from school to school in
/ search of educational
space, Congregation
Shaarey Zedek is planning to
put down stakes and open a
new educational center in the
fall.
Complete with 21 class-
rooms, gymnasium, auditorium
and kitchen space, the former
Walnut Lake Elementary
School is undergoing major ren-
ovation to prepare it for the on-
slaught of 600 students.
"This is our dream, our vi-
sion," said Rabbi Irwin Groner
of the Irving and Beverly J.
Laker Education and Youth
Complex. "It will be a total ed-
ucational environment as well
as a recreation facility for the
youth."

PHOTO BY B OB MCKEOWN

This Week's T o p Stories

accommodate its congregation-
al school. Along with Temple
Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield
and Congregation Shir Tikvah
in Troy, all are hoping future
plans will end those arrange-
ments by having facilities to call
home.
"In a simplistic way for the
students, this is a place of their
own," said Michael Wolfe,
Shaarey Zedek's director of ed-
ucation.
At Shaarey Zedek, the be-
ginning of the end of the jour-
ney started with a persistent
need for more space. The con-
gregation — with students at
its B'nai Israel Center in West
Bloomfield as well as its main
campus in Southfield — for sev-
eral years has paid $3,000

SOH. KC THE. THUN K)- 4
18.
10 •
MICAS OH CAUENA5 NOT
POIWTED e1 MUSEUM

A Battle Over Grounds?

The Holocaust Memorial Center and the Maple-Drake
Jewish Community Center seek to expand in the same space.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

abbi Charles Rosen-
zweig's office is testimo-
ny to the dearth of space
in the Holocaust Memo-
rial Center (HMC).
With boxes stacked 4
feet high in some areas,
the HMC executive director
carefully navigates the cramped
space, stepping sideways to re-
trieve a file from a bookshelf
and rounding corners with care
in order to avoid toppling some
of the stacked inventory.
The HMC, he said, does not
have the space to display even
half of its 17,000-volume Holo-
caust library, and visiting groups
often have to cram into a room to
hear a survivor speak at the end
of their tour.
To remedy the situation, Rab-
bi Rosenzweig has proposed a
20,000-square-foot, two-story ex-
pansion of the existing facility,
an addition that would swallow
the neighboring courtyard that
separates the HMC from the
Jewish Community Center rac-
quetball courts.
"This is the jewel of American
Jewish institutions," Rabbi
Rosenzweig said. "But we need
more space to continue with our
mission."
Al Pearlstein knows the feel-
ing. As co-director of the Jewish

R

monthly to rent classrooms
While Shaarey Zedek has twice a week in Ealy Elemen-
solved its space crunch, other tary School in West Bloomfield.
day and supplementary con- The students meet in the con-
gregational Jewish schools are gregation's Southfield location
each Sunday.
scrambling for class-
After a fruitless
rooms. As some day
The to rmer
schools invest millions Walnu t Lake search of the local mar-
in. expansion plans to Elemen tary is ket for a suitable school
accommodate their bur- underg cling a building, Shaarey Zedek
geoning student popu- transfo rmation. decided to build its own,
drawing up plans to con-
lations, congregations
are utilizing every inch of their struct a large addition to the
buildings, with some seeking B'nai Israel Center at Walnut
extra rooms at other area ed- Lake and Green roads.
In the meantime, the con-
ucational facilities.
Shaarey Zedek is one of less gregation learned that the
than a handful of congregations Birmingham school district
to rent classroom space from merged . Walnut Lake and
public or private institutions to HOME, SWEET NOME page 26

Community Center's health club must decide which institution to
in West Bloomfield, he has strug- favor.
"Any use of the land on the
gled to accommodate a growing
need for gym facilities for recre- Maple-Drake campus has to be
ational activities. Classes are processed through our planning
scheduled one after the other, division and real estate commit-
leaving little time for spur-of-the- tee and approved by the Jewish
moment, drop-in games of bas- Federation and United Jewish
Foundation boards," said Mark
ketball.
"[Having another gym] would Davidoff, Federation's chief op-
certainly accommodate those erating officer. Rabbi Rosen-
zweig said Mr. Sorkin
needs," Mr. Pearlstein said.
David Sorkin, executive direc- approached him recently seeking
tor of the JCC, said he, too, would a compromise on the land: The
JCC would build the
like to see his facility ex-
gym and the HMC
pand. He hopes to un-
Rabbi Charles
veil a radical expansion Rosenzwe ig hopes to would construct a
and renovation plan for add 20,0 00 square three-story addition as
the Maple-Drake JCC. feet onto h is 12,000- opposed to a two-story
Although a study of the square-to of facility. wing. Rabbi Rosen-
zweig nixed the sug-
future needs of the JCC
continues, it is estimated that the gestion, saying plans for a
gym addition would swallow the three-story building would cost
more than the $5.5 million need-
same neighboring courtyard.
"We are looking to bring a ed for the two-story addition and
building built in the 1970s into would not suit the needs of the r--
cr)
cn
the 1990s," he said, adding that HMC.
—
as
effective
"It wouldn't be
a $10-million capital campaign
to fund the expansion and reno- from the aesthetic and the prac - ,z
tical point of view," he said. 00
vation will soon be announced.
Rabbi Rosenzweig said the ,x '
The grassy area, southwest of
the main entrance, is the only HMC was lured to its current lo- <
space for either of the organiza- cation in the 1980s from a 14-acre
tions to use for future expansion tract it owned at 13 Mile and <
Farmington roads. He says com-
of those facilities.
And now the owner of the land, munity leaders convinced him 3
the United Jewish Foundation, BATTLE page 26