`Promised Land'

Congregation ffnai David members
are preparing for a court battle to fight for land they say is theirs.

JULIE EDGAR
Senior Writer

T

hey call it the "promised
land," a place to put down
stakes and nurture future
generations of committed

Jews.
Today, they find themselves in a tug-
of-war over the property with people
who once shared their vision.
This drama is at the heart of a law-
suit that pits a tiny congregation
against three of its former board mem-
bers, one of them a developer.
Congregation B'nai David, with
under 200 dues-paying members, sued
the three last week, seeking to force
them to turn over property that 17
congregants bought 10 years ago, in a
limited partnership arrangement, for a
future synagogue.
The lawsuit alleges that the three
men, principle owners of the land,
want to develop it for their own profit.
At a rally Sunday at which congrega-
tion
officers announced the lawsuit, the
0.
rhetoric was laced with biblical
metaphors.
"This was promised land," pro-
claimed Shirley Gilbert, president of
B'nai David's Sisterhood. "Wasn't it
Pharoah who kept rebuffing Moses,
telling him the Jews had to build bricks
without straw?"
His voice full of fury, Dr. Joseph
I Berenholz, synagogue president,
exclaimed, "Return our land! And do
not mistake our small size as a sign of
our inability to fight ..."
Finally, "The tradition of B'nai
David will go on, despite the steps we'll
have to take," averred Art Wolfe, con-
gregation vice president.
Ten years ago, the partnership
bought 10 acres of property along
Maple Road, between Haggerty and
Halsted, with the intention of B'nai
David eventually building on it. Three
of the board members — Fred Ferber,
developer Mickey Shapiro and Jerome
Soble — were designated as general
partners in the limited partnership.
An agreement was drawn up that
would transfer the property, which was

0

purchased for $213,000, to the congre-
gation when the congregation had the
means to pay back all the partners and
build on it. It also stipulated that if the
congregation decided not to build, the
land would be sold rather than devel-
oped. The agreement had an expiration
date of 1988.
Berenholz acknowledged that the
remaining 14 limited
partners initially did not
know the land was pur-
chased in a limited part-
nership arrangement.
However, "Shapiro made
them comfortable that he
would not let
Congregation B'nai
David cease to exist. The
congregation felt com-
fortable with the agree-
ment. They trusted the
property was in good
hands."
Shapiro had found the
property and solicited
members to contribute to

106-year-old B'nai David, Michigan's
only Traditional synagogue.
Two years ago, the people who
stayed began to talk about raising funds
to take over the property, and notified
the three general partners of their
intention.
That prompted the final breakdown.
According to Berenholz, the men

Above: Art Wolf addresses Sunday's
rally.

Left: B'nai David members Grant
Silver, Shirley Gilbert, Gustav
Berenholz, Mary Must, Joseph
Berenholz, Bill Icikson and-Art
Wolf flank their fundraising
"barometer:"

its purchase.
Six years later, after Congregation
B'nai David had sold its Southfield
Road building and moved into its cur-
rent location at Maple and Orchard
Lake roads, the congregation started to
talk of merging with Congregation
B'nai Moshe. They decided to scrap
plans to build a new synagogue and
vote on a merger. The proposal failed
by six votes.
But many members of the congrega-
tion, including Soble, departed for
B'nai Moshe. That was the first break
in a chain that bound people to the

continually refused to sit down and talk
to them. Finally, in mid-1995, Ferber
and Shapiro, both of whom still
retained membership at B'nai David,
agreed to talk to board members. At
that meeting, they extended a verbal .
option on the property for five more
years. Soble, a sculptor who maintains
a studio in Florida, learned about the
deal later, when he asked the congrega-
tion to raise $1.3 million to secure the
property against a failure to complete
construction, the lawsuit alleges.
The original agreement stipulates
that two of the three general partners

can make decisions regarding the prop-
erty.
In September, B'nai David again
sent a letter to the partners explaining
their intention to make good on the
agreement. The congregation had
raised $300,000 and was ready to put
in easements and pour a foundation for
a new synagogue, Berenholz said.
Shapiro and Ferber,
after prodding by lawyers,
met with the congregation
board and "made some
incredible demands" on
the congregation, includ-
0 ing that they have $1 mil-
e. lion in cash in the bank,
Berenholz said.
At that point, the con-
gregation had already
spent thousands of dollars
in legal expenses and
architectural drawings for
a new building.
"The irony is, we grow
weaker as we wait to move
into this new facility. It is
very hard to recruit new
members to an office building [B'nai
David's current home], so the very peo-
ple who control the land think if they
wait long enough, we will grow too
financially weak to succeed," he said.
The lawsuit followed the new
demands. Individual congregants are
covering the expenses of the litigation.
The market value of the 10 acres is
more than $300,000, according to the
West Bloomfield Township assessor's
office.
B'nai David, which was founded by
a group of Russian Jews, had three
locations in the city of Detroit before
moving to Southfield Road, near Mt.
Vernon (9 1/2 Mile Road). After selling
that building to the City of Southfield
in 1993, the congregation met at the
Maple/Drake Jewish Community
Center. In 1995, it moved to its cur-
rent building, which formerly housed
Temple Shir Shalom. Rabbi Milton
Arm is B'nai. David's spiritual leader.
The rally last Sunday drew some 75
congregants, who sported "Return
Our Land" lapel buttons. Signs pro-

11/7
1997

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