A Song of
Peace j
A Song of

El)pe

Temple Shir Shalom looks back on 10 successful years
and ahead to a brighter future.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR Special to The Jewish News

o one was exactly sure when Temple Shir
him on until June 30, 1988, with the provision that he
Shalom's 10-year anniversary should be celebrat-
would take a sabbatical for the last six months of the con-
ed.
tract.
Should it be the date of a huge dinner held in
The reasons for the Beth El board's 26-21 vote vary. One
Rabbi Dannel Schwartz's honor that galvanized people to
account is that Rabbi Schwartz had countered Reform tra-
form a congregation? How about the date of the inaugural
dition by introducing the use of tallit and kippot during
services.
services? The day incorporation papers were filed'with the
Another has it that the young
state?
rabbi was simply too brash for
Anniversary event chair-
Beth El congregants. Still another
woman Blanche Mindlin dis-
had it that the rabbi was overbur-
covered that without exacti-
dened by expectations to perform
tude, you go with existing doc-
a growing number of functions,
umentation. In this case, it was
from shiva calls to hospital visits
the canceled check for her first
to weddings to sermon-writing
dues deposit.
'3'14
each week.
Lakf,
"We were working the
Whatever the reason, the deci-
people
to
tell
calling
phones,
'44v;;RiA;;
sion to end Schwartz's contract
them about Shir Shalom. It was
caused bitter dissension in Beth
sort of a membership drive," she
El's ranks. Some members swore
said, recalling the weekend in
allegiance to their rabbi and
1988 when she wrote that
called for the ouster of some
Temple Shir Shalom's building is configured like an
check.
board members. When their
unfurling Torah scroll.
The truth is that a series of
attempts failed to get Schwartz's
events, sparked by the end of
contract extended, some began meeting regularly in their
Schwartz's ill-fated, 14-year tenure at Temple Beth El, gave
own chavurah.
birth to Shir Shalom.
David Levine, a member of Temple Beth El at the time
The rabbi was effectively dismissed from Michigan's old-
of the upheaval, recalls that many felt that Schwartz should
est congregation when its board voted in July 1987 to keep

N

19