JEWISH COMMUNIT
OF METROPOLITA
uildings: a 17,000-square-foot syna-
preparing the grounds. There are plans
gogue/religious center, a 3,500-square-
to erect eight more buildings in the
foot counseling center and a 5,000-
coming years.
square-foot home for the Michigan
After buying the undeveloped
property for $1.2 million in 1989, the
Jewish Institute (MJI). Currently
Lubavitch Foundation spent several
located in Oak Park, MJI is a nation-
ally accredited Lubavitch-sponsored
years raising the money — mainly
from local individual donors and
college offering bachelor's degrees in
small foundations — to fill the land
computers, business and — for men
with a campus larger than anything of
only — talmudic law and jurispru-
dence. It shares a building
with a Lubavitch girls' ele-
mentary and high school,
and the schools will remain
in that space.
Lubavitch is a stream of
Orthodox Judaism that
places a high premium on
outreach to all Jews.
Lubavitch Foundation
Associate Director Rabbi
Yitschak Kagan sees this as
the main goal of the
Campus of Living Judaism.
"The campus doesn't
The area has been cleared for the synagogue.
mean we're moving the
existing Lubavitch commu-
nity to West Bloomfield.
its kind in the Lubavitch world.
Instead, this is going to be a complex
The campus aims to be aesthetical-
of outreach institutions, and it's
ly, as well as spiritually, pleasing. Fully
intended to be a resource for the
one-fourth of the property is covered
entire Jewish community" he said.
with dense wetlands, which will
Kagan hopes the Campus of Living
remain untouched. The synagogue,
Judaism will grow to offer dormito-
with its glass skylights and wood exte-
ries, day care and other services as
rior, has been designed with the goal
well: "The sky's the limit."
of complementing the natural sur-
He believes the campus will com-
roundings.
plement the programming of the
"It's a wood, very delicate structure,
neighboring Jewish Community
and it's very expressive of its use," said
Center of Metropolitan Detroit. He
Robert Ziegelman of Birmingham-
said relations between the two have
based Luckenbach Ziegelman
been good.
"There are certain needs — cultural Architects. "Also, a great deal of atten-
tion is given to how light comes in
and athletic — that we're not in the
and how it will affect the space at any
business of fulfilling that the JCC fills,
time of the day."
and there's other Judaic needs that the
In planning the building's design,
JCC can't fulfill that we can," said
Kagan and other local Lubavitch lead-
Kagan.
ers traveled to Mississippi and
David Sorkin, executive director of
Louisiana with Ziegelman to gain
the JCC, said he welcomes the
inspiration from structures designed
Campus of Living Judaism.
by architect Fay Jones.
"One of the things the Center has
The Campus of Living Judaism is
been doing is to develop strategic
not the only local Lubavitch institu-
partnerships with all members of the
tion established since the passing of
Jewish community. We haven't had
the movement's rebbe. Other institu-
any formal dialogue yet that I'm aware
tions that have sprung up in the past
of, but from a neighbor's point of
four years are a new rabbinical college
view we welcome them to the area
in Oak Park called Yeshivat
and hope there are opportunities for
Menachem Mendel Lubavitch, a new
exchanges," he said.
congregation in West Bloomfield
Together, the Campus of Living
known simply as "The Shul" (it will
Judaism's three initial buildings —
eventually be housed in the Campus
scheduled for completion in mid-
of Living Judaism's synagogue), MJI
1999 — will cost approximately $4
and a Farmington Hills day school
million. The Lubavitch Foundation
called Beis Menachem.
has already invested $3 million in
CENTER
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