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EDITOR'S WATCH
"Up North" Synagogue Calls To
Spirituality Of Jewish Travelers
serve their spiritual needs."
t's up north, along the Lake
Petoskey, Alpena, Hancock, Mar-
Michigan shoreline. And it's a
quette, Iron Mountain, Ishpeming
year-round vacation getaway.
and Sault Ste. Marie also boast Jew-
Traverse City is a destina-
ish congregations. Detroit may be
tion- spot that counts thousands of
the core of Michigan's Jewish com-
Jews among the vacationers who
munity, but Judaism
descend on Michigan's sun-
thrives throughout the
set coast.
north country, thanks to
But I'd venture to say few
the spiritual vigor of the
visiting Jews know there's a
Jews who live outstate.
historic synagogue beckon-
Congregation Beth El,
ing them in the heart of
at 311 S. Park St., behind
Michigan's cherry capital.
the Park Place Hotel, is a
Congregation Beth El is a
state historic site and one
simple white-frame struc-
of two synagogues in Tra-
ture offering "a small-town
verse City. It's the oldest
brand of Judaism to weary
RO BERT
synagogue building in con-
travelers."
A.S KLAR
tinuous use in Michigan,
So says Mickey Fivenson
Editor
E'
according to the state his-
— Traverse City native, life
toric marker. Traverse City
member of the synagogue
lumber magnate Perry Hannah, who
and Anti-Defamation League/Michi-
contributed to many religious and
gan Region activist.
civic institutions, donated the land it
"When your readers travel up
stands on in 1885.
north," he said, "they have no idea
The synagogue is affiliated with
which communities may be able to
Ahavat Shalom
Also Beckons
Rabbi Stacie Fine started Congregation
Ahavat Shalom in Traverse City last
summer. Today, the unaffiliated con-
gregation has 50 member families and
a mailing list of 500.
"We're open and welcoming to
County. For
the Reform
congregants,
movement
Congregation
through the
Beth El is the
Union of
center of their
American
spiritual uni-
Hebrew Con-
verse. Offerings
gregations, but
include bar/bat
all Jews, no
mitzvah and
matter how
confirmation as
observant they
well
as religious
are, are wel-
school and
come.
some adult
Fifty families
education.
make up the
A
tribute to the
current active
tiny
congrega-
membership.
tion's
resolve, a
Members come
Hebrew
Union
from a 50-mile
College-Jewish
radius that
Congregation Beth El is housed in the oldest
Institute of
extends to
synagogue building in continuous use in
Religion stu-
Cadillac, Man-
Michigan.
dent rabbi flies
istee, Grayling
in
from
Cincinnati
to
host Shabbat
and Elk Rapids.
services
every
other
Friday
and High
There's no Jewish community cen-
ter, B'nai B'rith chapter or Jewish
TRAVELERS on page 32
neighborhood in Grand Traverse
everyone in
the Rabbi' at every Shabbat service."
;iaensit
lliTill
'':2:411
F
aiiiiide tvt e l i ‘ cicied TempleI srael
Bloomfield.
Ahavat Shalom hosts monthly
Shabbat services at Unitarian Univer
salist Fellowship, 67.26 Center Road.
"Cantonal soloist Elat e Broad, who
teaches at Interloclenter for the
Arts, prepares the Shabbat music.
Fine's husband, Tom, clinical supervi
xhal om, Fine is community develop-
In addition to serving Ahavat
s u i t
t
Anis, is
h avat Shalom.
t of emphasis on
Je wish histo-
in ways that
Fine
an "Ask
visfiou.rng
meaSnoctiaety
re
stiaco jr for sth
rabbi at the Birmingham Temple, both
in Farmington Hills.
Please t-211 1 (616) 929-4330 for
more information about Shabbat ser-
vices, High Holiday services, speakers
and other offerings at Ahavat Shalom.
M
Moledet and compared all of Israel to
Germany 1938:
"Kristallnacht happened because a
political state decided to be rid of peo-
ple unwanted within its borders. It
seems increasingly clear that Israel
would prefer to rid itself of Palestinians
if it could do so.
And: "Kristallnacht — the event
itself, the conditions that brought it on
and, even more important, the results it
produced —should provoke reflection
50 years later. For early November 1988
has its portents, too.
"Some of them can be seen in Israel's
election returns, which signify a turn to
the right, religiously and politically."
And: "As much as any other people
today, the Palestinian Arabs are being
forced into a tragic part too much like
the one played by the European Jews 50
years ago."
2. The opposition to Roth "was light on
academics, almost all of whom vociferously
proclaimed their approval of Roth."
In fact, many academics questioned
Roth's suitability for the Holocaust
museum position. Here are just a few of
those scholars:
Emil Fackenheim, professor emeritus
of Holocaust Studies at Hebrew Univer-
sity in Jerusalem, who is one of the
most famous Holocaust scholars in the
world, wrote: "Roth's record of judg-
ments, in particular about the Holo-
caust itself, has been so consistently
poor as to make him, in my view, quite
unsuitable for this sensitive post."
Professor Alvin Rosenfeld, director of
the Jewish Studies Program at Indiana
University, said of Roth's record: "It calls
the man's judgment very seriously into
question ... very seriously undermines
his credibility."
Professor Zsuzsanna Ozsvath, direc-
tor of the Holocaust Studies Program at
the University of Texas at Dallas, wrote:
"Mr. Roth's emotionally driven beliefs
and hateful statements disqualify him as
director of research at the Holocaust
Memorial Museum ... Not only are
those statements (comparing Israel to
Nazi Germany) misleading, even ill-
willed, they also reveal his lack of
understanding of the subject."
Professor Yaffa Eliach of the Brook-
lyn College Department of Judaic Stud-
ies, who created the famed "Tower of
Life" exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust
Museum, said that Roth's unfamiliarity
with Yiddish and Hebrew, two primary
languages of Holocaust research, made
him unsuitable for the position.
Dr. Walter Reich, former executive
director at the U.S. Holocaust Muse-
urn, said that Roth's Israel-Nazis analo-
gy reflected "either a deep misunder-
standing of Israel or a deep misunder-
standing of Kristallnacht. It suggests a
lack of judgment that is disturbing."
3. "There is simply no evidence that ...
Klein ... bothered to look at the written
work of the man they set out to remove ..."
In fact, my staff and I examined
Roth's books as well as hundreds of
Roth's articles and book reviews.
Bolkosky never called me to ask me if I
had read Roth's works.
4. "... the written work of the man
they set out to remove — more than 20
books written or co-authored by John
Roth."
Bolkosky's obvious implication is
that Roth has written more than 20
books about the Holocaust.
In fact, according to Roth's own cur-
riculum vitae, he has written only two
books about the Holocaust (A Consum-
8/7
1998
Detroit Jewish News
31