• "7

Clockwise from far -lefi-:
Dignitaries from Beth Achim
prepare to move the Torahs.

Cantors Larry Vieder, front,
and Howard Glantz lead the
Torah procession along Adat
Shalom's driveway.

The procession begins.

Beth Achim congregants gather
as the Torahs, under the chup-
pah, are loaded into cars.

1:ipT:i

'4,

wig all go,

00w

A New Beginning

.

Beth Achim's sifrei Torah are moved to Adat Shalom in preparation
for the full merger of the two synagogues.

HARRY KIRSBAUM

StaffWriter

T

here were no limousines to
escort them to their new
home. Instead, the four sifrei
Torah at Congregation Beth
Achim were carefully loaded into four
cars bound for their new destination.
The four scrolls were moved in a

ceremonial procession last Sunday
morning from Beth Achim's
Southfield sanctuary to their new
home in Adat Shalom Synagogue's
main ark.
The program at Beth Achim began
as dignitaries and clergy entered the
sanctuary with the sounding of sho-
fars. After Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz
led congregants in a responsive read-

ing, eight Torah carriers carefully
placed the scrolls into the cars and
drove them to the driveway of Adat
Shalom in Farmington Hills, where
Rabbi Efry Spectre and other Adat
Shalom officers and members waited.
Some 300-400 congregants partici-
pated in the ceremony, walking the
Torahs up the driveway, "singing all
the way," said Rabbi Spectre.

"It was a form of closure and also a
beginning as well," he said. "A lot of
good feelings were expressed. Every
kind of optimism and hOpe was felt."
Beth Achim voted. in May and Adat
Shalom voted in June to merge. After
renovation, Beth Achim's building on
Twelve Mile Road in Southfield will
become the home of Akiva Hebrew
Day School.

❑

8/28
1998

Detroit Jewish News

9