•

\-\

events and offer informal educational
opportunities for children and adults,
Greenberg said.
"We really needed an updated sanc-
tuary. It's 30 years old and it looks it
and feels it. Last year, we had no
women's seating during High Holiday
services. This year, the demand will be
even higher," he said, adding that the
demographic shift in membership
includes more children who
need seats for services.
Weil noted that the syna-
gogue comprises a healthy
mix of men and women,
young and older members
and congregants of the for-
mer Young Israel of
Greenfield and Young Israel
of Oak-Woods, the first
suburban Orthodox syna-
gogue in the country. That
the synagogue's executive
board includes several
members under the age of
45 "shows something about
the confidence older mem-
bers have in the younger
members," he said.
David Tanzman, the last
president of Young Israel of
Oak-Woods, concurred. "I
see so many young people
who are involved, who are
becoming members, who are mem-
bers, who are supporting new, mature
leadership.
"No matter what practical problems
enter, no matter what the old timers
know and think and sit in celestial
judgment over, the truth of the matter
is that all that is happening with the
respective leadership only furthers the
organization, and it is a peerless leader
like Rabbi Steven Weil, who himself is
a. relatively young person, and his reb-
betzin wife, who have made Young

'

Israel of Oak Park an integral element
in the entire Jewish community," said
the 79-year-old. Tanzman sang the
national anthem at Sunday's event.
The 14,000-square-foot expansion
will include a 5,000-square-foot sanc-
tuary, a 6,000-square-foot social hall, a
new entry area that will be up to
4,000 square feet and refurbished
administrative offices. Young and

,

•

Bob Aronson, executive vice-president
of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, Oak Park
District Judge Benjamin Friedman,
officers of the nearby Jimmy Prentis
Morris Jewish Community Center,
Oak Park City Councilmen Michael
Seligson and Raymond Abrams, and
Marion Freedman, executive director
of the Neighborhood Project, the

evening with women from the three
streams of Judaism who spoke about
preparing for the High Holidays.
Aronson also lauded Weil as a
"visionary" in community building
and remarked that the Federation
"could not have dreamed that Oak
Park, Southfield and Huntington
Woods would have stabilized to the
degree they have." 0

Above: An artist's rendering of the
expanded synagogue.

.

Left: Young Israel of Oak Park
Rabbi Steven Weil addresses the
crowd at Sunday's groundbreaking.

Below: David Mandelbaum talks
shop with Lt. Daniel Bateman,
assistant post commander of the
nearby Michigan State Police sub-
station.

Young Architects of Bloomfield Hills
is designing the addition, which is
expected to be completed by Rosh
Hashanah next year.
Of the $1.7 million raised for the
project, $750,000 came from the sale
of Oak-Woods. The addition will be
named the Peter Weiss Center after a
founder of Oak-Woods. Weiss' sister,
Frida Fejer, contributed a significant
portion of the money raised for the
addition.
Also in attendance Sunday were

Federation's interest-free loan pro-
gram that has enabled over a thou-
sand Jewish families to buy and
renovate homes in Oak Park and
Southfield.
Freedman praised Weil for not
only attracting younger members to
the synagogue but for supporting
Neighborhood Project programs that
aim to bring together Orthodox,
Conservative and Reform Jews in the
southeast quadrant of the county.
Most recently, it sponsored an

.

9/4
1998

Detroit Jewish News

9

