This

A change at Shaarey
Zedek; more icing on a
kosher bakery; a fresh
towel for new Jews.

Less than one year after accepting the
position, Mark Bello is out as execu-
tive director of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek, in Southfield.
Leonard Baruch, who was the
director from 1990 until his retire-
ment in 1998, said he has agreed to
be the interim director until a perma-
nent replacement for Bello is named.
Baruch said that the primary
responsibilities as executive director is
to facilitate the operation of the con-
gregation, handle finances, and super-
vise and maintain the quality of the
buildings. He would not comment on
the change in leadership.
Bello had left his practice as an attor-
ney to accept the position as director of
the 1,900-member congregation. The
decision that he should resign the direc-
torship was "mutual", according to a
shul official who declined to be named.

Neither Bello, nor Dorothy
Wagner, president of Shaarey Zedek,
could be reached for comment.

The Anti-Defamation League has pro-
duced its annual Top Ten list, but don't
look for any laughs. A sampling from
the list the organization deems the
major issues affecting Jews worldwide:
The peace process. The Wye agr e-
ment is signed, but Palestinian con ,
pliance and the fall of the Netanyahu
government puts it on hold.
Separation of church and state.
The rejection in the House of Repre-
sentatives of the Religious Freedom
Amendment, which would have
allowed organized prayer in schools.
Also, the school voucher system.
Hate crimes. The racially-motivat-
ed murder of an African American by
suspects linked to white supremacists
in Texas, and the bias murder of a gay
University of Wyoming student.
Holocaust restitution. The $1.25
billion settlement from Swiss banks to
Jews who suffered material losses in
the Holocaust, and the continuing
probes into insurance companies and
businesses about their role.

A further update on The Bake
Station, a new kosher bakery set. to
open later this month in Southfield
Owner Steve Katz says that Kerry
Silver has agreed to be a partner in the
project. Silver will also continue to
manage New York Pizza World in
Oak Park, Katz says.
And, he says, now that he has

replaced every piece of equipment in
the store at Southfield and 13 Mile
roads, the former Zeman's bakery, the
new place is "definitely not for sale."

The Interfaith Connection, a commu-
nity project providing outreach to inter-
faith Jewish families, is throwing in the
towel. Thirty of them, to be precise.
The terrycloth gift for Conservative
Jewish converts as they emerge from
their immersion in the mikvah, is part
of a new effort to welcome Jews by
choice into the fold.
A small local group of Conservative
Jews formed this fall after Jill Davidson
Sklar, a member of the Interfaith Con-
nection committee, spoke to the Con-
gregation Beth Shalom sisterhood on
her experience as a convert to Judaism.
"Six people stood up and said, 'That's
happened to me, too.' It was like a
converts anonymous group," she said.
The group is requesting gift contri-
butions from synagogues and Jewish
community organizations so that con-
verts won't be left "dripping wet at the
mikvah," according to the solicitation
letter. So far, Jewish National Fund is
planting trees in Israel in honor of the .
new Jews, The Jewish News is offering
trial subscriptions and the Jewish Fed-
eration of Metropolitan Detroit's
"Rekindling Shabbat" program is pro-
viding candlesticks.
The new welcome wagon is only for
Conservative converts so far, said Sklar,
because they all go through one central
class. Programs for Reform and Ortho-
dox converts may be developed.

Marking
100 Years
Of Detroit
Jewry

Cantor Hyman Adler blows
the shofar at a cornmunitywide
celebration of the establishment
of the State of Israel. The event
was held at Detroit Central
High. School in 1948.

Photo courtesy of Leonard N. Simons Jewish
Community Archives/Jewish Federation of
N'Ietropolitan Detroit.

Remember
When • • •

From the pages of The Jewish News

for this week 10, 20., 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1989

Kenya became the sixth African
country to restore diplomatic ties
with Israel that were severed during
the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In
total, 11 African nations now have
full diplomatic relations with Israel.
New materials with the capabili-
ty of stopping a specific enzymatic
process in cancerous proteins has
been developed by scientists at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and will be used as new drugs to
treat certain types of cancer.

1979

Thousands of black Ethiopian Jews
have been killed as a result of vio-
lence in Ethiopia. Israel rules that
they are proper Jews, but that they
still should undergo a symbolic
conversion ceremony.

1969

Former Detroiter David Crohn has
been named general director of the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He
is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Lawrence Crohn of Whitcomb
Avenue.
The Israeli liner Theodor Herzl
sailed from Buenos Aires to Haifa
with 240 passengers bound for per-
manent settlement in Israel for
work and study programs. Fifty are
youth headed for a year of volun-
tary service in Israel.

1959

Ira G. Kaufman, the newly-elected
judge of probate, was scheduled to
be sworn into office at the City-
County Building in Detroit.
In Bonn, Germany, Walter Funk,
economic minister under Hitler,
was fined $2,560 for his active sup-
port of the Nazi regime. Funk
ordered the confiscation of billions
of dollars of Jewish property.

1949

Israel captured Gaza and freed
additional Negev territory from the
Egyptians. They also cut off the
Egyptian road from Gaza to the
south at a point 20 miles south of
the city.

1/1
1999

Detroit Jewish News

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