SRI Travel Travel & Promotion, Ltd. •■• E International Travel Specialists Year 2000 Israel Departures May 3 June 14, 25 July 16, 26 August 6, 17 December 20, 24 JEANNIE WEINER r Renee Werbin, President 3508 Broad Street Chamblee, GA 30341 770/451-9399 888/451-9399 Toll Free 770/451-0970 Fax 11490 Nails Orchard Lake Rd • Next to Orchard Mall Fall Specials Featuring: Healthy, Hydro-Spa Whirlpool Pedicure! Acrylic Fill-in ( re' $ 18) 5 16 Full-set (fe9.$ 28) 5 25 Pedicure Only ( reg $ 28) $ 25 Manicure ( reg $ 12) S i 0 Manicure/Pedicure (res '40) 5 33 Pedicure/Fill-in ( 1e95 46) 5 41 Call for an appointment: 248-538-0948 walk-ins welcome • bring in ad for The Detroit Jewish News speaks to your interests and your concern 11/5 1999 To order your subseiTh !on or a Mit su for family or friend pleas -1 (24 116 Detroit Jewish News II ... an English church ... a tower with views of the city ... the syna- gogue ..." The synagogue? We were or many of us, returning to startled. Nothing we had previously school in the fall always read mentioned a Jewish community meant writing our first in the area. It was Wednesday night. assignment, "What I did on The only time the synagogue opened my summer vacation. for tourists was Thursday morning! My husband and I filled our note- Early the next day, we were near books in separate the synagogue. As school systems in we rounded the cor- two different states, ner and found the but both of us small path leading to would write about it, a strong, tall our experiences dri- woman riding a ving with our par- bicycle passed us. ents to places near The three of us and far in the family stopped at the front car. entrance at the same So this spring, it time. "Hello!" she was not uncharac- greeted us vigorously teristic for the two in English. "Where of us to find our- are you from?" selves driving. We Then, after we were on our way responded. "Do you from Antwerp, belong to a syna- Belgium, going gogue in Michigan?" north toward The woman's Amsterdam. We had name was Helaine read about a project Pasma. She became in Zeeland in the our guide for the Netherlands involv- morning. Helaine is ing water barriers a Christian woman and controlled tides who volunteers at to prevent the the synagogue destruction caused because, as she says, by North Sea floods. "Christianity's roots We decided to are Jewish. And, drive to this "Delta after what happened Above: This street leads to the Project" to see this to the Jews during synagogue in Midd leburg, massive diversion of the war, I felt that Netherlands. water. We would we had to educate stop for the night at ourselves and others Below: A gate in th efeneeat a nearby town. about our roots and the Sephardic Jew is h cemeteg. While waiting for how we must protect dinner to arrive at each other from that the usual leisurely kind of barbarity" European pace in a city called Helaine had just returned from her Middleburg, I picked up a tourist second trip to Israel. She was a person travel newspaper at an empty table who knew her "rutabagas" about Jewish near us. I began to read aloud about and Christian ritual. The shock of the sites of Middleburg as we began World War II and what was done to the to plan the next day's program: Jews in her own country made her "An Abbey rebuilt after World War aware of the need to speak to others to help them gain a better understanding Jeannie Weiner of Farmington Hills is of Jews, Judaism and the meaning of past president of the Jewish. Community behaving in a Christian manner. Council of Metropolitan Detroit. Helaine was intense and thoughtful, Special to the Jewish News Eastern Europe Departures March 26 June 18 6235 Surprise Encounters In The Netherlands discount but she spoke with an easy smile and kind sense of humor. Her handshake was powerful and warm and fit her per- sonality. We felt privileged to meet her. In the synagogue, we met some of the Jews of Middleburg but they left the tour-guiding to Helaine. The syna- gogue was built originally in 1705. Accidentally bombed during the war, it was all but destroyed and sat for 50 years before being restored in 1993-94. Forty religious Jews and many others described by Helaine as "cultural Jews" now use it each week. She told us that these cultural Jews wished to identify and maintain their Judaism without necessarily practicing all the rituals. All who come to the synagogue are wel- comed and accepted at whatever level they practice. Next to the synagogue there was the original mikva. From here we received directions to an isolated Sephardic cemetery, which is now in the midst of a quiet residential neighborhood of Middleburg. We climbed over a wrought iron fence with modern Mogen David designs to get inside. The cemetery, dating from 1640, contained very old stones written in Portuguese and Hebrew. Two exam- ples: "Mosse Del Rio — alias Manuel Cardozo" and "Dona Judique Habilla-Muller de Baruch." Although Middleburg is in the Netherlands, its Jewish history follows the history of Belgium. Antwerp is close by. Jews were attracted to Belgium's commercial areas in Antwerp and the lively markers and harbors of cities like Middleburg in Zeeland. Spanish and Portuguese Jews arrived in large numbers as they fled from the Inquisition. Some passed through Antwerp and Middleburg on their way to Turkey. Many stayed. Later in the 1700s, Jews arrived from Eastern Europe. Middleburg's "newer" cemetery, built by the Ashkenazi community, dates from 1704. More deferred than originally anticipated, we did get to the Delta Project and it was very interesting. But our unexpected discovery of the fairy tale-like medieval seaport of Middleburg proved to be a highlight of our "summer vacation." We learned that there are several Jewish sites in the Netherlands out- side of Amsterdam. Our easy drive in far western Europe was a wonder- ful continuum of previous stateside automobile experiences. It's amazing what you discover when you least expect it! E