COMMUNITY VIEWS

A Gift To Israel:
A Mission Of Love

their prayers for his well-being, the
1ff y father was not a reli-
conversations about the Jewish belief
gious man. His mother
in the world to come. I will never for-
died when he was an
get
Rabbi M. Robert Syme's visit on
infant, leaving him to
the
day before my father died. He
grow up feeling as if he had been
looked up at Rabbi Syme,
abandoned not by her, but by
held his hand and asked,
God. What kind of God
"All right, genius, where am
could take a young mother -
I
going from here?" With-
from not just him, but his
out
skipping a beat, Rabbi
older sisters, who were des-
Syme
answered, "I don't
tined to raise him in their
know,
Harry, I presume
mother's absence?
Chesed
Shel Emes!" I can't
In 1980, my father entered
tell
you
my father died
Detroit's Harper Hospital
believing
in God, but I feel
with bone cancer, which he
he
died
with
a sense of
did not survive. Yet his seven
DAVID
peace
bolstered
by the rab-
weeks of hospitalization
TECHNER
bis'
collective
faith
in God
taught me a valuable lesson
and
our
heritage.
Special
to
that has helped shape my
As an original advisory
the Jewish News
involvement in the hospice
board
member of the
movement. That lesson has
Southfield-based
Hospice of
helped me to understand and
Southeastern
Michigan
(now
known
appreciate the impact of faith at such
as
Hospice
of
Michigan),
I
spent
more
a difficult time in people's lives.
than
a
decade
trying
to
convince
my
For seven weeks, largely due to the
colleagues of the need to form a Jew-
friendships I was privileged to develop
ish hospice. Seeing the effect these vis-
within our superb Detroit rabbinic
its had on my father convinced me
community, rabbis visited my father
that with the right rabbi, the same
daily. He loved it! In spite of his previ-
effect could be felt by the general
ous ambivalence about God, he felt so
community — a sense of peace that
much comfort from these visits —
I'm convinced my father had as he
took his last breath, and a sense of
David Techner is a funeral director at
calm in our family.
Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield. He
In 1993, in what I now consider a
has been involved with hospice care for
historic event, I introduced Rabbi
20 years, having served as chairman of
E.B. "Bunny" Freedman to key staff
the National Funeral Directors Associa-
and board members of Hospice of
tion Hospice Task Force.
Southeastern Michigan. They were

,

moved -- so
much so that
in several
weeks a job
offer was
extended to
Rabbi Freed-
man to form
and head up
a Jewish hos-
pice division
within the
organization.
A study of

halachic
issues ensued:
the proclama-
tion of termi-
nality, the
questions of
withholding
or continuing
medical ther-
apy and
Rabbi M Robert Syme
whether the
latter would
be aggressive, involving artificial
hydration and tube feeding.
As Rabbi Freedman has helped
countless families tackle these end-of-life
issues, he has established himself not
only as a pre-eminent voice of the Jew-
ish hospice locally, but also become the
foremost authority on end-of-life issues
nationally. With the formation of Part-
nership 2000's Milton.and Lois Shiff-
man's Hospice in the Valleys in Israel,
there will be no geographic barrier to
Rabbi Freedman's calling.

Rabbi E.B. "Bunny" Freedman

As we have expanded globally, with
the support and encouragement of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, Rabbi Freedman has joined
forces with Jewish Family Service and
the Michigan Board of Rabbis to form
the Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy
Network. Through this new associa-
tion, Rabbi Freedman is able to assist
any family receiving hospice care,
whether by Hospice of Michigan, Kar-
manos Hospice, Arbor Hospice,

MISSION

on page 32

LETTERS

Faith, Learning
•
And Detroit Jews

Your special report last week ("A Cen-
tury of Jewish Detroit," Dec. 31)
would have us believe that there never
was an Orthodox community in
Detroit. It describes Detroit Jewry in
terms of the history and evolution of
the Reform Temple Beth El and the
Conservative Shaarey Zedek, even
overlooking the fact that both of these
houses of worship were originally
Orthodox, in both their religious out-
look and their spiritual leadership.
Congregation Beth El, founded by
immigrants from Bavaria, Germany, in
1859, was the first Orthodox Jewish
congregation. in the Northwest Terri-
tory and the first in Michigan. Its arti-
cles of association stipulated that the

1/7
2000

30

object of this society shall be to wor-
ship Almighty God, according to the
Jewish Faith."
This was an Orthodox synagogue
in the fullest sense, conducting ser-
*vices in the Ashkenazic ritual. By this
time, however, various reforms infil-
trated into the Jewish ranks, and a
schism began to develop between
those who sought to introduce radical
changes into Jewish worship and those
who wanted to retain the Orthodox
customs of their heritage. A small
group broke away from Beth El and
formed Congregation Shaarey Zedek
in 1861.
With the huge influx of Russian
and Polish Jews at the turn of the cen-
tury, small Orthodox congregations
began mushrooming all over America,
especially in large urban centers. Many
of these were unflinchingly Orthodox

in their unconditional commitment to
Torah and Jewish tradition. Some of
these continue as Orthodox congrega-
tions into the 21st century, while
some gravitated toward the Conserva-
tive or even Reform movements, as
time passed.
As far as Michigan is concerned, in
1940, there were 81 Orthodox Jewish
congregations, functioning as such
and located throughout the state.
Many of these had their own Hebrew
schools, cemeteries and ritual bath-
houses. Many smaller congregations
merged with others, forming larger
synagogues, usually formed along geo-
graphic lines, according to the lands of
origin of their congregants. For exam-
ple, the Polish shul (Beth Yehuda, now
known as Congregation B'nai Israel
Beth Yehuda), the Russian shul (Beth
David, now known as B'nai David),

the Hungarian shul (B'nai Moshe),
the Galician shul (Beth Abraham), the
German shul (Gemilas Chasodim,
now defunct), etc. Furthermore, by
1940, 40 other Orthodox Jewish con-
gregations were formed, but existed
only a short time before disbanding.
In addition, many national Ortho-
dox Jewish organizations were formed,
to broaden Jewish community ser-
vices, such as the Union of Orthodox
Rabbis of the United States and Cana-
da (1896), Yeshiva University (1897),
the Union of Orthodox Jewish con-
gregations of America (1898), Nation-
al Council of Young Israel (1912).
In Michigan, with its characteristic
emphasis on learning and promulgat-
ing Jewish knowledge, the Orthodox
Jewish community formed Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah (1916), United Hebrew
Schools (1919), and many other

