Redefining Reform
TEMPLE BETH EL
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from page 12
Two years into his rabbinate at the
temple, Rabbi Glazer founded the
Institute on Judaism, an annual semi-
nar to educate the non-Jewish religious
community about Judaism. The 58th
Institute was held earlier this year.
But war was what occupied most
Beth El members' thoughts in the
1940s. More than 500 men and women
from Temple Beth El served in the
Armed Forces; 10 gave their lives.
Temple Beth El celebrated the war
victory in 1945, and its own centen-
nial from 1949 to 1950. The follow-
ing year the congregation celebrated
again; Rabbi Glazer had been their
leader for a decade. Then sadly, a little
more than a year later, he died unex-
pectedly. In June 1952, a citywide
memorial service was held under the
auspices of the Jewish Community
Council, of which Rabbi Glazer had
been a vice president.
Redefining Reform Again
]1N HONOR OF 1SRAE
INDEPENDENCE DAY'
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan De ,
will present a program on
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SS1NAT ON ON IS ELI SO
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ter Yitzhak Ra
Thu
D.
gene & Mara
6600 We
18,20
p.m.
ding
i mmunity Cam
Bloomfield
e interviewed by thur Horwitz,
Mr. Rabin w
publisher of the Detroit Jewish News.
the film, Out For love...Be Bac
n. Directed and produced by Dan Katzir, the award-
in Israel before, during and after Yitzhak Rabin's ass
For more information or reservations, please call the
wish Life and Learning Department at (248) 661 76':
-
5/5
2000
14
:Jewish Federation's Michigan/Israel Connection and the D
Rabbi Richard C. Hertz took over the
pulpit in 1953, with Leonard N.
Simons as the Temple's 33rd president.
Under Rabbi Hertz, Temple Beth El
continued redefining what Reform
Judaism meant in Detroit. Bar mitzvahs
were re-instituted after several decades,
and bat mitzvahs were begun. Israel
received more emphasis, so did Hebrew
The pulpit was called the bima and can-
dle lighting was added to the Shabbat
service. An outstanding choir member,
John Redfield, assumed a cantorial role.
Rabbi Hertz still counted in his con-
gregation many of the "old" Temple
Beth El names, such as Butzel and
Heavenrich. And while some Eastern
European Jews admitted they did not
feel welcome at Beth El after World
War II, the membership slowly began
to diversify. Civic affairs became a pas-
sion for Rabbi Hertz, who championed
better race relations. Some have specu-
lated that, because of his efforts, Beth El
remained untouched during the Detroit
riots in 1967; indeed, the temple was a
designated food collection point for the
victims.
The White House asked Rabbi
Hertz to travel to the USSR to study
Jewish conditions for President Dwight
D. Eisenhower. Rabbi Hertz also forged
a close personal relationship with John
Cardinal Deardon, the head of Detroit's
Catholic community, and taught for
many years at the Jesuit University of
Detroit.
Like other groups in America after
World War II, the Jewish community
became more publicly heterogeneous.
There was no longer "one Jewish
voice," as it was perceived at the
beginning of the century when Rabbi
Franklin "spoke" for the Jews of
Detroit to newspapers on issues of the
day. Also, the economic boom of the
1950s and 1960s offered other pas-
times to American Jews, including
those at Beth El.
While membership remained high,
the question of Jewish identity arose like
never before. While the Depression and
world wars no longer were factors, other
pressures within the Jewish community
seemed to increase. In 1959 and 1960,
Rabbi Hertz was part of the group deter-
mining if the Jewish Community Center
should have Saturday hours, and what
that would mean for Jewish identity.
In 1963, the definition of Judaism
was challenged again when a former
Temple Beth El assistant rabbi, Sherwin
Wine, founded the Birmingham
Temple and, by extension, the Secular
Humanist movement.
Additional stress came from the
Jewish community's increasing move-
ment north and west. Many Temple
Beth El members moved to the suburbs
and, in 1974, the congregation
responded by building its current home
on Telegraph at 14 Mile Road in
Bloomfield Township. Rabbi Hertz
wrote that the congregation had to fol-
low its members to survive.
The new building, designed by
Minoru Yamasaki, echoes tents early
Israelites pitched while wandering the
desert — an apt metaphor for the con-
gregation as the 20th century waned.
In the 1980s, following a wave of
Jewish immigration from Russia, Beth
El was one of many congregations that
welcomed the new arrivals, sponsoring a
Jewish wedding ceremony for those pre-
viously able to marry only in USSR reg-
istry offices.
Rabbi Hertz retired in 1982 but, like
Rabbi Franklin before him, remained
very active in the congregation and
community almost until his death in
1999. Dannel Schwartz became senior
rabbi in 1982, a position he held until
1987. Two years later, he founded
Temple Shir Shalom in West
Bloomfield; some Beth El families
moved with him.
During the time that Rabbi Daniel
R Polish led Beth El (1988-1995), the
question of the role of the rabbi was
debated in the congregation. This re-
assessment of the rabbi's role as spiritual
leader, fund-raiser and personality able
to attract new members precipitated the
end of Rabbi Polish's tenure. Other
questions, such as intermarriage and the
TEMPLE BETH EL on page 16