This Week

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Farmington Hills is the site

of the first new Jewish

funeral chapel in 36 years.

DAVID SACHS
Staff'Writer

sually when father and son funeral directors Alan
and Jonathan Dorfman draw people together
under an open-air tent, it's for a solemn graveside
farewell.
But on a recent Sunday afternoon the mood was upbeat,
even jovial. This time, the large canopy was staked out not
on cemetery turf but at the site of the Dorfmans' much-
anticipated new project. And the thrust of a shiny new
shovel into the soil signified the realization of their dream.
On June 11, the Dorfmans and some 150
well-wishers broke ground for a $3.4 mil-
Left:
lion, 13,000-square-foot "state-of-the-art"
Alan Dorfman at
funeral chapel to be built on the north side
the ceremony with
of 12 Mile Road, a quarter-mile east of
his son Jonathan
Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills.
behind him.
Due to open in October, the burgundy
brick-and-limestone building will be the first
of its kind since the current Hebrew Memorial Chapel in Oak
Park was built in 1964 and Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield
in 1960. There has not been a new Jewish chapel enterprise
since Kaufman Chapel began more than 60 years ago.
"It's wonderful, unbelievable," said Alan Dorfman, 61, at
the groundbreaking.
For Dorfman, this is the culmination of his 35-year
career as a licensed funeral director, including more than 20
years with Hebrew Memorial Chapel. In 1991, he set out
on his own, operating Alan H. Dorfman Funeral Direction
out of a tiny, 900-square-foot space in Berkley.

NEW GROUND on page 12

Dorfmans eye October opening
for their first funeral chapel.

Breaking

Ground

6/16
2000

10

