This Week

Insight

Remember
When • •

From Father To Son

Cantor Usher Adler will lead services in the former
synagogue building where his father prayed as cantor.

From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.

1990

Detroit's two members of the Cantors
Assembly Executive Council, Chaim
Najman and Larry Vieder, voted to
admit women to the professional
association of Conservative cantors.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer

returned home. He now lives in Oak Park. He had a kidney
transplant the day after Yom Kippur in 1998, and says,
"That year I was too weak to lead the service. I was called
hen Cantor Usher Adler steps in front of con-
up to read Torah."
gregants to lead services this Rosh Hashanah,
After four episodes of kidney-rejection, he is not opti-
he will stand so near the spot where his father
mistic about improvement in his health.
ligir stood that he expects he may feel his presence.
Currently, he says, "I teach bar and bat mitzvahs, and I'm
When the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue, where the
getting back into tutoring. And when they need me at the
cantor has been a service leader for nine years, rented space
synagogue I daven for them."
for High Holiday services
"He has been our ba'al
this year, the site turned out
Shacharit (leader of the morn-
to be the former B'nai
ing service) for a number of
David synagogue building
years," says Dr. Martin
where Usher Adler grew up.
Herman, chairman of the rit-
"My father was affiliated
ual committee for the
there from 1945 until his
Downtown
Synagogue.
—Cantor Usher Adler
death in 1992," he says of
Following the death of the
Cantor Hyman Adler,
synagogue's Cantor Israel
whose voice for decades was
Idelsohn in April, who had
synonymous with B'nai
been there for 19 years, the
David. The Traditional syn-
congregation looked to Cantor
agogue currently holds serv-
Adler.
ices in West Bloomfield.
The 70-year-old Downtown
Usher Adler, 48, says he
Synagogue is the only
has not been inside the
Conservative congregation in
building since it was sold to
the city of Detroit. Most of its
the city of Southfield for
300-member families hold
the Southfield Centre for
membership in other syna-
the Arts in 1990. "I haven't
gogLies as well, but 60 to 70
been back to see it," he said.
congregants still attend regular
But it is etched in his
Shabbat-morning services.
mind. He says he remem-
Under the leadership of Rabbi
bers it as "the place where
Noah Gamze, 500 people are
my father davened
expected to gather on the
(prayed)." His father's
High Holidays, at no charge
funeral service was held
for tickets. The high number
there in 1992.
makes it necessary for rental of
"Maybe," he said, "being
a larger space each year for the
there will bring me some
High Holidays.
nachas (luck)."
Some changes have occurred
That is something Cantor
in the Southfield building so
Adler says he could use.
familiar to Cantor Adler. "The
bimah was taken down, so it's
all level, and maybe the ark,
Health Concerns
also," he says. "I will probably
A cantorial school graduate
imagine them still being
from Yeshiva University in
there."
New York, Cantor Adler has
And, he says, being in front
held positions in Grand
of the congregation, "I can
Rapids, New York, Wichita
imagine my father out there
and Ontario. Suffering from
Cantor Adler in the sanctuary of the former ffnai
directing the choir." ❑
diabetes and neuropathy, he
David synagogue building in Southfield.

"Maybe being there will bring
me some nachas (luck)."

Oakland Century Lodge honored
David Redisch for his 25 years of
service to B'nai B'rith.
Detroiter Anna Chapin, controller
of the Jewish Welfare Federation,
chaired the annual Controllers
Institute in New Orleans.

1970

Tamarack Hills Authority opened the
recently completed Justice Henry M.
Butzel Senior Citizens Village and
Conference Center on the grounds of
Camp Tamarack in Ortonville.
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah announced
plans to open a dormitory adjacent to
the school on Fairfax Street in
Southfield.

The rectors of the University of
Cairo and the American University
in Beirut, Lebanon, refused nomi-
nation to the board of the
International Association of
Universities after the president of
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
was elected to the body.
Harold J. Borkin, research assis-
tant at University of Michigan, and
Assistant Professor Joseph J. Wehrer
were named one of the preliminary
winning teams in a nationwide
contest to design the Franklin D.
Roosevelt Memorial in Washington.

1950

A sightless literature club has been
formed for the benefit of blind resi-
dents at the Jewish Home for Aged.
The Center Choral Society elect-
ed Harry Kobel as its chairman.
Danny Raskin drew readers'
attention to druggist Al Diamond
being one of the best-dressed men
in our community with his 25 suits
and over 30 pairs of shoes.

— Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant

9/29

2000

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