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B'nai Moshe
celebrates its 90th
anniversary by
honoring
its rich history
and past
presidents.

BARBARA LEWIS
Special to the Jewish News

G

eorge Gunsberg is one of the
actual B'nai Moshe (sons of
Moshe).
His grandfather, Morris
(Moshe) Gunsberg, was the patriarch of
a large and devoted family. When their
synagogue needed to raise money for a
new building at Garfield and Beaubien,
naming rights were offered to the high-
est donor. The four oldest of Gunsberg's
six sons and his three daughters rose to
the challenge and pledged $45,000 — a
huge sum in 1918 — for the opportuni-
ty to name the synagogue in his honor.
"The funny thing is my grandfather
never set foot in the shul; it wasn't
Orthodox enough for him," said George
Gunsberg of Bloomfield Hills.
Congregation B'nai Moshe, in its
90th anniversary year, now includes
sixth-generation Gunsberg descendants
among its members. Larry Gunsberg,

Sta ll. Photos by Alex Lu mclsky

Spirituality

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The sanctuary at
Congregation B'nai
Moshe on Dr
in West Blotxxe

who becomes president in June, is
Morris' great-grandson.
Nine Hungarian immigrant families
founded the congregation in September
1911. Formally named Beth Eliyahu,
the synagogue was known more widely
as "the Hungarian shul." The Garfield
building, its first, was dedicated in
March 1918. Subsequent moves took
the congregation to northwest Detroit,
Oak Park and its current home on
Drake Road near Maple in West
Bloomfield.
Rabbi Moses Fischer, the synagogue's
first rabbi, served from 1923 until he
retired in 1947. In the late 1940s,
younger members began lobbying for
mixed seating at the Orthodox syna-
gogue. Eventually, several rows of seats
on the main floor were roped off for
that purpose. Under Rabbi Moses
Lehrman, who served from1948 until
his death in 1977, B'nai Moshe affiliat-
ed with United Synagogue of America,
the Conservative movement, and did

away with separate seating.
George Gunsberg recalls Rabbi
Fischer's sermons, but not for the lessons
they imparted.
"He would spend an hour on a ser-
mon, starting in Hungarian and then
switching to Yiddish and then back to
Hungarian, or maybe German. He had
terrible hay fever, he was always blowing
his nose. We couldn't understand him,"
he said.
"As soon as the sermon started, many
of the men would go out on the steps of
the building. It was like a social gather-
ing. We made a lot of friends hanging
around the steps of the shul."

Sweet Experience

For children, B'nai Moshe meant candy
treats from indulgent elders.
Michael Grand of West Bloomfield, a
great-grandson of Morris Gunsberg and
twice a shul president, remembers walk-
ing along Dexter to the shul with his
grandmother and mother when his dad

was away in the Army.
"After sitting upstairs with the
women, I would go downstairs and sit
with my great-uncles, who always had
candy in their tallis bags, a tradition I
observe to this day," Grand said.
Michele Ungar Siegal of Beverly Hills
started coming to B'nai Moshe in Oak
Park when she was 5, and quickly
learned to spot the goodie-givers. She
and her friends called one gentleman
"Mr. Charms" because he always handed
out Charms candy.
Siegel attended Story Hour (now
called Tot Shabbat) with Katie Lazarus
Price.
"Now my daughter, Abby, plays with
Katie's daughter, Alexa, on Shabbat
mornings," she said.
B'nai Moshe's decision to move from
Detroit to Oak Park in the late 1950s
sparked a controversy. The synagogue
had only $17,000 in hand. Some mem-
bers wanted to merge with another con-
gregation. Others wanted to build small, 4144.

5/18
2001

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