Cyber Spot

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114:

7/13
2001

hile the Shvitz Health
Club (formerly the
Oakland Avenue Bath
House) in Detroit is
and has always been absolutely open
to men of any nationality, religion,
or creed, it is and has always been
closed to women. But, what the
heck. The Internet is free, and
everyone, man or woman, can point
a browser to oakleafbroom.com and
enjoy a historical tour of this local
male sanctuary.
It's especially nice while we cele-
brate Detroit's 300th anniversary.
The Web site offers nine pages of
photographs, background, and
anecdotes about this shvitz, which
was founded by Charles Meltzer in
1930. The bathhouse was home to
some of Detroit's more colorful and
infamous characters, including the
Purple Gang.
Gary Sosnick, Webmaster and
creator of oakleafbroom.com has
created a vignette of recollections
focusing on his visits as a teenager,
from 1970 to 1975, when the cost
of a shvitz was $4, not the $20 men
have to pay today.
The nine pages cover everything
from the building itself to the basics
of making the oak leaf broom used
in the plaitza, which is a rubdown
(massage) that takes place inside a
steam room. A surfer learns how to

take steam, how to conform to the
etiquette of the steam room, even
how the hot rocks used in the
steam process are replaced.
We meet all kinds of characters,
like Toots Johnson, cook/manager
of the bathhouse who helped dig
its basement in 1930. The same
basement had a room with a inik-
vah (ritual bath — for men?)
which was later sealed off and then
resurrected into a whirlpool.
We learn about the neighbor-
hood, which was at one time a
Jewish area. Located on Oakland
Avenue, in the area northwest of
where 1-75 and East Grand
Boulevard intersect, the bathhouse
was one of perhaps a dozen like it
in the 1930s. Today, the only other
Russian-style shvitzes, where you
can enjoy the total plaitza experi-
ence, are in Chicago, New York
City and Los Angeles. (Women
can shvitz in Los Angeles on desig-
nated days of the week)
oakleafbroom.com is well organ-
ized, attractive, and easy to navi-
gate. Plan to spend some time
there, although it won't take you
the two hours you'd have to spend
to personally experience the
plaitza.
And if this Web site has "wet"
your appetite for steam baths, be
sure to check out the links page,
which is a very nice collection of
relevant sites, everything from the
Purple Gang to mikvahs. II 1

