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Artist. rendering:
Six glass skylights,
left, will represent
the six million
Holocaust dead.

Closer To Moving

The Holocaust Memorial Center acquires land for new development in Farmington Hills.

HARRY KI RS BAUM
Staff Writer

R

abbi Charles Rosenzveig
has dreamed of a
Holocaust memorial that's
unique. He's now one step
closer to that.
The founder and director of the
Holocaust Memorial Center on the
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Jewish
Community Campus in West
Bloomfield beamed as Farmington
Hills City Council members approved
a consent judgment Monday night
allowing him to buy 8 1/2 acres along
Orchard Lake Road, north of 12 Mile.
The new, enlarged HMC that he
envisions will include a Museum of
European Jewish Heritage, showing
Jewish life prior to World War II, and
an International Institute of the
Righteous, remembering those who
saved Jewish lives during the
Holocaust and those who have saved
lives throughout history.
"The scope of this is really extraor-
dinary," said Rabbi Rosenzveig, who
was born in Ostrowiec, Poland, and
who survived the Nazi occupation.
The Farmington Hills acreage, locat-
ed on the former site of the AMC Old

7/20
2001

16

Orchard Theatres, was tied
up in a lawsuit involving
the city of Farmington Hills
and landowner Ari-El
Enterprises of Southfield
over a request to rezone res-
idential property behind the
theater site for office park-
ing.
Oakland County Circuit
Judge Richard D. Kuhn dis-
missed the lawsuit last year.
The consent judgment
approved Monday appar-
ently ends the 21-year bat-
Architect Ken Neumann presents renderings.
tle by residents to the west,
who have fought to protect
the residential zoning on
Parkhill Street. Residents
ter has welcomed 2.6 million visitors.
who spoke at the city council meeting
The HMC was the nation's first
were pleased with the agreement and
freestanding Holocaust museum when
with the architectural plans.
it opened in 1984 next to the Jewish
The new Holocaust Memorial
Community Center at Maple and
Center will be five times as big as the
Drake — five miles from the new site.
current one, providing room for badly
Rabbi Rosenzveig said the new site
needed growth, said Rabbi Rosenzveig.
was acquired for $2 million with a
The site is near 1-696, a convenience
$100,000 down payment paid from
for the school, civic and religious
the $4 million raised so far. Total cost
groups that make up the bulk of the
of the project will be $15 million.
HMC's 160,000 visitors each year.
Dr. Steven Grant, immediate past
Most HMC visitors are non-Jewish
president of the HMC, said the capital
school groups. Over 17 years, the cen-
campaign begins in earnest now that

the HMC has a site
available and architec-
tural plans drawn up.
Discussions have been
made with a bank about
a mortgage, Grant said.
"The money that's been
raised so far have been
through interested par-
ties who thought it was
a good cause."
The rabbi was to
meet with five construc-
tion managers this week
to take bids on the
60,000-square-foot
building complex.
Construction is expect-
ed to start in November
and take one year to complete.
The plans presented Monday by
Kenneth Neumann of Southfield-
based Neumann Smith & Associates
include a two-story masonry building
with larger exhibits, a 400-seat lecture
hall, a research library and gathering
areas. One of the movie theater's audi-
toriums will be integrated into the
plans; floor space will be added toward
Orchard Lake Road.
Between the building and the hous-
es to the west will be a memorial gar-

