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Ideas for under $25.00
Hammered Design
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Beautifully hammered
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S20.00
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English Menorah
Front England, this traditional
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$34.00
Mitzvah Watch
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Women's sizes also available.
14k gold plated metal case with
leather strap. Citizen movement.
$35.00
Spirituality
Dream Realized
Dedication dinner benefits new community mikvah.
SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News
T
hough open since
February, the new commu-
nity mikvah (ritual bath)
was dedicated at a dinner
Oct. 28 by Mikveh Israel and the
Women's Orthodox League.
Speakers lauded the beauty of the
new facility and its high halachic stan-
dards, thanked the many community
members who devoted themselves to
the construction project, and praised
metro Detroit's Orthodox community
for its generosity, enabling the build-
ing to become a reality.
The $1.75 million mikvah, in the
10 Mile-Greenfield corridor in Oak
Park, is on land donated by the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
According to Mikveh Israel presi-
dent Dr. Saul Weingarden, all but
$130,000 of this amount to date has
been raised and paid. Besides the
major donors, more than 500 local
families gave $1,000 toward the build-
ing fund.
A mikvah is considered the most
essential institution in a Torah obser-
vant community. The laws of Tarahat
haMishpachah (family purity) forbid
intimacy between spouses from the
onset of the wife's menstrual cycle
until she immerses in a mikvah pool;
the mikvah is thus vital to maintain
family life and harmony.
Plans to build the new mikvah
began in 1997, necessitated by the
growth of the observant community
and the difficulty maintaining the old
facility, which was built in 1962. The
new building, named in memory of
Joanne (Zahava) Zuroff, is much larg-
er than the previous mikvah facility,
with 18 changing rooms rather than
four. Beautiful tile work, elegant acces-
sories and other decorative flourishes
have created a serene, spa-like environ-
ment for the observance of this critical
mitzvah.
Guest speaker at the dinner, held at
Congregation Dovid ben Nuchim in
Oak Park and attended by more than
400, was Rabbi Feivel Wagner. Rabbi
Wagner, currently rabbi of Young
Israel of Forest Hills, N.Y., was for-
merly the rabbi of Young Israel of Oak
Park (then called Young Israel of
Greenfield) for eight years and a board
member of Mikveh Israel. He toured
the new mikvah with his wife before
dinner.
"We were overwhelmed by the beau-
ty of your new mikvah," he said. "The
hiddurim (halachic enhancements)
have no equal anywhere."
Rabbi Michoel Baum, chairman of
the mikvah building committee, said,
"The mikvah that we have built is the
product of a dream."
❑
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NOVELTY ITEMS AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!
SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News
N
o time to learn Torah? Try a
class that meets from 6:05 -
7:05 a.m.
For a growing group of men, Kollel
Dirshu provides the perfect opportuni-
ty to get in some serious learning
before a hectic workday.
The chavurah (study group) began
after Pesach. They learn one amud
(one side of a Talmud page) a day, and
recently completed their first tractate.
A festive siyum, or completion cere-
mony, was celebrated Oct. 30 at the
newly renovated Young Israel of Oak
Park.
The event was a joint venture, held
in conjunction with the first annual
dinner of Congregation Yagdil Torah,
the new shul in Southfield where
Kollel Dirshu meets each morning.
Rabbi Dovid Hofstetter of Toronto,
founder of Kollel Dirshu
International, was guest speaker.
About 250 people attended the