Synagogue and church celebration underscores
metro Detroit's ecumenical ties.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Copy Editor
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f you face just the right way, and the sun is
shining, you can make out an ark-shaped panel
with 10 Roman numerals on the exterior stone
face of Detroit's Third Baptist Church.
Inside, there is a balcony with five arched win-
dows symbolizing the five books of Moses and, in
the basement, a baptismal font originally built as a
mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath.
A church since 1936, the sanctuary on Ferry near
Beaubien, northeast of the Detroit Institute of Arts, began
life in the early 1920s as Congregation B'nai Israel, one of
four Orthodox synagogues served by Rabbi Judah Leib
Levin. This year, Third Baptist Church invited mem-
bers of a modern synagogue that also bears the name
B'nai Israel to a celebration of the heritage they share.
"What better way to honor Detroit's 300th birth-
day than to rejoice in the coming together of our
two cultures," says Safea Pankey of the church his-
torical committee.
On Dec. 16, the seventh day of Chanukah, about
50 members of Congregation Shaarey Zedek West
Bloomfield B'nai Israel Center drove past Ferry
Street's century-old mansions to the church's fenced-
in parking lot. One of those mansions was B'nai
Israel's original home, Pankey says.
Today, some of the buildings are boarded up and
crumbling, and others are gone entirely, replaced by
weed-filled empty lots. But, recently, several Ferry Street
mansions have been renovated to serve as bed-and-
breakfasts for the nearby Wayne State University neigh-
borhood, and others are slated for renewal come spring.
The church itself has never fallen into disrepair. Its
wooden pews and ornate chandeliers are gleaming. A
red carpet leads down the center aisle to the pulpit
where, in the space where the ark once stood, a glass-
covered painting of Jesus looks peacefully heavenward.
On this pulpit, Leonard Gutman, Shaarey Zedek
ritual director, carefully places a Chanukah menorah.
"This menorah belongs to my family," Gutman
tells the congregation. "It's the only thing my father
brought to the United States from the Holocaust."
For the first time since 1933, when B'nai Israel moved
from the building, the blessings over the Chanukah
candles are heard in the Ferry Street sanctuary.
Menorah's Light
"God of our common ancestors, bless this congrega-
tion," intones Rabbi Leonardo Bitran of Shaarey Zedek
B'nai Israel after the lighting of the Chanukah candles.
He hands a copy of the Chumash, the Five Books
of Moses, to the Rev. Jacob P. Adams Jr., Third
Baptist's pastor. This is the brand new Etz Hayim
edition, Rabbi Bitran says, just acquired by the West
Bloomfield congregation in September.
"Today we meet to celebrate together in good will,
to begin a relationship together," he says. "Let this
Chumash be a symbol of our new relationship as we
dedicate our lives to serving God."
The Rev. Adams, a slender, intense man, strides
buoyantly to the lectern. "We're here not because
we've done anything so marvelous," he tells the con-
gregation. "We're here because we serve a good God
... We're here to say to Detroit, to Michigan, to
America that, in spite of our theological differences,
in spite of our racial differences, Rev. Adams and
Rabbi Bitran can come together to praise the God we
both serve — the God who said, 'Let there be light.'"
"God has smiled on me; He's been good to me,"
sings soloist Carolyn King, a Third Baptist Church
member who also sings back-up for Aretha Franklin.
On the third chorus, she picks up the tempo, and
the Jewish visitors join the black Detroiters in
enthusiastic clapping, singing and shouts of "Amen."
Among them is Bill Wolok of West Bloomfield,
whose parents were married in the Ferry Street sanc-
tuary in 1928. His grandfather owned a house on
Hastings and Ferry.
Joan Sliker, Rabbi Levin's great-granddaughter, says
it seems appropriate for members of the two groups
to be together to celebrate Detroit's 300th birthday.