Partners

Synagogue members seek

relationships with inner-city

churches and the people

who attend them.

T

Clockwise from
top left:

Carolyn King
of Detroit lifts her
voice in song.

Leonard Gutman,
Congregation Shaarey
Zedek ritual director,
sings the Chanukah
song "Maoz Tzur,"
"Rock of Ages."

The Reverend
Jacob P Adams, Jr.

Opposite Page:
Anna Turner of
Detroit and Bernice
Boorman of West
Bloomfield join in the
singing of "God Bless
America."

"The words that keep coming to my mind are the
circle of life,' or, as we say in Hebrew, dor fdor, from
generation to generation," says Sliker, who is presi-
dent of Congregation Shir Tikvah.
Shaarey Zedek member Jerry Knoppow of West
Bloomfield says he'd welcome a close relationship
between the two religious institutions. "It's an
opportunity that should not be lost. You can feel the
love here — it's very powerful."
Also in the congregation is Elizabeth Richards,
who belongs to St. John's Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church, located just north of Detroit's
New Center area. A member of the Detroit
Historical Society, she helped coordinate efforts for a
historical marker to be placed at that sanctuary,.
"I came today because I have many friends who
belong to this church, and I just love dealing with
history," she says. "This was a beautiful day."
"This is historic stuff," says Bernice Boorman of
West Bloomfield. "To come here and know your
parents walked on these same streets."

A Look At The Past

Ironically, although many of the guests' parents
and grandparents had worshipped at the Ferry
Street B'nai Israel, Congregation Shaarey Zedek
West Bloomfield B'nai Israel had its roots in an

entirely different synagogue.
In the late 1980s, when Southfield's Congregation
Shaarey Zedek realized it needed a second facility to
meet the needs of its membership, Congregation
B'nai Israel of Pontiac was having the opposite prob-
lem — too few members to sustain a congregation.
This was the B'nai Israel that joined with Shaarey
Zedek in the West Bloomfield location.
The B'nai Israel that is most likely the direct descen-
dent of the Detroit synagogue is Congregation B'nai
Israel-Beth Yehudah, a small Orthodox synagogue in
Oak Park. If it is, then the "Yehudah" in the syna-
gogue's name would refer to Rabbi Judah Leib Levin,
the same Lithuanian-born rabbi who served at the
Ferry Street B'nai Israel, and who founded Detroit's
largest Jewish day school, Yeshiva Beth Yehudah.
"We didn't pretend it was the same B'nai Israel,"
explains Judith Levin Cantor, Rabbi Levin's grand-
daughter. A past president of the Jewish Historical
Society of Michigan, Cantor worked with Pankey's
committee on the Dec. 16 event. "We didn't have
any records to speak of Rabbi Bitran was represent-
ing the Jewish community, and he spoke that way."
Although she never knew her grandfather, Cantor
says the fervently Orthodox rabbi was reputed to be
a very forward-looking, modern man.
"I think he would have been pleased to see people
coming together in such a peaceful way," Cantor says.

"

"

❑

he organizers of the Dec. 16 cel-
ebration at Third Baptist
Church hope the enthusiasm of
that day carries over into a long-
term partnership between the Detroit
church and Congregation Shaarey Zedek
West Bloomfield B'nai Israel Center.
If they succeed, they will be joining an
increasingly popular trend in the Detroit
metropolitan area. Many suburban syna-
gogues have developed relationships with
inrier-city churches, and the benefits of
these relationships go both ways. The
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
is recognizing these relationships as they
consider a joint mission for paired clergy
to Israel and Africa, said Joan Sliker in her
speech at the Third Baptist Church.
One of the most successful relationships
is between Temple Beth El in Bloomfield
Township and Detroit's Greater Mt.
Moriah Baptist Church. They came togeth-
er through the efforts of the late Isadore
Malin, who became friends with the Rev.
Kenneth Flowers, pastor of Greater Mt.
Moriah, through their common involve-
ment with the National Conference for
Community and Justice (NCCJ).
Today, the two religious institutions
sponsor pulpit exchanges, concerts and lec-
tures, said Alan May, Beth El president.
Synagogue and church members work
together mentoring students at Detroit's
Glazer Elementary School.
Beth El also has worked on projects with
Detroit's New Hartford Baptist Church,
May said.
"My goal has always been to bring the
black and Jewish communities together,
not through a common enemy, such as we
faced in the '50s and '60s, but through
something positive," said May, who also
serves as president of the local NCCJ.
Another highly active program involves
West Bloomfield's Congregation Shir
Shalom and Trinity Missionary Baptist
Church in Pontiac. On Shabbat Teshuvah,
between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,
the church's pastor, the Rev. Robert Bailey,
preaches at Shir Shalom. "Shabbat
Teshuvah this year was right after Sept. 11,
so it was very meaningful to all of us," said
Shir Shalom Rabbi Michael Moskowitz.
Either Rabbi Moskowitz or Shir Shalom's
Rabbi Dannel Schwartz takes the pulpit in
Pontiac each spring, bringing choir mem-
bers and children from the religious school.
The church and synagogue recently co-
sponsored a jazz concert and clinic for high
school students, and have done social
action projects together.

PARTNERS on page 16

12/28
2001