SPirlitUalitY

Cover Story

hat I have found is that we are remarkably
true to our roots. The founders set out to
create a warm, family congregation.
That is what we have been, that is why
people join and stay with us, that is
what has carried us through and that is
what we will always be."

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initiative that has defined the Reform temple as much as
its location always has.
"What I have found is that we are remarkably true to
our roots," said Bruce Gordon, temple president. The
founders set out to create a warm, family congregation.
That is what we have been, that is why people join and
stay with us, that is what has carried us through and that
is what we will always be."
But it did not happen without a struggle. The congre-
gation has faced challenges that threatened to wipe out
their existence. Yet, Temple Emanu-El continues to serve
more than 600 families, with strong plans for the future.

Early Years

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Bruce Gordon, president

asked Beth El to provide a satellite school. When it
appeared this would not happen, the two began ask-
ing friends and neighbors to form their own temple in
the Huntington Woods-Oak Park area. Word raced
through the community and the names of 100 fami-
lies were gathered.
Bea Sacks was approached in the beginning. She
and her husband, Abe, transplants from Brooklyn,
were used to the streets brimming with Jews and
Jewish life. They had bought a small home in Detroit
that quickly became smaller with the birth of two
children.
When the children were toddlers, the family moved
to a larger home in Huntington Woods, but there
were few Jews. In fact, they were the only Jewish fami-
ly on their street for decades and their son was the
only Jewish boy in his class.
We were so lonely," Sacks recalled. We didn't
know too many people, especially out here. We had
met some people in Detroit. I didn't have a car and I
didn't know anyone."

Walter Stark can still remember that first service in the
gym. It was a cold Friday night and about one-third of
the members huddled in the small gymnasium to read
from the Union Prayer Book. Some of the group had met
previously in the Huntington Woods home of Bess
Reibel, but not so formally or with as large a group. Still,
with 35 people, Stark felt the service was a modest start.
But the Daily Tribune in Royal Oak considered it big
First Challenge
enough news to carry an account of the service on its
front page. In reality, the event marked the first time a
Yearning for camaraderie, Sacks and her family joined
Jewish congregation had been established in southern
the new congregation and became involved in activi-
Oakland County. Prior to this time, congregations had
ties. Abe was named the first membership chairman, a
drifted slowly north and west from Detroit's lower east
position that quickly became a very busy job as the
side in the Hastings street area. The epicenter of the
population mushroomed.
Detroit Jewish community moved to the Oakland and
According to Jewish Federation of Metropolitan-
12th Street areas, before settling at the crossroads of
Detroit figures, only 3 percent of the population of
Dexter and Davison in the 1930s.
Jews lived in Oak Park in 1952, with the majority still
During the 1940s and 1950s, a great amount of home
in the Dexter-Davison neighborhood; by 1959, 28
building took place further north and west and just north
percent of Detroit-area Jews lived in Oak Park and 7
of Eight Mile in Oak Park, which soon became a haven
percent lived in the old Detroit neighborhood. By
for young Jewish families. Hundreds of families found
1965, 46 percent of Jews lived in Oak Park and
affordable housing in the area bounded by Nine Mile, 10
Huntington Woods.
Mile, Coolidge and Greenfield. By 1955, 9,000 of the
"In the second year of the temple, we took in 100
28,000 Oak Park residents were Jewish and 45 percent of Emanu-El left s ace for the freeway along Ten Mile,
members. There was such an influx that it carried on
only to see the mat route go behind the temple.
school children in the city's public schools were Jewish.
like that for the next few years," Sacks said.
Some Jewish businesses left Detroit to join their grow-
Within five years of the congregation's founding,
ing number of clients in the suburbs. Popular delis,
membership was off the charts, doubling and then
restaurants and other Jewish-owned businesses opened in Oak Park. The Jewish
quadrupling. The congregation continued to meet in the Burton school gym and
Welfare Federation, meanwhile, bought 18 acres on 10 Mile.
celebrated the High Holidays at the First United Methodist Church in Royal Oak,
Still, the major Reform temples, Beth El at Woodward and Gladstone and Israel
taking pains to cover the cross and other religious objects.
in Palmer Park, remained in the city, meaning that Reform Jews living in the south-
The first rabbi, Frank Rosenthal, "felt that it was time for us to have our own
ern suburbs had to travel sometimes several miles to drop their children off for
building," said Stark.
Hebrew school or to attend services.
Hebrew school classes were held at Burton.
Two fathers, Walter Schmier and Bert Kaatz, became tired of the commute and
Leaning on architects Montgomery Ferar and Irving Feig, the congregation had

2002

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