5th GRADERS & PARENTS!

Cover Story

Be a part of the 15th Annual

TZEDAKAH
EXPERIENCE

SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 2002
9:30-11:45 a.m.

Temple Beth El
7400 Telegraph Road at 14 Mile

Join in Helping Hands
activities to learn more about
our Jewish agencies

Decide how your
Penny Harvest pennies can help
our community

Cookie Gonik & Beth Margolin, Co-Chairs
Laurie Goldmeier, Assocate Chair
Roz Blanck, Penny Harvest Chair
Margot Gardner & Jodi Goodman, Co-Associate Chairs

Sponsors:

Temple Beth El

Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit:
Women's Campaign and Education Dept.

Agency for Jewish Education:
Department of School Services /Jewish Experiences for Families

The Jewish News Jewish Educators Council Bank One Michigan

For information, call: (248)203-1519

T his is -e.oe-ration

Visit us online: www.thisisfederation.org

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CLOSET DESIGNS

2002

44

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TEMPLE EMANU-EL

from page 43

past decade, putting to rest any notion
of falling prices.
And the temple has thrived.
President Bruce Gordon credits a num-
ber of features of the congregation, the
area surrounding it and the general
community for Emanu-El's survival
during potentially perilous times.
For one, the congregation developed
a highly successful nursery school,
headed by Michaelyn Silverman.
Twenty years ago, the temple had no
pre-school program for the young fami-
lies it served. Many used the only
Jewish program in the area, at Yeshivat
Akiva. Silverman was the co-director of
the pre-school at the modern Orthodox
school, now located in Southfield, and
was approached to start a similar pro- .
gram at the Reform temple.
"I have wonderful memories of my
time at Akiva, but I was always affiliat-
ed with a Reform congregation. So this
was a perfect fit for me," said
Silverman, who has stayed with the
growing program from the first day.
Starting in two of the congregation's
classrooms, the school counted a part-
time enrollment of 50-60 children, all
pre-kindergarteners. The school
changed as the culture changed, allow-
ing for a well-developed, full-time cur-
riculum with extended care hours,
vacation care and a summer camp to
serve dual-income families.
Additionally, the school took over
the operation of the Oak Park JCC's
infant-toddler program a few years ago.
Despite having never advertised, the
school serves 190 children from infancy
to kindergarten.
Another innovative temple program
initiated this year gives all graduates of
its high school free 10-year member-
ships. "We wanted some way to con-
nect with our temple graduates after
they left us," said Gordon, whose
daughter Emily graduated from the
program last year. "We wanted to rec-
ognize and award their achievement
and really demonstrate our commit-
ment to them as well."
The congregation has forged ties
with its neighbors on the A., Alfred
Taubman Jewish Community Campus,
as well as at the Conservative
Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak
Park and the Modern Orthodox Young
Israel of Oak Park in Royal Oak
Township. All three synagogues have
invested millions in the past three years
to expand and renovate their buildings,
a sign of prosperity and stability
"I think it says a lot about the health
of the Oak Park area that all three of

our congregations have done major
renovations over the last five years,"
said Emanu-El Rabbi Joseph Klein.
"This is clearly a stable Jewish commu-

nity.

3)

The congregation is also committed
to its social action agenda, maintaining
some programs for decades while initi-
ating new ones. For example, one pro-
gram begun during the Gulf War a
decade ago provided Chanukah gifts to
soldiers serving abroad; in between that
war and the current one in
Afghanistan, packages were sent to sol-
diers around the globe. This year, an
Army chaplain delivered Emanu-El gift
boxes to Jewish soldiers in Afghanistan.
Another program delivers Christmas
meals to Detroit families touched by
HIV-AIDS.
Even the grounds of the temple
have been converted for social action.
A large strip of land between the sanc-
tuary and the JCC was planted in the
past few years; its tomatoes, beans,
squash and peas donated to Yad Ezra,
the Oak Park-based kosher food
pantry. Another plot of land between
the schoolrooms and the freeway was
returned to its natural state to provide
a wildlife refuge to replace the areas
taken up by the freeway. And trees
have been planted on the temple
grounds.
"What is happening on the grounds
to benefit the environment and the
community is one of the most exciting
and forward looking things that we are
doing," Sacks said.
To ensure the next 50 years, the
congregation established an endow-
ment fund called Lech Lecha. To date,
$600,000 has been pledged. "That
will provide us with a very secure
future by supporting our operating
costs. We will draw only on interest to
cover future growth and expenses,"
Gordon said. "We are just now rolling
it out and we are already getting a very
),
good response.
Rabbi Klein believes one of the
greatest strengths of the congregation
is its ability to stick to the motives set
forth 50 years ago. He believes the
temple's next 50 years will be more of
the same commitment to education,
social action and accessibility to all
who wish to participate — all in Oak
Park.
. "Its vision 50 years ago, how it
wanted to serve the community and
what it wanted itself to be, has not
changed at all,"= the rabbi said.
"If we were to gather the founding
families and have them look at who
we are, they would say, 'Yeah, that is
what we had in mind.'"

