EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

When Pages Talk

eries, fish markets, butcher shops, laundries, liquor
n 1932, my father, Joseph Sklar, lived at 1610
stores, pawnshops, clothing stores and synagogues, even
Hazelwood, a block from the Taylor Street Shul, on
as congestion and disease struck the overcrowded tene-
Taylor at Woodrow Wilson. He was 28.
ment houses. It was home to most of Detroit's 10,000
The reason I know he lived there then, in the
Jews in the early 1900s.
heart of Jewish Detroit, is because my cousin, Melba
Winer, found a siddur (prayer book) from the synagogue
with my father's handwritten name and address inside the
A Short Move
In 1924, Jacob Sklar, known as Rev. Sklar because of his
cover. She stopped by the Detroit Jewish News offices last
yeshivah roots, joined other local Orthodox leaders in
week to give the dusty, torn siddur to me. Titled Prayer
founding Beth Tefilo Emanuel at 1550 Taylor, four miles
Book for the New Year, it was among the
to the north and west of Farnsworth. Congregants came
siddurim she had found in the basement of
her West Bloomfield home.
to call the new synagogue simply the Taylor Street Shul.
"I was overwhelmed when I. found
Rev. Sklar "very often took the place of the rabbi," my
them," Melba, 84, told me on Sunday. "I'd
cousin Melba recalled.
taken them from my mother's apartment
Beth Tefilo had opened at 944 Napolean, near Hastings,
in Detroit 24 years ago and had forgotten
in 1910. Its later location on Taylor, in the 12th Street
about them — until I came across them
area, was not far from Beth Abraham and Beth David.
Well aware of hegira, Beth Tefilo already had temporary
last week."
Melba's family were members of
space in that area by 1919. In 1931, a merger with Beth
ROBERT A.
Congregation
Shaarey
Zedek,
on
Chicago
Tikvah
formed Beth Tefilo Emanuel Tikvah. Today, the
SKLAR
Boulevard
at
Lawton,
about
a
mile
away.
synagogue,
led by Rabbi Yisroel Menachem Levin, is on
Editor
"But on the High Holidays," she recalled,
Greenfield Road in Southfield.
"we always went to the Taylor Street Shul
Notably, Max J. Wohlgelernter, a U.S.-educated rabbi,
in deference to Grandpa and Grandma, who were active
came to Beth Tefilo in 1931 to emphasize "the role of
d social groups in the synagogue, as well as the
and
there.
She added: "I remember sitting in the balcony of the
prayers and the study of the Torah in the old style." This is
related by University of Michigan-Dearborn Professor
Taylor Street Shul with my mother and with Grandma
when I was 15 [in 1932], and looking down to see the
Sidney Bolkosky in his landmark book, Harmony &
[praying]
and
the
children
running
all
over."
Dissonance: =Voices of Jewish Identity in Detroit, 1914-1967.
men davening
The 1930s was a time of upheaval in Detroit's Orthodox
Melba's father, Harry Sklar, and my father were brothers
community, which struggled to keep customs
— two of Sophie and Jacob Sklar's 10 children.
and ritual alive amid the lures of an assimilated
I'll treasure the newly found Hebrew
Publishing Company siddur not only as an heir-
way of life.
Detroit's 35 Orthodox synagogues in 1935
loom, but also as an example of how Judaica,
had a collective membership of 2,497, but atten-
buildings and memories bind Jewish Detroiters
dance was sporadic except on the High Holidays.
of different generations.
Only 14 had full-time rabbis, all poorly paid,
Jacob Sklar was a rabbinical student, a shochet
(ritual
circumcis-
according to Bolkosky. "Older members tended
mohel
(ritual slaughterer) and a
to be unaware of the problems facing American
er) in a Russian shtetl along the Berezina River,
Jewry, and younger people seemed unconcerned
near Minsk, in Belarus. In 1903, he fled the
with retaining Jewish religious practices and tra-
Cossacks and journeyed alone to Ellis Island in
New York Harbor. Tales of good fortune in
ditions," he writes.
Melba Winer
W
During this time, the Young Israel movement,
North America had lured the 39-year-old immi-
still new locally, was a bit more successful in
grant.
keeping younger Jews from leaving Orthodoxy for
Jacob's landsman (a person from the same
Russian region) landed him a job as spiritual leader for
Judaism's more liberal streams.
18 Jewish families in Sydney, Nova Scotia. His wife and
eight children soon followed. With such a small congre-
A Special Bond
gation, Jacob held services in his home as chickens,
Today, most metro Detroit Jews who are affiliated identify
ducks and cows roamed the yard.
with either the Reform or Conservative movements. But
Later, he led small congregations in Portsmouth, N.H.,
many also attend study sessions in the Orthodox commu-
and Salem, Mass.
nity, which resonates far beyond its physical borders.
Sophie and Jacob had two more children, including
Meanwhile, the Reform movement has announced a
my father, before the family settled on Detroit's lower
push to improve and energize its religious schools in hopes
east side in 1910. Jacob became an assistant to Rabbi
of bolstering Jewish identity among its youth. The
Joseph Eisenman of Beth Tefilo, known as the
Conservative movement, determined to find a more
Farnsworth Shul, in the area near Hastings Street, now
focused niche, is seeking a more educated and religiously
virtually paved over by the Chrysler Freeway.
committed membership, though maybe smaller in number.
Hastings was Detroit Jewry's shtetl. It was where East
In glancing through the pages of my "new" siddur,
European Jews, especially, sought refuge, relief and
70 years old, I discovered lots of familiar
which
is and
opportunity from pogroms, oppression and poverty.
prayers
nd
blessings
that speak to us as Jews, no matter
(broadly,
the
a
hegira
From 1900 to 1925, before onset of
how observant we are. That discovery reaffirmed my
northwesterly mass migration of Detroit's Jews), the
respect for the timelessness of what sustains Jewish
street bustled as a Jewish enclave.
continuity. ❑
The spirit of the community wafted through the bak-

I

53

SHARE
YOUR
SOUL

Become a
Judaic
Volunteer for
JARC

JARC's Judaic Volunteers
enrich the spiritual lives
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disabilities in many ways.

• Lead Shabbat prayers

• Celebrate with JARC friends
at an Oneg – bring your
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• Accompany your JARC
friend(s) to services

• Offer lessons in Hebrew
language or prayer to a
man or woman served
by JARC

• Share photos from your
trip to Israel, Jewish art
books or music with a
JARC friend

A great family volunteer
opportunity!

Call (248) 538-6610, ext. 349
to find out how you can
share your soul.

30301 Northwestern Highway • Suite 100
Farmington Hills , MI 48334-3233
jarc@jarc.org • www.jarc.org

4 A• -•

2/22
2002

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