SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN

Taking
It To

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Rabbi Schneor Greenberg, Estie Greenberg and their children Mendel, 1, and Mussie,
2, outside their Walled Lake home, where the Chabad Jewish Center of
Commerce/Walled Lake is based.

StaffWriter

any Jews choose where
they live so they can be
near their synagogue.
Rabbi Schneor and Estie
Greenberg created their synagogue to
be near Jewish families.
"We looked for a place that had
Jewish people but didn't have a place
for them to go to worship and learn,"
Rabbi Greenberg says of the newly
formed Chabad Jewish Center of
Commerce/Walled Lake.
The community has never had a
synagogue before.
"When I came to Michigan, I spoke
with real estate agents who told me
Commerce is the 'next Jewish place,"'
Rabbi Greenberg says.
So he and his wife moved with their
children, Mussie, 2, and Mendel, 1.
They immediately began making con-
tacts.
"We made a newsletter," Rabbi
Greenberg says. "Then we looked in
the [phone book] White Pages and
mailed it to everyone whose name
sounded like they might be Jewish. We
send out 300 of them."
Rabbi Greenberg is a native of B'nei
B'rak, Israel. He met his wife while
learning with the Lubavitcher Rebbe
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in his
wife's hometown in Brooklyn. For the
Greenbergs, the work and excitement
are fulfilling a lifelong plan.
"We have a dream about wanting to
help out other Jews," says Estie
Greenberg, whose siblings also run
Chabad Houses in various cities.
"My brothers and sisters are shlichim
(emissaries) all around the world,"
Rabbi Greenberg says of siblings in
places from Alaska and Texas to
Shanghai and Paris.
While their immediate families are
far from Detroit, the Greenbergs are
part of the large and local Lubavitch
Shemtov family.
"We are so glad the opportunity to
build a central shul as the life and soul
of the Commerce and Walled Lake
Jewish communities, has been taken by
the Greenbergs," says Rabbi Kasriel
Shemtov
He and his wife, Itty, direct The
Shul/Chabad Lubavitch in West
Bloomfield.
"It is exciting that this new growing,
developing community will now be
able to take part in the programs and

use the services of the new center," says
Rabbi Shemtov.

About The Center

As is typical of many Lubavitch centers,
the Greenbergs have begun theirs in
their home, near Maple and Pontiac
Trail in Walled Lake.
Getting settled since mid-March,
the couple will hold their first official
community gathering starting at 5:30
p.m. Friday, May 17. Marking
Shavuot, families are invited to a read-
ing of the Ten Commandments and an
ice cream party.
"My purpose for starting the center
is to make it not only a shul, but a cen-
ter for everyone," Rabbi Greenberg
says. "I want even those who don't
come here for services to come here to
learn and bring their children."
The Greenbergs' future hope is to
hold regular Shabbat and holiday serv-
ices and to open a preschool and
Hebrew school for older children. "We
would like also to start a teen group
and a bat mitzvah club," adds Estie
Greenberg.
For now, the rabbi has started his
relationship with community members
with a few individuals who come and
learn with him on a one-to-one basis.
For women in the community, his wife
recently held a pre-Shavuot class, its
purpose to have fun and get ready for
the holiday by making edible flower
arrangements, blintzes and cheesecake.
"We're trying to fill in what's miss-
ing here," she says, adding that the
response to having the center has been
positive.
"Whenever I talk to somebody
[Jewish], they seem very happy that
there's a new Jewish presence in
Commerce," Estie Greenberg says.
"There's no pressure. They don't have
to be Orthodox and they don't have to
grow a beard.
"We just want to teach about
Judaism and how attractive and fun
our heritage is," she adds. "We hope
people will see what we're offering and
come join us." 111

For information on the Friday, May
17, Shavuot program, or more
about the Chabad Jewish Center of
Commerce/Walled Lake, located at
626 Finch Court, Walled Lake, call
(248) 669-6616.

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