Staff Notebook
Rumplestiltskin
Skyline & The Back Street Horns
Simone Vitale Band
Hot Ice • Cassens Murphy ,
The Shun. new building
• Rave JoyRide
Nightline • Radio City
Higher. Ground
Persuasion • L'USA
Cheers • intrigue
pening services at the Shul-Chabad Lubavitch
brought a full house of Rosh Hashanah congregants.
"It was the first time we opened our doors and we
used every inch of our building," says Itty Shemtov, who
directs the Shul with her husband, Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov.
"We filled all 200 seats in our sanctuary and had five chil-
dren's programs going."
The worshippers came from "all different parts of
Judaism and many were not affiliated with other syna-
gogues," she says. For those unfamiliar with the Orthodox
service and the separate seating for men and women, ushers
and greeters were on hand.
"After Yom Kippur, two girls who had been to our service
came back with a camera," Itty Shemtov says. "They had a
school photography assignment to take a picture describing
•the word 'serene' so they came back to take a picture of the
Shul."
After eight years of services held in the Shemtovs' West
Bloomfield home, the congregation is settling into its new
building, also in West Bloomfield.
Last Shabbat, Sept. 21, was the first bar mitzvah service
— that of Isaac Adler of West Bloomfield.
Next up at the Shul are Simchat Torah services, 7:45
p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28. "We've called the evening,
`Saturday Night Live at the Shul,'" says Itty Shemtov.
0
Nouveaute
Sun Messengers
Teen Angels
The Jerry Ross Band
Call for a free
video consultation
Lorio Ross
Entertainmentinc
Call (248) 398-9711
9/27
2002
12
Standing Room Only
At New Shul
505 S. Lafayette • Royal Oak
www.lorioross.com
Oc00621.0j
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Where Have All
The Flowers Gone?
embers of Detroit's Jewish community who visit-
ed Machpelah Cemetery during the High
Holidays were disturbed to find no flowers at the
graves of their relatives.
Barbara and Leslie Hubert of West Bloomfield, who have
more than 20 relatives interred at Machpelah, said that, in
most years, the flowers at the Machpelah graves are
"skimpy and not adequately watered."
This year, they said, the Ferndale cemetery "did not have
flowers planted before Father's Day in June, and now, in
September, before the High Holidays, they have been
removed."
According to Paul Saville of Machpelah Cemetery, where
about 16,000 people are buried, the cemetery grounds had
an unusually severe problem with weeds this year.
"We had about 25-30 complaints about the weeds on the
graves," he said. "We had to get the weeds while they were
active. In the future, we will be spraying for weeds before
the flowers go in."
Saville said he had looked at the flowers a week before
the holiday. "The flowers were in such bad shape because
of the drought, it would have been a. bad thing for. families
to come out and see the graves like that," he said. "I wrote
a letter to my board members telling them I was taking out
the flowers."
Machpelah Cemetery is in the midst of an improvement
project, and this project further complicates maintenance
in the short term, Saville said.
By the end of November, the cemetery intends to
straighten about 6,000 monuments. Hundreds of yards of
topsoil are being dumped on the cemetery grounds for this
project.
Barbara Hubert was not satisfied with this explanation.
"The cemeteries to the north and south of Machpelah had
flowers," she said. 'And my family is buried at Chesed Shel
Emet in Clinton Township, and their flowers were in beau-
tiful condition." •
Diana Lieberman
Man Sentenced
In Arson Attempt
ared Bryan Goldenberg, who pleaded no contest to
two charges stemming from a March 30 fire at the
National Shrine of the Little Flower, was sentenced
Sept. 18 in Oakland County Circuit Court. The charges
were burning property valued at $20,000 or more and eth-
nic intimidation.
Judge Fred Mester placed Goldenberg on probation for
24 months, in lieu of 183 days in jail. In addition, the
Huntington Woods resident was placed on a tether that
monitors his movements and requires him to spend the
majority of his time at home.
Goldenberg, 26, must pay $1,200 in restitution and write a
letter of apology to the church, a landmark at 12 Mile and
Woodward in Royal Oak.
"He's a nice young man and the judge recognized that,"
said Richard Lustig, Goldenberg's Birmingham-based attor-
ney. "This was an aberration in his life, and hopefully he'll
never see the inside of a courtroom again."
The church sustained minimal smoke damage from the
fire, which had been set in a basement restroom wastebas-
ket. No one was hurt. In addition, Stars of David were
found spray-painted on the walls of the men's restroom.
— Diana Lieberman
J
Correction
In "L'Shanah Tovah," (Sept. 6, page 14), the Torah
given to the Marvin and Betty Danto Family Health
Care Center in West Bloomfield was donated by the
Saginaw Jewish community.