Bais Menachem Academy
and
Ganeinu Education (enter

ANNUAL DINNER

DOWN MEMORY LANE

from page 37

tionoring

Rabbi & Mrs. Chaim Moshe
Bergstein

With thanks for over 30 years of dedicated service
to the community.

and

Rabbi Pinchus Scheiner

Teacher of the Year Award

Monday, May 19th, 2003
Lag B'omer Eve, 17th lyar, 5163

The Ramada Inn
11011 West Nine Mile Road
Southfield, Michigan

Hors d'oeuvres 6:30 p.m.

Dinner 1:30 p.m.

Couvert $18000 per person
$00" per couple

For Information

248-542-1192

Discussing plans for the neighborhood's reunion in Baum's Detroit back yard are Sue Kaine of Franklin, Gail and Gordon
Rodwan of Detroit and Marcia Baum.

"Our meeting the Kaines was
really about perspective and conti-
nuity," says Martin Baum, an attor-
ney, member of Congregation
T'Chiyah in Royal Oak and imme-
diate past president of the American
Jewish Committee. "It's important
to maintain the Jewish perspective
of the neighborhood through these
reunions.
"This neighborhood had a heavy
Jewish presence, which continues to
be the warp and weave of this com-
munity," he says. "It's the concept
of tikkun olam (repairing the world)
and how Jews see the world that
contributes to this community."
People remember their Jewish
neighbors and the influence they've
had on them, he adds. "And those
here continue that. Jewish neigh-
bors contribute to the cultural mix
of the neighborhood."

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Marcia Baum looks forward to
catching up with old neighbors at
the reunion. "I'd like to know espe-
cially about their children, and pos-
sibly see them," says Marcia, a JVS
board member. "We watched them
grow up!"
She adds that the reunion is also

an opportunity for people with
roots in Sherwood Forest to meet
the folks who live there today. "The
community is alive and well and
thriving," says Marcia, who raised
her two children there.
After the neighborhood was certi-
fied a historic community, the
neighbors wanted to share the cele-
bration of this recognition with for-
mer and current residents, says
attorney Gail Rodwan, who has
served on the Sherwood Forest asso-
ciation board with Marcia Baum
since the 1970s.
"We've had a number of neigh-
borhood gatherings, from
Halloween parties to musical events
in our parks and in our homes,"
Marcia says. This is the first
reunion.
Sherwood Forest honors include a
recent designation as a historic dis-
trict by the city of Detroit and a
Heritage Award from Detroit 300.
The latter was awarded to the
Sherwood Forest Association that
has given more than 50 years of
continuous service, says Rodwan,
editor of the Tattler, the communi-
ty's newsletter.
"There's a lot of vitality in this
community," she says.
Take Florence Gantz, for example.

At 81, she's one of the oldest resi-
dents in the neighborhood and is in
charge of the neighborhood's refor-
estation. She's also a volunteer tutor
through Hadassah. Gantz has lived
in the neighborhood for 38 years.
:Many people today say, `I don't
know my neighbors, and there's not
much of a community spirit,'" she
says. "But you won't hear that here.
That community spirit enhances all
of our lives."
Martin Baum concludes, "The
neighborhood was once a very elite
neighborhood and the people here,
both Jewish and non-Jewish, have a
great respect for that. We see ourselves
as caretakers of jewels for the city."

❑

The Sherwood Forest reunion is
from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, June 5,
at the Detroit Historical
Museum. $35 a person, includes
a light supper and a viewing of
the special exhibit, The Detroit
Connection: Neighborhoods,
Villages and Suburbs, which
includes a section on Sherwood
Forest. For information call:
(313) 861-8443.

kta