Synagogues / Torah Portion
CONGREGATION BETH EL
2525 Mark Ave., Windsor; (519) 969-2422. Rabbi:
Jeffrey Ableser. Cantor: Marci Shulman. Services:
5:45 p.m. the first and last Friday of the month; 8
p.m. intermediate Fridays.
TEMPLE BETH EL
7400 Telegraph. Bloomfield Township, 48301,
(248) 851-1100. Rabbis: Daniel B. Syme, David
Scott Castiglione. Cantor: David Montefiore.
Services: Friday 6 p.m. Saturday 10:30 a.m.
Friday, Elliot Darvick will speak. Saturday, Cindy
Cohen will read the Torah portion.
TEMPLE BETH EL (FLINT)
5150 Calkins, Flint, 48532, (810) 720-9494.
Rabbi: Karen Companez. Cantorial soloist:
Aleksander Chernyak. Services: First Friday of the
month 6:15 p.m.; second Friday 8 p.m.; all other
Fridays 8 p.m. _
TEMPLE BETH EL (MIDLAND)
2505 Bay City Road, Midland, 48642, (517) 835-
4822. Guest teacher: Hal Greenwald. President:
Stuart J. Bergstein. Services: Friday 8 p.m. once a
month. Regularly scheduled social events and
High Holiday services for the tri-city area.
TEMPLE BETH EMETH
2309 Packard, Ann Arbor, 48104, (734) 665-4744.
Rabbi: Robert D. Levy. Chazzan: Ann Zibelman
Rose. Services: Friday 8 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.
Family service once a month at 7:30 p.m. replaces
8 p.m. Friday service; call for specific dates.
BETH ISAAC SYNAGOGUE
2730 Edsel Dr., Trenton, 48183, (734) 675-0355.
Services: Friday 7:30 p.m. Congregational leaders
conduct services throughout the year.
TEMPLE BETH ISRAEL
801 W. Michigan Ave., Jackson 49202; (517) 784-
3862. Rabbi: Jonathan V. Plaut. Rabbi emeritus:
Alan Ponn. Chazzan: Evette Lutman. President: Dr.
Cathy Glick. Services: Friday 8 p.m. Saturday 10
a.m. the first Saturday of the month.
CONGREGATION CHAYE OLAM
P.O. Box 250356, Franklin Village, 48025-9998,
(248) 752-6669. Cantor: Stephen L. Dubov.
Services: Friday 6:30 p.m. at the International
School, 28555 Middlebelt Road, Farmington Hills.
TEMPLE EMANU-EL
14450 W. 10 Mile, Oak Park, 48237, (248) 967-
4020. Rabbi: Joseph P. Klein. Cantor: Norman
Rose. Services: Friday 7:30 p.m. in the garden,
weather permitting.
TEMPLE ISRAEL
5725 Walnut Lake, West Bloomfield, 48323, (248)
661-5700. Rabbis: Harold S. Loss, Paul M.
Yedwab, Joshua L. Bennett, Marla Hornsten.
Cantor: Lori Corrsin. Cantorial soloist: Neil
Michaels. Services: Friday 7:30 p.m. Saturday
10:30 a.m. Monday-Thursday 7:30 a.m. Sunday 9
a.m.
TEMPLE KOL AMI
5085 Walnut Lake, West Bloomfield, 48323, (248)
661-0040. Rabbi: Norman T. Roman. Rabbi emeri-
tus: Ernst J. Conrad. Cantorial soloist: Susan
Greener. Services: Friday 6 p.m. Saturday 10:30
a.m.
CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK
1924 Coolidge, East Lansing 48823, (517) 351-
3570. Rabbi Emeritus: Morton Hoffman. Rabbi:
Richard Baroff Cantor: Pamela Jordan Schiffer.
Services: Friday 8 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m.
TEMPLE SHIR SHALOM
3999 Walnut Lake, West Bloomfield, 48323, (248)
737-8700. Rabbis: Dannel Schwartz, Michael L.
Moskowitz. Cantorial soloist: Penny Steyer.
Services: Friday 6:30 p.m. Saturday 11 a.m.
Saturday aufruf of Elisabeth Garbeil and Charles
Gaba.
REFORM/RENEWAL
CONGREGATION SHIR TIKVAH
3900 Northfield Parkway, Troy, 48084, (248) 649-
4418. Rabbi: Arnie Sleutelberg. Services: Friday
7:45 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m.
SECULAR HUMANISTIC
THE BIRMINGHAM TEMPLE
28611 W. 12 Mile, Farmington Hills, 48334, (248)
477-1410. Founding rabbi: Sherwin T. Wine.
Rabbis: Tamara Kolton, Adam Chalom, Miriam
Jerris. Services: Friday 8 p.m.
JEWISH CULTURAL SOCIETY
2935 Birch Hollow Drive, Ann Arbor, 48108-2301,
(734) 975-9872. Board president: Karla Rice.
School principal: Ramona Brand. Shabbat servic-
es first Friday of every month 7:30 p.m.; cultural
Jewish celebrations, secular bar/bat mitzvah pro-
gramming, cultural Sunday school.
JEWISH PARENTS INSTITUTE
_
JCC, 6600 W. Maple, West Bloomfield, 48322,
(248) 661-1000. Director: Marilyn Wolfe.
Alternative cultural Jewish celebrations; secular
bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies; adult programming;
cultural Sunday school from nursery through
teen.
SHOLEM ALEICHEM INSTITUTE
28690 Southfield, Suite 293, Lathrup Village,
48076, (248) 423-4406. Co-presidents: Alva
Dworkin, May Moskowitz. Holiday observances;
Friday night oneg Shabbat; cultural events.
WORKMEN'S CIRCLE ARBETER RING
26341 Coolidge, Oak Park, 48237, (248) 545-
0985. Chair: Arlene Frank. Michigan district direc-
tor: Ellen R. Bates-Brackett. Year round holiday
observances, Nokh Shabbes Havdalah once a
month; secular bar/bat mitzvah; Sunday school.
SEPHARDIC
KETER TORAH SYNAGOGUE
5480 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield, (248)
681-3665. Rabbi: Michael Cohen. Services: Friday
at candlelighting time; Saturday 9 a.m., Minchah
1 1/4 hours before the end of Shabbat; Sunday 9
a.m.; Monday 7 a.m.; Wednesday 9 p.m.,
Thursday 7 a.m., 9 p.m.
TRADITIONAL
B'NAI DAVID
6346 Orchard Lake Road, Suite 100, West
Bloomfield, 48322, (248) 855-5007. Cantor: Ben-
Zion Lanxner. Services: Saturday 9 a.m. Haftorah,
William lcikson.
MINYANS
FLEISCHMAN RESIDENCE
6710 W. Maple, West Bloomfield, 48322, (248)
661-2999. Rabbi: Avie Shapiro. Minchah Monday-
Thursday 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, Shabbat Schacharit
9:15 a.m.
YESHIVAT AKIVA
21100 W. 12 Mile, Southfield, 48076 (248) 386-
1625. Services: During the school year, morning
services at 7:30 a.m.; afternoon services at 2:40
p.m. The community is invited.
The Land Of Israel Is
Jewish By Inheritance
Witnessing the Nazi onslaught and the
horrors of the Holocaust, Rabbi Teichtal
did a theological one-eighty, becoming an
ardent lover of Zion and proponent of
aliyah.
While hiding during the war, Rabbi
Teichtal wrote a book from memory that
n our recent trip to Israel with
he called Eim Habanim
Federation's Young
Semeichah, a monumental
Adult Division mis-
work outlining the religious
sion, my wife, Rena,
and spiritual centrality of the
and I had the opportunity to
land of Israel in Judaism. (The
enjoy dinner with my uncle
book is available in English.
and cousins in Jerusalem. We
Buy it. It's well worth reading.)
began talking about the apart-
Although he did not survive
ment my cousins had just pur-
the war, his work did, and it
chased. Where had they chosen
continues to inspire and teach
to buy? In Beit El, right outside
us today.
of Hebron.
In his introduction, Rabbi
RABBI
How much, I wondered,
Teichtal
explains the impor-
REUVEN
could an apartment cost in Beit
tance
of
calling the land of
SPOLTER
El? With the less-than-choice
Israel an "inheritance." When I
Special to the
location, he must have gotten a
purchase a plot of land, I have
great deal, which would explain
Jewish News
to fulfill all the requirements of
why the young couple bought
the purchase agreement. At
in such a dangerous locale.
any time, someone can come and file a
When I learned that he paid more for his
complaint and suggest that I didn't prop-
apartment than he would have paid for a
erly purchase that land or bring proof to
small house in Oak Park, I realized that
nullify the transaction. It happens all the
there must be a very strong housing mar-
time. It's why you had title insurance
ket in Beit El. People aren't moving out.
when you bought your home.
They're moving in and buying homes.
But, says Rabbi Teichtal, when I inher-
They're not going anywhere.
it a home from my father, no one can
We have to wonder: Why would a
complain or try to take that land from
young couple, with a beautiful new son
me because there's no purchase or trans-
and a life ahead of them, choose to invest
action to invalidate. I inherited the land
their life's savings in a home surrounded
— case closed. This is why the Torah
by enemies, many of whom have sworn
describes the land of Israel specifically as
to destroy them? Why buy in Beit El?
an inheritance. The land of Israel belongs
I'll tell you why: because they read the
to the Jewish people not because we
Torah.
bought it, conquered it or because the
As the Jews stand ready to enter the
United Nations gave it to us. It's ours
Promised Land, God delineates the
because we inherited it from God.
boundaries of the land of Israel to the
Interestingly, the Hebrew word for set-
Jewish people. From the stream of Egypt
tlers, mitnachalim, comes from the same
in the south to Mount Hor in the north,
root as the words "inheritance" — nacha-
and from the Dead Sea in the east to the
lab. In a very real way, they're not just "set-
Mediterranean in the west — it's all ours.
tlers." They're inheritors, reclaiming our
God tells Moshe, "When you come to
land on behalf of the Jewish people.
the land of Canaan, this is the land that
shall fall to you as an inheritance." (34:2)
Why does God call the land an inheri-
tance? Why not call it a gift, or a con-
quest?
A question for thought and dis-
Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal, an
cussion: How can we, as Jews in
influential Chasidic leader and a devout
the diaspora, do our part to
anti-Zionist, lived in prewar Europe.
inherit the land of Israel? What
are you planning to do this year
Reuven Spolter is rabbi at Young Israel
to make that happen?
Shabbat Matot-Masei:
Numbers 30:2-36:13;
Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4.
0
Conversations
of Oak Park. His e-mail address is
rabbispolter@yiop.org
7/25
2003
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