RABBI AARON

Characters from "Lord of the Rings"

BERGMAN

A collection of baseball players

alk into most rabbis' offices, and one
often feels enveloped by an awesome
aura of wisdom.
It's not that Rabbi Aaron Bergman is not awe-
inspiring. But walk into his office at West
Bloomfield's Jewish Academy of Metropolitan
Detroit, and one will likely tread a little lighter.
Which is just what the academy's director of
Jewish studies wants.
Scattered around the office are more than 500
action figures: the Beatles, Muppets, sports fig-
ures, Elvis, book characters.
"When I was a congregational rabbi, no one

would ever burst into my office full of glee,
singing 'I'm so happy.' Rabbis rarely get that
reaction. And when I branched into education ...
well, students don't bounce into my office. So I
began collecting action figures. I want people to
be a little more cheerful — or at least stunned."
Turning to sources such as eBay, toy stores and
comic-book stores for his finds, Rabbi Bergman,
who lives in Southfield, is not in this game to
make a buck.
"I take them out of the boxes. I don't like the
idea of toys as a commodity," he says.
Claiming they're for the kids, Rabbi Bergman

adds, "It's a really goofy hobby, but I've found a
good outlet for it. It has a purpose.
"Off the record, though," he adds, "I really
just like looking at them!" ❑

MEREDITH

And so, 10 years ago, she began work on a
"dollhouse" in 1/1 2 scale (1 inch equals 1 foot)
that's been an extraordinary work in progress
ever since — in part, because Weston-Band has
crafted most of it herself.
"A lot of things I make simply because they
don't exist," she explains.
For the bar in the two-story structure's ground-
floor restaurant, which she named Salducci &
Stein, she wanted mahogany. So she found
mahogany veneer at a boat-repair shop in Detroit
and built her bar. Above the exterior's copper
awning, which she formed on toothpicks, are lights
which she seamlessly concocted from melon scoop-
ers, hollow tubing and a light bulb.
"My dad didn't have a son, so I learned the son-
type stuff," she laughs. "I have a nice workshop,
lots of power tools."
The top floor of the doll house has Mimi's, a by-
appointment-only dress shop. On one side is
Mimi's workshop, brimming with reams of fabric
and an ironing board copied from Weston-Band's
own; on the other side, an inviting storefront with a
cozy wing chair, handmade dresses and a cabinet
displaying prized possessions — many gifts from
friends, family, neighbors — all want to be a part of

her spectacular creation.
"It's a weird hobby, I know," says Weston-Band.
"But I like painting. I like woodworking, metal-
smithing, gardening, sewing. I like stories. And this
combines all of it." ❑

W

WESTON-BAND

M

eredith Weston-Band was never fond of
dolls. But she did like to create things,
whether out of back-yard soil or in her father's
basement workshop. "I like being able to see the
potential in anything to become something else and
sometimes for it to become something wonderful,"
explains the Royal Oak resident and vice president
of community relations and marketing at Hadassah
House in West Bloomfield.

TV's "The SimpstA

JNPLATINUM •

MAY 2005

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