Metro

Special Report

SOUL OF OAK PARK from page 23

self and Rabbis Nelson and Spolter. "There is only
one Reform, one Conservative and, while a variety
of Orthodoxy, one community Orthodox syna-
gogue," Rabbi Klein says. "I don't think any of us
feel in competition with one another. We are all
offering something very different."
And that means there is a place in Oak Park for
virtually every kind of Jew. Rabbi Avraham
Jacobovitz's Machon L'Torah-Jewish Learning
Network of Michigan is an exam-
ple of an Oak Park-based group
reaching out to all streams.

Diversity And Stability

Marcia Leibson has belonged to
Emanu-El for 50 years. She grew
up in Oak Park and returned to
the enclave for its schools, side-
walks
and synagogues.
Marcia Leibson
"There are as many, if not
more, Jews here than when I was
a kid," says Leibson, who is Emanu-El's director of
education and youth activities. "There are a lot more
Orthodox synagogues. It keeps the neighborhood
stable."
Leibson interacts with Jews from various streams
because of her position — some of Emanu-El's pre-
school teachers as well as its students are Orthodox.
Friendships depend on where a person lives, she
says.
"We don't have many Orthodox people on our
street," she says. "Certain streets seem to be entirely
Orthodox. I don't think there's a huge amount of
interaction except when kids are outside playing."

Cyndi Cohen also grew up in Oak Park and
returned in 1990 for the schools. The neighborhood
had changed from an all-white, homogeneous place
to "just about every Jewish flavor you could imag-
ine" as well as racial and ethnic diversity.
Oak Park is a hospitable place for any Jew to live,
says Cohen, whose family is currently unaffiliated.
"I've always said, even if we won the lottery, I
wouldn't leave this neighborhood. It's a very heimish
community."
"I have personally witnessed that camaraderie,"
says Rabbi Nelson. "We are accepted. Genuine
friendships exist."
Says Rabbi Tolwin, "The dynamics of Oak Park
are really based on the power of the institutions that
are there and the commitment that people have to
the neighborhood."

ICC — The Anchor

It's 10 a.m. on a weekday and the long blinds are
drawn across the foyer window of the Jewish
Community Center pool. A female lifeguard perch-
es on a tall chair. It's women-only swim.
Although the special hours were created out of
respect for the Orthodox mandate to separate the
genders during swimming, the women gliding up
and down the lanes are not all observant. But those
who do not observe this religious restriction don't
seem to mind.
The Jimmy Prentis Morris Building of the Jewish
Community Center is located on 10 Mile Road,
east of Greenfield, on the A. Alfred Taubman Jewish
Community Campus. Though physically located in
Royal Oak Township, it is considered a crucial

On The Cover

6/ 2
2005

22

Rabbi Shmuel Kaufinan
of Oak Park participates
in Partners in Torah at
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in
Southfield.

Doris Epstein ofSouthfield takes part
in a painting class at the Oak Park ICC