Southfield At 5 0
ON THE COVER
The Sweep Of Shaarey Zedek
Southfield's famous
shul was a catalyst
for city's growth.
the time, asking me to come right over and
discuss the situation. I don't know what
changed his mind, but he said he would
make sure we got the rezoning."
Alluding to the Ira Kaufman Funeral
Chapel's presence in Southfield, the council
president told Berman: "If we can bury
'em here, I guess we can marry 'em here."
Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News
I
n what seemed to be the middle of
nowhere, on a windy Sunday in May
1961, more than 1,000 members of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek came to
break ground for a new home for one of
the largest Conservative synagogues in the
United States, founded exactly a century
earlier in old Detroit.
Actually, it was a field at James Couzens
Highway (also known as Northwestern
Highway) near 11 Mile Road in the 3-year-
old city of Southfield. Several generations
of longtime Shaarey Zedek familes par-
ticipated in cutting a ribbon and churning
the dirt at the 40-acre site to begin work
on a modern facility that would become,
according to its Jewish designer, Percival
Goodman, "the largest and most beautiful
Jewish religious structure in the world." Its
majestic steeple, rising above 600 tons of
steel and 20,000 square feet of plate glass,
would create an historic Detroit area land-
mark and help bring international fame to
Southfield.
A month earlier, the air was charged
with excitement and anticipation at
Shaarey Zedek's 100th annual meeting
at its location on Chicago Boulevard in
Detroit as about 700 members debated
the pros and cons of moving. Could the
congregation support the large endeavor?
Should they abandon Detroit?
Some argued for postponement, but
most in the rapidly growing congrega-
tion voted for approval, thrilled by the
adventure of moving to the relatively new
Southfield, and having the entire member-
ship of 1,700 families worship together for
the first time in years. The new main sanc-
tuary would have 1,200 seats, and movable
walls would open two social halls to seat a
total of 3,600 for the High Holidays.
The congregation members didn't real-
ize it then, but they would be religious pio-
neers in the Detroit area as Shaarey Zedek
became the first major synagogue to blaze
a trail to the northern suburbs. Moving to
its new home in late 1962, the 147-year-old
Shaarey Zedek now has been in Southfield
for 46 of the city's 50 years.
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April 24 • 2008
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Focused On Building
Berman and Berry felt their committee
chairmanships were so important that
they stepped down as vice president and
president, respectively, of Shaarey Zedek to
devote all of their efforts to the construc-
tion project, working with Sol King of
Detroit-based Albert Kahn Architects. "My
father concentrated on the all-important
development fund, which raised money for
the new facility," said Harold Berry, 81, of
Bloomfield Hills. Louis Berry resumed the
presidency later. Harold and his son, Larry
of Farmington Hills, also have been presi-
dents — the only Shaarey Zedek family
with three generations to do so.
"Rabbi Adler always said the synagogue
should be a family center and he was
right; that's what we've become observed
Harold Berry, a 62-year Shaarey Zedek
member. "I'm proud that the mortgage for
the new Southfield building was paid off
when I was president in the mid-1970s.
The premium at the synagogue used to be
on tradition, but now it's on energy. The
suburbanization of synagogue life has
resulted in many changes."
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- .,.
,
Rabbi Yanoff, Mark and Halley Uzansky and their children, Emily, 7, and Jesse, 4, of
Bloomfield Hills and Rabbi Krakoff
Pioneering Leaders
A Shaarey Zedek member since he sang as
a boy in a synagogue choir 79 years ago,
Mandell L."Bill" Berman, 90, of Franklin
is the only surviving member of the origi-
nal group and chairman of the building
committee that planned and built the
Southfield edifice — for $3.8 million, plus
close to another $1 million for furnish-
ings. Others playing key roles were Louis
Berry, the development fund chairman,
Charles Rubiner, Hy Safran, Abe Satovsky,
Hy Keidan, Maurice Schiller, Jay Rosenthal
and Rabbi Morris Adler, whose eloquent
plea at the annual meeting clinched the
approval vote.
Demographic surveys showed that
about 95 percent of Detroit area Jews
would be living north of Eight Mile Road
by the 1980s, "so the group got together at
Rubiner's home in 1956 to actually start
planning the move recalled Berman, a
noted builder, civic leader and nationally
known philanthropist. "We first bought
15 acres near Northwestern and 10 Mile,
but quickly realized that wouldn't be large
enough. So we bought nine holes of a
Southfield golf course on the current site,
and we had a real tough battle getting the
land rezoned:'
The stumbling block was blatant anti-
Semitism by Southfield city officials.
"There really were no Jews living in the
city at the time, and it was made clear to
us that the city didn't want us there said
Berman. "Then I got a call late one night
from the city council president, who was
probably the most powerful city official at
Shifting Times
Changes at the Southfield location have
taken place gradually over the 46 years.
The synagogue first reinforced its standard
affiliates, commissions and committees
— the Hebrew school, the Men's Club,
Sisterhood, the former Young Married
League, choirs, and a variety of programs
to carry out Rabbi Adler's "family center"
theme.
But Shaarey Zedek and the entire
Jewish community suffered a major blow
on Feb. 12, 1966, when Rabbi Adler, the
beloved, longtime spiritual leader who had
achieved international fame, was shot on
the bimah by a disturbed young congre-
gant and died a month later. After a year
of mourning, Rabbi Irwin Groner — who
had refused to sit in Rabbi Adler's chair
for that year — was elected "rabbi of the
congregation" and he held the post for 45
years. The synagogue's two social halls are
named after the two rabbis.