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Opinion

Dry Bones

A MIX OF IDEAS

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MIDEAST TALKS

Editorial

Coming Together

S ynagogues have many roles: spiri-
tual, educational, cultural, social.
Connecting with other congrega-
tions is yet another role.
B'nai Israel, a Conservative synagogue,
and Kol Ami, a Reform temple, have made
their connection pulsate. It serves as a
model for bringing congregants without a
building to find a home under the umbrella
of a nearby synagogue with room to spare.
Following Yom Kippur services, B'nai
Israel congregants who chose not to
move to Congregation Shaarey Zedek's
Southfield building broke from the
149-year-old synagogue to strike out on
their own so they could stay in the neigh-
borhood and observe Shabbat, whether
their desire was a smaller congregation
or to attend a synagogue within walking
distance of their homes. Shaarey Zedek
decided to sell the B'nai Israel building to
help address a substantial budget deficit
and worked with members preferring the
West Bloomfield campus to help address
their future synagogue needs. Shaarey
Zedek leaders voted in July to consolidate
operations at the end of the High Holidays,
deciding the synagogue family was stron-
ger together financially and programmati-
cally than it was on two campuses.
"We are taking the best of what we had
and building something even stronger," B'nai
Israel spokesman Frank Ellias told the IN.
Shaarey Zedek President Brian
Hermelin, who with his board has tried
hard to be compassionate during a tough
family "breakup:' told us: "As this new

congregation forms from these members,
we wish them well. We are all members
of the same Jewish community and will
continue to interact and share so many
experiences together."
Enter Kol Ami, where outreach is a high
priority. It opened its doors, about a mile
west on Walnut Lake Road, to 150 B'nai
Israel congregants. Since its Shabbat ser-
vices typically are held just Friday nights
except when there's also a bar or bat
mitzvah, Kol Ami offered B'nai Israel use
of its sanctuary most Shabbat mornings
and other space when the sanctuary isn't
available.
The lease arrangement is a win-win.
The ability of B'nai Israel to build chil-
dren's, family, multicultural, social action
and Israel-oriented programming along-
side Kol Ami and its 370 member families
was another certain attraction. Rabbi
Jonathan Berger of Hillel Day School
of Metropolitan Detroit will lead B'nai
Israel's Shabbat services.
On a practical level, consolidating costs,
maximizing land and building use, and
cooperating on programming is a plus.
Jewish Detroit has wonderful examples
of segments of the community coming
together to generate cost savings while pro-
viding beneficial services. Examples include
MID-The Alliance for Teens in Detroit, a
Monday-night program developed by our
Conservative synagogues and hosted by
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit;
Jewish Senior Life of Metropolitan Detroit, a
merger of Jewish Home and Aging Services

and Jewish

Apartments

and Services;
and Frankel
Jewish
Academy's
new home
at the Jewish
Community
Center in West
Bloomfield.
Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah found
a place for
two outreach
programs, Jean
and Theodore
Weiss Partners
in Torah and
Beth Yehudah
Kollel, on its
Southfield campus.
Office space at the centrally situated
Max M. Fisher Federation Building in
Bloomfield Township is home to several
communal organizations beyond the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
There are planning and synergistic advan-
tages to having so many communal lead-
ers under one roof; and Federation cer-
tainly benefits by having a revenue stream
from the leases.
Collaboration doesn't come without
learning experiences. Jewish Senior Life
holds much promise as eldercare becomes
more urgent in our aging community. But
it learned that communication among

DryBonesBlog.corn

staff and constituents is very important
in times of budget adjustments requiring
job cuts. The economic downturn is sure
to affect other communal agencies as they
struggle with payroll.
We're hoping Detroit Jewry's collabora-
tive success stories inspire the new B'nai
Israel-Kol Ami venture.
The idea of housing Jewish congrega-
tions of different religious streams under
one roof is not new It's a growing phe-
nomenon, even on university campuses.
The coming together of Kol Ami and B'nai
Israel, as Kol Ami Rabbi Norman T. Roman
put it, "has the potential to sustain and
invigorate both of our communities:'

❑

Jerusalem Undivided

T

he three concluding words of
Hatikva, the Israel national
anthem, are familiar to everyone
who has stood at any communal event
as the blue and white flag of Israel was
saluted. But who among us thinks of the
meaning of these three words, which we
all know by heart and sing with sponta-
neous enthusiasm?
Eretz Tzion, the Land of Zion.
Yerushalayim, the city of Jerusalem.
The eternal dream of the Jewish people
is imbedded in these words; Zion and
Jerusalem have come to represent the
Jewish homeland.
One of the most dramatic events in the
Zionist movement occurred at the sixth
Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland,
in 1903. Theodor Herzl had received an
offer from British Prime Minister Joseph
Chamberlain proposing that the Jews

fering the worst from anti-
could settle in Uganda and set
Semitism, and forced to live in
up their Jewish state. Herzl saw
the Pale of Settlements. Their
in the offer an opportunity to
lives were oppressed and they
provide a temporary safe haven
were restricted from practic-
for the Jews of Russia, who
ing their religion freely or liv-
were suffering under the tyran-
ing in major cities of Russia.
nical regime of the tsar.
But it was they who walked
Herzl presided at the sixth
out on Herzl.
Zionist Congress, where he
Uganda was not Zion and
presented the "Uganda Plan"
Dr. Leonard
their dream was to settle in
to the assembled delegates. To
La chover
Eretz Yisrael, the biblical Land
Herzl's amazement, the entire
Corn munity
of Israel, even if it meant their
delegation from Russia, more
View
oppression might go on for a
than 100 delegates, under
longer time.
the leadership of Menachem
The song Yerushalayim Shel Zahav is
Ussishkin, walked out of the assembly
probably one of the best-known Israeli
hall in protest.
melodies, composed by Naomi Shemer in
To them, there was no compromise:
1967 and sung by a young woman soldier
The homeland, Zion, was Jerusalem.
in the Israel Defense Forces, Shuli Natan.
These were representatives of Eastern
Its words and magical melody captured
European Jewry, the Jews who were suf-

the hearts and minds of Israelis during
the Six-Day War and provided spirit and
courage to the Israeli people, surrounded
and outnumbered on all fronts.
As the war in Jerusalem progressed,
Col. Mordechai Gur's famous words
resound in our minds. His troops
descended from the Mount of Olives and
the military advance proceeded through
the Lion's Gate. Gur announced over the
military communications: "Jerusalem
is in our hands!' The Chief Rabbi of
Zahal, Rav Shlomo Goren, ignoring the
shells that were exploding around him,
raced in his Jeep to the Kotel and blew
the resounding notes of the shofar ...
Jerusalem was reunited.
Today, we are faced with internation-
ally mounted pressure to compromise

Undivided on page 41

October 7 • 2010

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