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Historical Tour

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For its 100th anniversary year kickoff, B'nai Moshe
members go back in time.

Keri Guten Cohen
Story Development Editor

I

t's said you can't go home again;
well, don't tell that to some former
members of Congregation B'nai
Moshe in West Bloomfield who made
themselves feel quite at home in the
same seats they had occupied for years
when the synagogue was located on
Dexter Avenue in Detroit.
The building has been home to St.
Paul's A.M.E. Zion Church since 1959,
but more than 125 B'nai Moshe mem-
bers stopped by during a bus tour of
Jewish Detroit on Oct. 10 conducted

by the Jewish Historical Society of
Michigan. The event kicked off the syna-
gogue's 100th anniversary year.
One of those comfortable in her
former seat was Renee Gunsberg of
West Bloomfield, whose's late husband,
Richard, was a son of one of the original
b'nai moshe, sons of Moshe Gunsberg,
who renamed the synagogue in 1917
after naming rights went to the highest
bidder.
"It was another world:' Gunsberg told
the group, as she recalled first sitting in
the balcony as a girl with her mother,
aunts and cousins, all in new outfits for
Rosh Hashanah. "I looked down and

Photo by Lee mus P ho tog rap hy

Family Focus

saw the men in their hats and taleisim
(prayer shawls) ... I married one of the
boys in the boys' choir."
Her son, Larry, of Farmington, also
sings in the B'nai Moshe mixed choir,
which performed a few numbers at the
church that Sunday. He was there with
his son, Evan, 16, who represented yet
another generation.
Mike Grand of West Bloomfield sat in
the same seat he had sat in as a boy.
"The building is pristine; still the
way I remembered it," he said to those
assembled, including members of St.

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The stained glass windows retain their

Stars of David.

Historical Tour on page 60

ANYWHERE ELSE

THIS WOULD JUST BE AN OLD CITY.

This is where the stories we grew
up with happened ; where the events that have most profoundl y affected humankind
tookplace. No cit y in the world can match its power to bring the past to life. It is one
of the man y wonders of Israel --where the histor y that makes us who we are still lives.

BUT THIS IS JERUSALEM

There's a. lit lei 1)11 01 Israel in all ()I us. ( (nue

the I sraci in you.

ISRAEL

goisrael.com

October 21 • 2010

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