Metro
New Local Yeshivah
Toledo school breathes new life into B'nai Israel's former building.
Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
T
he purchase of a single building on
Walnut Lake Road is the impetus for
an influx of new residents to relocate
to West Bloomfield.
On Dec. 20, the former Congregation
Shaarey Zedek (CSZ) B'nai Israel Center
officially became the home of the Mesivta of
Toledo, which includes a school and commu-
nity prayer service and education programs.
Plans for the purchase began last summer
after CSZ announced it would close the West
Bloomfield facility on Sept. 18 to consolidate
operations into its Southfield building. A
Sept. 28 vote among the synagogue's mem-
bership approved the sale of the building.
After searching on and off for a year-
and-a-half — in both West Bloomfield
and Southfield — MesivtA administrators
deemed the building ideal for classes, ser-
vices and social and athletic activities. But
because a major component of the yeshivah
is a residential boys high school, renovations
were necessary to create dormitory rooms,
showers and a laundry area.
During the nearly four months of meet-
ings with West Bloomfield Township officials
to gain site plan approval, the school rented
the building from CSZ so students could
begin classes at the beginning of the school
year. Mesivta's 30 students in grades 9-12
are currently living in private homes in West
Bloomfield, Southfield and Oak Park. They
will move into the building upon completion
of construction, which began Dec. 27.
Move To West Bloomfield
The school had been housed in Congregation
Etz Chayim in Toledo since it was founded
four years ago.
"We wanted it to be in a place that would
be central to the hometowns of the students
we hoped to attract, and the space in Toledo
was available,' said Rabbi Pinchus Neuberger,
the school's director. "But we always consid-
ered ourselves a Detroit-area school"
While they were based in Toledo, Mesivta's
group of young rabbis — none of whom
were Toledo natives — had to make arrange-
ments for their own children to commute
daily to school at Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in
both Southfield and Oak Park and Yeshivas
Darchei Torah in Southfield.
Several of the rabbis already had a Detroit
connection. Rabbi Menachem Freedman,
head of school, is the nephew of Rabbi E.B.
Joe Dettloff, site manager for Belfor Property Restoration
of Birmingham, talks with Rabbi Pinchus Neuberger about
Rabbi Menachem Freedman oversees students taking a test.
A hallway at Mesivta of Toledo high
school.
"Bunny" Freedman, executive director of
Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network in
West Bloomfield, and Rabbi Tzali Freedman,
director of the Central East region of the
National Conference of Synagogue Youth in
Southfield.
Menachem Freedman's grandfather, the
late Rabbi Avrohom Abba Freedman, a
beloved longtime Torah educator in Detroit,
greatly influenced his initiative toward Torah
education. Menachem's wife is the daughter
of Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz, founder of
Machon L'Torah in Oak Park, and his sister,
Esther, is married to Neuberger.
Both Freedman and Mesivta Rabbi
Avraham Dreyfus studied at the Kollel
Institute of Greater Detroit in Oak Park. At
that time, Freedman developed the plan to
create the school.
"There was a need for an out-of-town
yeshivah option in the Midwest, with a
high level of learning, like those on the East
Coast;' he said.
And now they've brought that idea — and
new residents — to West Bloomfield.
In addition to the students, four of the
school's rabbis and their families have
moved to West Bloomfield, where they have
become involved in area synagogues, attend-
ing services during school breaks when
the construction.
Mesivta is closed.
Freedman and
his family are living in a home once occupied
by another rabbi.
"Part of our purchase agreement with
Shaarey Zedek included the house owned
by the synagogue, where Rabbi [Eric] Yanoff
and his family lived',' he said.
All of the school's students who had been
enrolled for classes this year made the move
from Toledo. For a dozen of them, that meant
coming back to their home community. The
boys will live at the school, along with class-
mates from other cities, including Cleveland,
Chicago, New Jersey and Baltimore.
Neuberger said, "All of the rabbis who
were with us in Toledo came with us. We
hired new secular studies teachers after
arriving."
The staff totals 12.
What's Inside?
In addition to the school, Mesivta of Toledo
— which will retain the Ohio-generated
name — is also a synagogue and learning
center, with both open to the community.
"We don't want to take away from anyone's
regular synagogue, but we are here as a
place to daven, both during the week and on
Shabbos," Neuberger said.
Community learning also has begun.
"For now, we haven't started a women's
section, but we already have men and boys
coming to learn in evening classes and with
a study partner we provide," Neuberger said.
The building, constructed in 1975 by
Congregation B'nai Israel of Pontiac, which
later merged with CSZ, includes classrooms,
a library, a social hall, a sanctuary and meat
and dairy kitchens. Daily meals are prepared
by Jewel Kosher Caterers in Oak Park.
Neuberger declined to give monetary
details or names of donors to the school, but
said, "People have stepped up to start this
project, and we look forward to continuing to
work with the community at large:'
Added Freedman, "We got started
with community donations and loans.
[Community member] Hartley Harris [of
West Bloomfield] volunteered to help out
and was instrumental in meeting with the
West Bloomfield planning commission."
Said Neuberger, "Township Supervisor
Michele Economou Ureste and trustee
and planning commission member Steven
Kaplan, along with the entire township staff,
were helpful and ready to work to benefit
West Bloomfield:'
At this time, Mesivta does not receive sup-
port from the Bloomfield Township-based
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
"We will do a building campaign and offer
dedication opportunities in the near future
Freedman said.
Neuberger said the choice of West
Bloomfield is ideal."We feel like we are in the
center of the community; but in a pastoral
setting': he said.
Added Freedman, "We chose the area
deliberately. We didn't want to be in Oak Park
or Southfield; we wanted the boys from those
areas to have an out-of-town feel.
"We want to be able to offer a whole new
level of learning in West Bloomfield. We want
to be a center for anyone who wants to, to be
able to come learn Torah."
For information on Mesivta of
Toledo's boys high school, commu-
nity education programs or religious
services, call (248) 738-7230 or
contact Rabbi Menachem Freedman
at (248) 219-8969.
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