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One Year And Growing

Kol Ami and B'nai Israel celebrate shared programming,
volunteerism, friendship and space.

Temple
Kol Ami

Women from both congregations at a cooking demonstration sponsored by 'Trial Israel before the
High Holidays

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

a joint Jewish Heritage Trip to Prague and

have come together for some wonderful
joint programming. Most recently, we had
a joint family camp weekend that was a
great experience for all involved."

Budapest.
"Our first year together has exceeded
our expectations and we are just getting
started:' Ellias said. "B'nai Israel has ben-
efitted significantly from the friendship
and support of Kol Ami."

Coming Together
"Our services are separate because B'nai
Israel is a Conservative congregation
and Kol Ami is Reform, so obvious reli-
gious differences preclude some sharing','
Jacobson said."But we have an interesting
partnership, both in establishing new pro-
grams and in inviting one another to join
in each of our events, with a goal of seeing
what we can do together."
This potential was integral in B'nai
Israel's connection to the 45-year-old Kol
Ami, according to BI vice president Frank
Ellias of Farmington Hills. "Part of the
attraction was the ability to create a greater
mass of children for combined youth pro-
gramming as well as adult education and
family and social action programming."
In the past year, the congregations vol-
unteered at Yad Ezra together and mem-
bers of B'nai Israel helped out when Kol
Ami hosted homeless individuals from the
South Oakland Shelter.
"B'nai Israel had a coffeehouse and
started a book club that Kol Ami members
attended and our members came to an
event to support their school," Jacobson
said. "We are included in everything from
their sisterhood and family events to their
knitting group!'
Recently they came together for a pre-
Thanksgiving cooking demonstration and
tasting led by B'nai Israel members. And in
April, the two congregations are planning

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December 22 • 2011

Making It Work
Juggling use of the shared building on
Shabbat and holidays involves using an
internal calendar to coordinate the logis-
tics of celebrations and programming.
Kol Ami typically uses the sanctuary
on Friday nights. B'nai Israel holds ser-
vices there on Saturday mornings, while a
smaller group of TKA members meet for
services and Torah study in the building's
chapel.
Each synagogue uses a different set of
siddurim (prayer books) and Chumashim
(book-bound Torahs), stored on rolling
carts in the back of the sanctuary.
B'nai Israel has a separate kosher kitch-
en area in the building.
"If we are both in the building and
one has something that fills the park-
ing lot, we share the cost of a shuttle that
brings the others from parking spaces at
Sheiko Elementary School down the road','
Jacobson said.
"We have youth services on Shabbat
and holidays, which we hold in downstairs
classrooms. If they have lunch in the social
hall, we have Kiddush downstairs!'
Between 80 and 110 B'nai Israel congre-
gants attend services on Shabbat, and the
chapel seated only 40-50.
On weeks when Kol Ami hosted a
Saturday morning b'nai mitzvah, B'nai
Israel — whose Shabbat morning crowd

One year together: Kol Ami's Lee Schottenfels and Rabbi Norman
Roman, B`nai Israel president Linda Jacobson, Kol Ami treasurer
Gene Farber and B'nai Israel vice president Frank Ellias.

was too large for the chapel — rented
space at nearby Sheiko Elementary School.
They transported holy objects, prayer
books, Torahs and food for post-service
lunch to the school and back.
But a novel joint program that included
the renovation and expansion of the
building's chapel — which now seats 125
— eliminated the need to use the school,
except on the High Holidays when both
congregations have a large crowd.

Something New
A newly renovated chapel, reconfiguration
of administrative space and construction
of a BI office was completed just before the
High Holidays, and work on the social hall
will be finished in the next several months,
both with input from B'nai Israel mem-
ber and interior designer David Weiss of
Interiorcorp in West Bloomfield.
"The social hall's renovation will include
decorating, new carpeting, wall treat-
ments and replaced storage areas!' said Lee
Schottenfels, TKA third vice president and
chair of the renovations committee, along
with TKA board secretary Gail Raben of
Commerce and BI's Jacobson.
The project, overseen by TKA member
Joel Smith of Neumann/Smith Architecture
in Southfield, is the result of a fundraising
campaign that included donors from both
TKA and BI.
"The more than $100,000 cost is shared
by both congregations',' Schottenfels said.
The current construction is actually a
continuation of work scheduled by Kol
Ami before B'nai Israel joined in.
"Five years ago, we did a building
campaign with plans drawn for a major
addition and renovation. The school wing,

completed about three years ago was phase
one. Now we are at the beginning of phase
two, while plans for work on the building's
kitchen, sanctuary and other areas are on
the drawing board."
Initially, B'nai Israel entered into a one-
year joint operating agreement. "Now that
we have joined together in the renovation
project, we renegotiated our joint agree-
ment to 2015',' Jacobson said. "We are not
looking to stop!'
Added Schottenfels, "We are both look-
ing for a long-term partnership in terms
of space availability, shared program-
ming and presentation to the Jewish
community."

Full Circle
B'nai Israel was formed largely of mem-
bers who had previously attended services
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek's West
Bloomfield facility, which was sold last
year when the synagogue consolidated its
operations into its Southfield campus.
A group of those members originally
came to the synagogue from Congregation
B'nai Israel, which was established in
Pontiac in 1934, moved to West Bloomfield
in 1975 and merged with CSZ in the early
1990s.
Newly formed last year as B'nai Israel
Synagogue of West Bloomfield, the con-
gregation came to the Kol Ami building
after searching for a place near enough
to the old location so Shabbat-observant
congregants could continue to walk there
for services.
Traditional, participatory and lay-led
services are run by Rabbi Jonathan Berger,
who serves as B'nai Israel's rabbi. His pri-
mary professional commitment is to Hillel

