metro >> year in review

EMU professor
creating an online
archive for 19th
century Jewish studies

Year In Review from page 10

Legal Battler

By Russ Olwell

Unlike previous eras, when
scholars or interested people might
go to a library, archive or manuscript
collection for information about life
in the past, more and more historical
information is becoming digital
in form. But information does not
Andrea Kaston
make its way from a folder in a dusty
archive out to the Internet on its own.
That is where scholars such as EMU English Professor Andrea
Kaston help. To preserve and make available evidence of 19th century
Jewish life, particularly in Great Britain, Kaston is developing a web
portal that will bring documents and information off the shelves and
onto a new web platform.
The site will start with documents from 19th century England,
which is Kaston's literary specialty, but she plans for it to grow to
encompass more of the migrations among the Jewish community
in the 19th century. While the site is designed to be detailed and
rigorous enough for specialized scholars to find research materials,
the site will have many features that appeal to anyone with an interest
in Jewish history.
When she thinks of non-scholarly users, Kaston says, "I think of
my father, who will look at the Ellis Island website to look for which
boat his family took to come to America. This site would enable
someone to look up information on what life was like in the 19th
century in the East End of London, for their own personal or family
history research:'
Site materials will range from the historic to the literary. Kaston is
working with libraries and museums in London to locate materials,
never published, that will help scholars and the general public better
understand Jewish life in 19th century England. These materials
can include literary texts, such as novels, records of synagogues,
collections of pamphlets, and even playbills from the Yiddish theater.
The site will serve to centrally organize the information on the
web about 19th century Jewish life, much of which can be found
buried in other web collections. She is working with collaborators in
linguistics to create a search process that will better allow people to
find information they are interested by theme and topic, rather than
just title and author. This will allow users to find information that
previously would have been overlooked.
Although this project is just starting, Kaston is at work locating
material and writing grant applications to support the project. Her
work promises to bring information about the history of migration
and settlement of Jewish communities to a world wide audience.

Russ Olwell is an EMU Professor of History and Director of the EMU
Gear Up Program.

EMU

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December 27 • 2012

Eagle School

Eagle School Controversy Still Rages
The sale of the former Eagle Elementary School at Middlebelt and 14 Mile roads
in West Bloomfield, sold by Farmington Public Schools (FPS) to Islamic Cultural
Association (ICA) of Franklin for $1.1 million, was finalised on Jan. 12.
The contentious deal had triggered a July 29, 2011, lawsuit by Farmington Hills
residents Eugene Greenstein and Melvyn Sternberg that was dismissed in September
2011 when the court said the men did not have the standing to sue. The decision was
appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which reaffirmed the lower court's rul-
ing on Sept 20, 2012. The Appeals Court ruling has been appealed to the Michigan
Supreme Court.
In June, the politically conservative Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor sent
a letter to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette requesting an investigation into
potential wrongdoing by FPS in regard to the sale, which FPS denies. Schuette has yet
to announce any investigation.
On Aug. 14, the ICA went before the West Bloomfield Commission; a site visit
followed on Sept. 9. However, in October, at the ICAS request, the West Bloomfield
Township Planning Commission tabled review of the plans.

Chabad Lawsuit
On April 17, Oak Park-based Chabad Lubavitch of Michigan (CLM), the central-
ized leadership of the Chabad movement in Michigan, sought to exert its claim
of hierarchal authority over the Sara and Morris Tugman Bais Chabad Torah
Center and demanded title to the West Bloomfield congregation's building,
among other relief.
The case was dismissed, in part,
because CLM waited too long
to bring its suit under the state's
statute of limitation laws and also
because CLM failed to include the
Torah Center board in the rabbini-
cal court proceeding whose judg-
ment it was seeking to enforce.
On Nov. 16, CLM filed a brief
in the Michigan Court of Appeals
seeking to reinstate its lawsuit
The Sara and Morris Tugman Bais
against the Torah Center.
Chabad Torah Center
In a statement, CLM said it
hoped that the Torah Center "and
its rabbi will change their direc-
tion and choose to abide by the rabbinical rulings. That would save additional
money, heartache and division within the community:'
The Torah Center will file an opposing brief. In a statement, it said, "The
untold disruption of Torah learning and service to HaShem cannot be recap-
tured. The funds used by CLM to sue the Torah Center, together with those
required by the Torah Center to defend against this frivolous lawsuit, and now
this appeal, could have been so much better used:'

