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Special Column

Editorial

A Hearty Mazel Toy
To Shaarey Zedek!

On Sacred Ground

A visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau
stirs both horror and hope.

1

The railway tracks leading into the Birkenau extermination camp

L

ast May, I was invited to the Detroit

Tigers' dugout at Comerica Park
to attend the press conference of a
baseball player accused of shouting anti-
Semitic epithets during a drunken, late-
night altercation in New York
City.
I remember the feeling of
shock that an athlete we fans had
cheered and rooted for could let
us down so grotesquely.
One lasting memory of that
day, however, did not involve that
crude player. Rather, I felt the
fulfillment of the childhood curi-
osity of setting foot on the Tigers'
home field. I watched as a coach
dragged out a heavy bag full of
bats for batting practice. I saw
players run wind sprints or loosen
their arms playing catch.
But then, a strange thing happened.
Standing on the field, I could sense the
reality of being a baseball player. Comerica's
green grass, golden dirt and snow-white
chalk lines were Technicolor bright, but
essentially, I felt, not all that different
from the suburban diamond where my age
50-plus softball team played.
As I surveyed third base, I could imagine
what it would be like to handle that hot cor-
ner (despite being left-handed and triple the
age of a Major League rookie).
The feelings of standing on that hallowed
spot were that strong.
Later that year, I had a much more jarring
experience of standing on sacred ground.
In October, I traveled to Poland for a
three-day trip to Krakow. On the first day, I
visited Kazimierz, the historic Jewish area,
and saw its 500-year-old synagogue build-
ings as well as a new Jewish Community
Center that boasted 400 members.
On the third day, I spent hours at

24

January 17 • 2013

Krakow's Galicia Jewish museum, where
dozens of photographs were displayed
documenting southern Poland's lost Jewish
culture, evidenced by cemeteries and
shuls desecrated or destroyed during the
Holocaust.
On the second day, however,
I left Krakow for a one-hour
bus trip to the "ground zero" of
the Holocaust — the concentra-
tion camp at Auschwitz and the
extermination factory at adja-
cent Birkenau, where more than
a million Jews were gassed and
cremated.

'Arbeit Macht Frei'
The parking lot at Auschwitz
was jammed with buses, and I
felt it was a good thing that so
many people from all over the world were
witnessing for themselves the reality of
Hitler's genocide of the Jews. I was just one
of nearly Ph million people who visited the
camp last year.
The reception building near the parking
lot had restrooms and some Polish-style
refreshments for sale (including, ironically,
ham sandwiches). But once my tour group
walked through the infamous gates ghoul-
ishly adorned with the lie Arbeit Macht
Frei ("Work Sets You Free in German),
the mood turned somber as the docent
described the hatred, torture and death that
took place were we visitors now tread.
The rainy, gray day was appropriately
dreary, and the muddy earth where my
ancestors died clung to my soles. As my
group went through the German headquar-
ters where prisoners, Jewish and others,
were tortured and slain, the reality of being
here in Auschwitz sunk in.
In one of the buildings, the curators

On Sacred Ground on page 25

C

ongregation Shaarey Zedek is one of Jewish Detroit's storied syna-
gogues. It has stood tall and proud throughout its 150-year history.
The Dec. 30 death of Rabbi Irwin Groner, a beloved spiritual leader
and a renowned religious force, prompted a time of reflection shortly after
the synagogue had ended its yearlong sesquicentennial celebration.
From its bold breakaway from Beth El Society in 1861, through its 20th-
century rise to one of Metro Detroit's most influential houses of worship to
its 21st-century challenges of helping redefine the Conservative movement
and helping confront a declining local Jewish population, Shaarey Zedek
has held court from its five homes in Detroit and, since 1962, from its
majestic, Albert Kahn/Percival Goodman-designed edifice in Southfield.
It's not easy for anything to last 150 years, let alone a synagogue, which
simultaneously must wrestle with changing demographics, rituals, clergy
and budgets. Shaarey Zedek has experienced all of that. Attracting and
keeping more young families, assuring Conservative Judaism stays vital
and vibrant, and securing the future of its huge Southfield campus remain
core issues of the synagogue.
Shaarey Zedek's stunning triangular
facade, representing a coming together
like clasped hands, soars skyward, replete
with French-designed stained glass, rep-
resenting the tribes of Israel. The open
space right at the top of the arcing con-
crete columns is a subtle reminder that
even magnificence in bringing family and
community together must bridge signifi-
cant obstacles along the way.
Shaarey Zedek has been at the fore-
front of Detroit Jewish history – from
opening the first modern religious school
The striking facade of
in 1898 and Clover Hill Cemetery in 1919
Shaarey Zedek is a landmark
to hosting a red-flag meeting warning
along M-10 and 1-696 in
Americans about the Nazi Germany threat Southfield.
in 1938 to hosting a massive pro-Israel rally
against the terrorist organization Hamas in 2009.
Whether it was assisting fugitive slaves or immigrant Jews in the 1800s,
or helping develop the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit or Israeli
statehood local support in the 1900s, Shaarey Zedek stepped up. Fighting
varying strains of anti-Semitism in Metro Detroit also has captured the col-
lective eye of CSZ leadership. With other local Conservative synagogues,
Shaarey Zedek has strived to engage more Conservative teenagers before
they lose their sense of what it means to be Jewish. Full egalitarianism
arrived in 1998. Jewish education remains a hallmark interest – as it must
given the tug of today's American secular lifestyle.
The synagogue's religious leaders have been rabbinic giants: Judah Leib
Levin, Abraham Hershman, Morris Adler, Irwin Groner – a daunting legacy
of spiritual fervor, social justice, Zionism and national standing that Rabbi
Joseph H. Krakoff is committed to. Just 42, he already has 15 years of ser-
vice on Bell Road.
Shaarey Zedek is a champion of energizing the Conservative movement,
improving interfaith relations, honoring war veterans, reaching out to the
less fortunate and serving at the highest levels of the Jewish community.
As it settles back in following a glorious year of deserving celebration
and reminiscence, Shaarey Zedek vows to embrace a strategy for not just
surviving, but also prospering. At the start of the 150th anniversary festivi-
ties, Rabbi Krakoff told the JN: We got to this day through perseverance
and facing challenges head-on – through innovation, creativity and the will-
ingness to change and evolve when appropriate."
Emboldening that solid strategy would well serve the historic, 1,300-fam-
ily congregation. It must build on the energy and excitement of its 150th to
keep from losing that precious momentum amid relentless challenge. E