metro >> on the cover

Welcome To

Temple marks 25 years with a look
back, a look ahead — and a party.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman I Contributing Writer

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The "miracle" ad and five others that
included innovative and clever text with
biblical illustrations, were the creation
of Shir Shalom's founder, Rabbi Dannel
Schwartz.
"It was to show those who said we
wouldn't make it from our first meeting
in the early summer of 1988 to the High
Holidays:' said Schwartz, who formed Shir
Shalom after leaving a position at Temple
Beth El in Bloomfield Township. "By the
High Holidays, we had nearly 500 member
families:'
To invite unmarrieds to join the temple,
ads included one with a sketch of Noah's
ark and the lines, "You don't have to come
in pairs. Singles are welcome at Shir
Shalom:'
Another, aimed toward the intermar-
ried, used the words, "Ruth intermarried,
too. At Shir Shalom, we would have made
her part of our family:'
"That one ran after I did a needs-
assessment and found nobody was servic-
ing intermarried couples:' Schwartz said.
"Some rabbis were officiating at intermar-
riage ceremonies, but no congregation was
doing programming for intermarrieds.
"The ad ran in the Jewish News near
the back of the paper. The ultra Orthodox
community went berserk and the paper
got letters. And those letters ran on page
five or six, and let more people know
about the temple — at no charge to us. So
I wrote a letter back, and it ran, too. Free
advertising. Next came an article describ-
ing how the 'ousted rabbi' responded to
intermarried critics. And that was a game
changer:'
He said not only did interfaith couples
come, but so did their siblings and their
parents. "Their families' concerns had
never been met either, and they saw we
were dealing with their children and

grandchildren positively:'
Schwartz said. "It changed
the face of how mainline con-
gregations dealt with inter-
marrieds in Detroit."
With minimal funds, the
ads included illustrations
taken from old Bible story-
books. "I used books that
were out of print, so they
were out of copyright:' he
said. "Ours were the first
full-page synagogue ads that
ran. The Jewish News was
our guardian angel. Without
it, there would have been no
way to spread the word —
and there would be no Shir
Shalom:'

Something New
Shir Shalom's 30 founding
families had been members at Beth El.
When Schwartz left at the end of 1987,
they came with him, hoping he would
start a new synagogue.
"The first meetings were at our house
and the homes of a few others:' recalled
Dr. Norman Lynn of West Bloomfield. He
and his wife, Dee Dee, were among the
first six families to join together.
"We did a lot of legwork early on, had
meeting after meeting and spent a lot of
evenings making phone calls:' he said.
"We told Beth El members, 'We are con-
sidering starting a new congregation with
Dannel, the rabbi you know and love, to
lead us. We said we were not knocking
Beth El, but rather that we wanted to be
with Dannel.
"We told those who agreed to put their
money where their mouth was. And they
did. We put that money in escrow, and
when we reached the right amount, we
went forward with a steering committee

and the project took on a life of its own:'
After leaving Beth El, Schwartz had
been accepted to Yale Law School. "I
thought I wanted to get out of the rabbin-
ate, but I took a pass and decided to give it
a year:' he said. "I told them I would work
for free until we got our sea legs, but their
job was to get 100 new families by the first
High Holidays. By then, we had almost
five times that amount and outgrew the
building we were renovating and had to
rent space in West Bloomfield High School
for services:'
The congregation's first home was in
11,000 square feet of rented office space.
"We didn't have to put up any money
because the first six months' rent was free
Schwartz said. "And the landlord fixed up
the inside. We were doing just fine. Except
that we outgrew the building the day we
moved in."
During that first year, the congregation
started to plan where they would move

Rabbis Dannel Schwartz and Michael
Moskowitz inside the almost-complete
Shir Shalom building in 1995.

when they had the funds. By the second
year, they had grown by another 200 fami-
lies. A year later, they purchased land and
then fundraised for the down payment on
a building.
In 1993, Schwartz spearheaded the
design and construction of the current
West Bloomfield home of Shir Shalom and
the 950 families who affiliate there.
Through the work of Neumann-Smith
Architecture in Southfield, the building
was created. "Kenny Neumann was a bril-
liant designer and Joel Smith made the
details sing within the building; Schwartz
said.
The outside of the building was fash-
ioned from Schwartz's idea for it to look
like a Torah Scroll unfurling from right
to left. "I wanted it to look like a Torah,
but we only had enough funds to make it

Shir Shalom on page 12

10 May 16 • 2013

JN

