metro A Taste Of Israel In Downtown Detroit Chef Cari's kosher falafel booth comes to Campus Martius Park. Amanda Lewan Special to the Jewish News F alafel is a round chickpea patty fried, seasoned and wrapped in warm pita bread. Chef Cari's falafel comes with tahini and a house- made sauce that adds just the right dose of spice to the dish. While Detroit might have Middle Eastern cuisine, in my opinion, it hasn't seen falafel this good yet. Downtown Detroit also hasn't seen many vegan, gluten-free and kosher choic- es. Chef Cari's "The Spot" is the first new kosher-certified food business to arrive at Detroit's Campus Martius Park. Her Spot can be found among the brightly colored food vendors in the park. In the sweltering heat of the summer, you'll see lines already forming at her booth that opened July 15. Inside you'll find her serving falafel and side dishes that are all gluten-free and made from scratch, including hand-cut French fries, quinoa tabouli and falafel varieties. Chef Cari has been cooking profession- ally for more than 20 years, running her full-service catering company in Oak Park for eight years. She's testing out Downtown Detroit as a possible location for her new restaurant. So far the results have been worth it. "We've had Dan Gilbert here. We've had return visitors every day," Chef Cari Herskovitz Rosenbloom said. "It's been really great so far. We've had such an over- whelmingly amazing welcome from the community. We really want to stay and be a part of the new booming Detroit scene:' Vadim Avashalumov, an urban plan- ner at Rock Ventures, along with Yisrael Pinson, a rabbi affiliated with West Bloomfield-based Friendship Circle who helped arrange the Menorah in the D, recruited Chef Cari to Detroit. Pinson is working to engage and build the Jewish community in the Motor City. Both want- ed to bring more diverse food options to the park. "I picked Chef Cari because of her extensive experience in food vending and the fact that her food is really good," Pinson said. Avashalumov, who helped Rock Ventures add amenities and events to the park including the new food booths, said it's the first time in 15 years that there's been a cer- tified kosher restaurant Downtown. (Wayne State's Gold 'n Greens, another certified Detroit in 1943, joining their maternal aunt, Frances Nadell, who raised them. The chil- synagogue, Congregation Shaarey Zedek. dren's father, Benjamin, sent support money Founded in 1893 as Windsor's first syna- from his job in Montreal. gogue, Shaarey Zedek's most recent building "It was unreal," said Weisman of the closed in 2012. discovery "My mom had not been back [to The tourists took many pictures at the Windsor] in 65 years and had no idea about Shaar, especially of its well-preserved, this family legacy" stained-glass windows depicting Jewish Rabbi Miriam Jerris, a Huntington Woods objects and themes. Diane resident since 1970, remembered Zogut of Southfield hanging out with other kids on said she was glad the steep, wide steps of the "Windsor's Jews still Shaar. Her grandparents have a beautiful on both sides settled and historic place in Windsor during to worship." the 1920s. Marilyn One of the Matthews, her mother, stained-glass pan- was born there and her els held a surprise father, Hy Muroff, came for West Bloomfield from the village David residents Ruth Hirsch, Horodok, now in Belarus. born in Windsor, and her Growing up, the B'nai B'rith daughter Debra Weisman. Youth Organization was "the only Stained glass at Hirsch, 89, was startled when Shaar Hashomayim Jewish youth group in Windsor," she noticed they were sitting Jerris said. She was Judaism chair near a panel that her parents, Sarah and for the Great Lakes Council BBYO, includ- Benjamin Simons, had donated in memory ing Flint, Grand Rapids, Mount Clemens, of their 12-year-old son and her brother, Ivan Tri-City and South Haven in Michigan. Bernard Simons. Marriages between Canadians and The boy died in 1930, and so did mother Americans sometimes resulted from oppor- Sarah two years later when Hirsch was tunities to meet as teens during their AZA 8. She and her younger brother, Morton and BBG years. (See story on cover.) Leonard Simons, eventually moved to "For me, the connections [in Windsor] Over The River from page 10 12 August 1 • 2013 kosher restaurant, is located in Midtown). "I think from our perspec- tive, it's important to have good, quality food that people love and to have diversity," Avashalumov said. "We also want to support up and com- ing food entrepreneurs like Chef Cari:' The placemaking initia- tive began back in the fall when Downtown Detroit Partnership and Rock Ventures partnered to trans- form Campus Martius into a Chef Cari's more enjoyable place to hang out, hit the beach, and well, eat falafel. Between the food vendors, live music and a bar, they've done a great job and the results have been a park packed with people. And the falafel really is that good. I tried the falafel bowl and the fresh mint-infused lemonade and can't wait to go back again soon. Some even say it's out of this country or tastes like it. "It's top-quality falafel, just as good as when I buy it in Israel," said Ben are familial, not strictly sociological or his- toric," said Jerris, touring with her Detroit- born stepmother Rita Muroff, who is now a Windsorite. At Congregation Beth El, the rabbi's cousin, Madie (Madelyn Muroff) and hus- band Arthur "Art" Weingarden spoke about organizing the synagogue in their living room in 1959. Rabbi Jeffrey Ableser leads the congregation part time. Desiring a more liberal and egalitarian place to worship, which the Shaar decidedly was not, the newlywed Weingardens, Milton and Betty Kovinsky and other like-minded couples made plans for a Reform Jewish tem- ple. Services began in 1960. The handsome, present-day synagogue features a hanging community chuppah. "During the summer months, we do a `service under the stars' at homes of our congregants," Madie Weingarden said. Beth El's first spiritual leader was Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, assistant rabbi at Temple Beth El in Detroit. He later started the Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills. Recalling the "brilliant and dynamic personality" of the late Rabbi Wine, Weingarden said that for a "young and eager congregation just learning about Reform Judaism, he was the perfect match for us — even when he began working out his new theory of Humanistic Judaism:' The buses also stopped at Shaar Spot in Campus Martius Park, Detroit Rosenzweig, who works at Howard Schwartz Commercial Real Estate in Farmington Hills. "Our truck always has the longest lines," Chef Cari adds, "because people just love our food:' Chef Cari's Spot reopens after her cur- rent vacation. Check it out in Campus Martius from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 5-16. ❑ This story first appeared on the blog, Hell Yeah Detroit, www.hellyeandetroit.com . Hashomayim Cemetery, where a headstone marks the re-interred remains of Windsor's first Jewish settler, Moses David (1768- 1814). Not until about 1878, however, did Eastern European immigrants establish "the first viable Jewish presence in Windsor," according to Rabbi Jonathan Plaut's The Jews of Windsor, 1790 1990 (Dundern Press). "The day was amazing," Kessler said later. "I could not believe that we had 150 participants [plus six docents] in Windsor — learning, enjoying, socializing and con- necting!" "It was nice to learn some Canadian his- tory and what unites us as Jews on both sides of the river," Zogut said. - ❑ Upcoming Jewish Historical Society Of Michigan Events • Sunday, Aug. 18: JCycle III - A 14-mile bicycle tour of Historic Northwest Detroit. Register online. • Sunday, Sept. 22: "Settlers to Citizens: A Bus Tour of Historic Northwest Detroit." For information or a private group tour, call (248) 432-5517 from 10 a.m-2 p.m. weekdays or contact info@michjewishhistory.org .