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Downsizing
Flint congregation donates art, furniture, books
and ritual objects as it moves to a smaller building.
Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer
A
declining Jewish population in the Flint area
has compelled its Congregation Beth Israel to
downsize locale and activities, but religious com-
mitment has motivated member initiatives to upsize its
impact outside the area.
After five years of preparation, membership recently
moved from a synagogue of 32,000 square feet, purposely
designed in the 1970s for Calkins Road, to a temporary space
of 1,800 square feet in a multi-use office structure on Miller
Road.
In the process, members decided to give away Torahs,
ritual objects, books, educational materials and art.
“We decided that given the demographics and the expens-
es involved, the building was much larger than we needed,”
says Leonard Meizlish, congregation president, who remem-
bers a time when participants included 400 larger families
instead of the 100 smaller families who now belong.
“We sold the building earlier this year for $1.15 million to
Charter School Property Development of Nevada, which is
leasing it to STEM School of Flint.
“We hold a one-year lease subject to annual renewals for
our temporary space, and we also are involved in exploring
the possibility of sharing facilities with Temple Beth El, the
local Reform congregation, or the Flint Jewish Federation.”
The first-floor suite occupied by Beth Israel is only two
miles away from where the Conservative synagogue was in
Flint Township. Furnishings from the former smaller cha-
pel have been moved to the new facility for an appearance
almost the same as the small chapel had years ago.
“We had a kosher commercial kitchen in the old build-
ing and used it for a Meals on Wheels program operated by
the Flint Jewish Federation,” Meizlish says. “We also used
the kitchen for activities in the synagogue and fundraising
events planned by the Sisterhood.
“We don’t have a kitchen in the new building, but the
Meals on Wheels program is still active. Federation moved it
to Temple Beth El.”
For some 30 years, the synagogue and temple had a com-
bined religious education program. Classes now are held at
Temple Beth El; they used to be held at Beth Israel.
“The number of children is lower, but that reflects the
demographics of the community,” says Meizlish, who counts
the growing number of one-person households in the count
of family memberships.
While placing many items in storage and selling educa-
tional inventory and kitchen equipment, volunteers con-
tacted Metro Detroit Jewish educator Lori Lasday to help
distribute other holdings.
Lori Lasday with the packed boxes of materials from Beth
Israel synagogue.
Furniture from the former chapel was moved to the new
space.
Amid the sorting and according to Jewish tradition, plans
were made to bury holy items no longer useable.
“We are people of the book and so the books have been
Joining Forces
Detroit’s Jewish Community Relations Council and American Jewish Committee become one.
Shari S. Cohen | Contributing Writer
T
wo of Detroit’s leading Jewish advo-
cacy organizations — the Jewish
Community Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit and American Jewish
Committee-Detroit — are
now one. Their boards
recently approved a
joint venture agreement
that created JCRC|AJC:
A Partnership for
Community Relations and
Jewish Advocacy.
Daniel Elbaum
The partnership idea
began with the national
AJC staff, according to
Daniel Elbaum, AJC’s
assistant executive direc-
tor and managing direc-
tor of regional offices.
Elbaum said his organiza-
tion was looking at some
AJC offices for possible
David
partnerships, and he start-
Kurzmann
ed to consider possibilities
16 July 21 • 2016
that would be “innovative and beneficial for
AJC and the Detroit community.”
Leadership changes at both AJC Detroit
and JCRC made the timing advantageous.
Kari Alterman, AJC’s well-respected Detroit
regional director, left AJC in 2015 for a
position at the Davidson Foundation, while
David Kurzmann was named to replace
Robert Cohen, JCRC’s retiring executive
director, last October. Elbaum, based in
Chicago, knew of Kurzmann through his
ADL work in Chicago and through mutual
friends.
“I am often asked why are there so many
Jewish organizations? Why don’t they work
together?” Elbaum says. He thought an
AJC-JCRC partnership could be mutually
beneficial because AJC has multiple offices in
Europe, the U.S. and Israel.
“This is an increasingly global age and
[the partnership] provides a global footprint
for the local Detroit community,” he says.
At the same time, a partnership with JCRC,
“respected locally and nationally, would
expand AJC’s presence through JCRC’s bigger
staff.”
Most AJC board members were in favor
of a partnership, viewing it as a way to
expand AJC’s presence, while a minority was
opposed because they viewed it as reducing
AJC’s role in Detroit. Both Elbaum and Alicia
Chandler, former interim president of AJC
and now officer-at-large for JCRC|AJC, deny
that the AJC Detroit office would have closed
without this partnership. Elbaum said that
if the JCRC agreement hadn’t worked out,
a replacement would have been hired for
Alterman’s position.
According to Dr.
Richard Krugel, JCRC
president, soon after
Kurzmann became
executive director, “AJC
sent a proposal through
Federation to form an
agreement to come
Dr. Richard
together to do community
Krugel
relations. JCRC did due
diligence to make sure
everything would work.”
Krugel says many AJC board members
will be incorporated in a joint JCRC|AJC
board. The joint venture agreement was
approved by both organizations in May.
“We’ll be better with more resources,
doing different things we should be doing,
and I’m excited about it,” he says.
Kurzmann says the two organizations are
“very much aligned” and would often come
together during times of conflict to advocate
for Israel. He notes that AJC has a Jerusalem
office and researchers who will be helpful for
advocacy work.
Chandler describes AJC as a politically
moderate organization that encompasses
all sides of the political spectrum and is
inclusive of the whole community. Elbaum
concurs, commenting that AJC and JCRC are
“very much centrist, pro-Israel organizations
that are very well-suited for each other.”
COMMON GROUND
JCRC was established in 1937 to support the
welfare of the Jewish community in Metro
Detroit and abroad, as well as to advocate
for the Jewish homeland. AJC, founded in
1906, established a Detroit office in 1944.
AJC is described on its website as “the global
advocate for the well-being of the Jewish
people and Israel, and for the advancement
of democratic values for all.”