continued from page 6

Y
Yakar brought a backpack Torah to read in a tent on
th
the grounds of Michigan State University’s Tollgate
F
Farm in Novi.
A party followed in the barn, where 125 guests
en
enjoyed pizza, salad and Dairy Queen Blizzards made
o
on site.
Golodner’s daughter, Eliana Schreiber, is 18 months
yo
younger than her brother. Because Orthodox bat mitz-
va
vahs are usually celebrated at age 12, the Golodners
d
decided to do her non-Orthodox bat mitzvah at the same
ti
time, so it took place only five months after Asher’s.
After a private evening service in the chapel at Adat
S Shalom, the Golodners, who live in Huntington Woods,
p
provided a bus to take guests to The Eastern, a former
D
Detroit Fire Department firehouse just north of Eastern
Market. Built in 1888 as Hook and Ladder House No. 5,
M
it is the seco
second-oldest standing firehouse in Detroit.
At Eliana’s request, the party had a “graffiti” theme.
“We were very low-key and budget-
conscious throughout both, especially
h
having two in one year,” said Golodner,
w
who runs Your People LLC, a public rela-
ti
tions company. They had a caterer for the
fo
food but it was “typical kid stuff ” like soup
an
and salad. They also had a donut bar.
The venue can hold 300 seated, 600
sta
standing, and features handmade tables and
ben
benches, a full bar and bartender services, a
secu
security camera system and on-site parking.
M
MSU Tollgate Farm and Education Center,
Novi
Novi, (248) 347-3860; tollgate.msu.edu. The
East
Eastern, Detroit, (313) 914-1104;
theea
theeasterndetroit.com.

JORGE LE
MUS

HOLLY

E
KETTER

R

“You book a date and they do everything else,”
Mindy Nusbaum says of Great Lakes Culinary Center.

TOP: Blair Nosan wed Phreddy
Wischusen at the Jam Handy.
ABOVE: Aaron and Rachel Schwartz’s
wedding at the Players.

“Our wedding started while it was daylight and then
continued as it became dark, and because the walls and
roof are all glass, the same decor looked totally differ-
ent,” Wolock said. (248) 661-1515; planterra.com.

Tollgate Farm, Novi, and The Eastern (at Eastern
Market), Detroit. Lynne Golodner and her husband,
Dan, wanted “unique and out-of-the-box” bar and bat
mitzvah celebrations that fit her children’s personalities
and interests.
The children each had two bar/bat mitzvahs, one
with their Orthodox father and one with the Golodners,
who belong to Adat Shalom Synagogue (Conservative)
but identify as “just Jewish.”
Older son Asher Schreiber’s bar mitzvah in May 2015
was led by the Adventure Rabbi’s director of education,
Rabbi Evon Yakar. Adventure Rabbi is an alternative
Jewish education program based in Boulder, Colo.

C8

celebrate! • 2017

jn

The Players,
P
Detroit. Aaron Schwartz and
his bri
bride-to-be, Rachel Zerwekh, were check-
ing out
ou potential wedding venues on Belle Isle
when t they spotted the Players, a handsome
brick-fa
brick-faced building nearby on East Jefferson
in Detroit. The building belongs to the Players Club
of Detroit, founded in 1910 by a group of prominent
Detroit businessmen as a nonprofit men’s theater club.
Schwartz mentioned it to a colleague at work and
learned that another employee was a member of the
club.
“He sponsored me for membership and we were able
to have our wedding there,” said Schwartz of Oak Park,
who now works at Ghafari Associates. “It was actually
cheaper to join and pay the member rental rate instead
of paying the non-member rental rate.”
Designed by Player member and architect William
Kapp, the historic Players’ playhouse was constructed
of cinder blocks, which were revolutionary building
materials in 1925. The building is both a federal and
State of Michigan historic site.
The Schwartzes wed on May 3, 2010, under a chup-
pah knitted by Aaron’s mother, Jolene. The ceremony
took place in the club’s board room after a “pre-glow”
in the lobby. The party, for 150 guests, was in the main

auditorium, with the stage serving as the dance floor.
“They aren’t tied to a caterer, so we actually did a lot
of the food ourselves and with friends,” Schwartz said.
They also brought in Good Girls Go to Paris, a now-
closed restaurant, to run a crepe station.
“Their kitchen is all stainless steel, so it would be
easy to kasher if someone wanted to use a kosher-
certified caterer there,” Schwartz said. “It’s unique and
historic; the setting feels like a castle, all cement block
and tapestries and a circular staircase going up to the
board room where the ceremony was held,” he added.
“It’s close to Downtown and has free secured parking.”
(313) 259-3385; playersdetroit.org.

The Jam Handy, Detroit. Henry Jamison “Jam” Handy
(1886-1983) was an Olympic breaststroke swimmer
who opened an industrial film production company
in Detroit. He produced more than 7,000 films for the
U.S. Army during World War II as well as thousands for
local companies, including General Motors, working
from a building on East Grand Boulevard, not far from
GM headquarters.
Simeon Heyer, a Jam Handy fan, and his brother, Nat,
bought the building in the Wayne County tax auction
in 2010 without even looking inside. They spent years
working on it before opening it to the public.
The space is “very raw but also quite amenable to
being decorated and furnished in a wide variety of ways
to give events the right mixture of industrial austerity
and elegance,” said Heyer.
When Blair Nosan and Henry Frederick Wischusen
III — better known as Phreddy — decided to get mar-
ried last year, they knew the Jam Handy would be the
perfect venue. Nosan grew up in the Detroit suburbs;
Wischusen, a Georgia native, lived here for 12 years.
The couple now live in New York where Nosan is study-
ing for ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
“The Jam Handy is one of my favorite places in
Detroit,” Wischusen said. He’s been to theater perfor-
mances there and attended numerous communal din-
ners staged by Detroit Soup. He and Nosan put on a
Purim spiel there last year.
About 250 guests attended the Dec. 29 ceremony and
dinner, and more came for dancing later.
The couple wanted to have their chuppah outdoors
despite the winter date. Mother-of-the-bride Jo-Anne
Nosan arranged to bring in portable heaters, which
they placed around the chuppah made from tallitot
belonging to the bride and groom.
“It felt like we were walking in the desert surrounded
by pillars of flame,” Wischusen said.
The building has many rooms of various sizes, so the
bride and groom were each able to have a separate tisch
(reception) before the chuppah. Dinner, catered by Chef
Cari Kosher Catering, was in one room and the dancing
was in another.
Info@thejamhandy.com; the jamhandy.com. *