jews d

in
the

New Home

Opening the doors at Marquette’s
first-ever Jewish synagogue.

SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTOS BY SHANNON RUIZ

M

arquette may be known for
its iron ore port and brewer-
ies, as the home of Northern
Michigan University or even the 2012
CBS MoneyWatch listing as one the 10
best places to retire in the U.S.
But recently, the largest city in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula added “first-
ever synagogue” to its welcoming venues
and, on May 12, some 200 guests came
out to celebrate and tour the new home
of Temple Beth Sholom (TBS).
After decades in the congregation’s
original site in Ishpeming — owned
and built by the membership in 1952 —
the group is now settled in downtown
Marquette, a 20-mile drive away, where
the majority of the area’s Jewish commu-
nity resides.
Being able to show off their new place
of worship and share the history of the
congregation at the recent open house
and reception was the culmination of a
10-year search for property and a year-
and-a-half of renovations.
“We were overcome by the turnout
and support of locals and visitors to the
area,” said Shannon Ruiz, TBS president.
Always looking to reach out beyond
the local Jewish community, the 30-fam-

ily congregation has regularly opened its
doors to visitors, vacationers, college stu-
dents and those who work in the area.
“We are already seeing an increase in
participation and enthusiasm and, as a
result of the open house, we are going to
start hosting summer services,” Ruiz said.
In the past, Shabbat services have been
held from fall through spring, largely due
to the availability of some 50 rabbini-
cal students from the Cincinnati-based
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion (HUC-JIR), who have officiated
for the congregation through the years.
“However, given our new location, with
Marquette being more of a tourist town
with more visitors during the summer
months, the board has decided to try lay-
led services during the summer of 2018,”
said David Perlove, TBS vice president.
New social and spiritual art activities
will also be offered this summer, through
a grant from the Ravitz Foundation
Initiative for Small Michigan Jewish
Communities.

PACKING UP

TBS was founded in the 1940s in the
home of Willard and Lois Cohodas
when Willard began teaching a Torah

TOP: Aaron
study class to five area children
was conducted by Professor
Scholnik, second
after taking a correspondence
Emeritus Rabbi Abraham
from right, on the
course offered by the late Rabbi
Cronbach, who had just months
new bimah with
Morris Adler of Congregation
before eulogized Julius and
Shaarey Zedek, then in Detroit. open house guests. Ethel Rosenberg, who had been
ABOVE: Guests fill
Eventually, students’ mothers
executed by the U.S. after being
the new Temple
joined Cohodas and a consul-
convicted of committing espio-
Beth Sholom sanc- nage for the Soviet Union.
tant from Minneapolis to write
tuary in Marquette.
The Reform congregation
the curriculum.
remained in its original build-
High Holiday services were
ing for more than 60 years, beginning the
held in various locations until, in 1951,
move to the new site in May 2017. At that
the Cohodas’ young nephew, Howard,
time, a “deconsecration service” included
asked why the town did not have a
a celebration of congregants danc-
synagogue. Plans began for a building
ing the synagogue’s two Torah scrolls
to be constructed in Ishpeming on land
down the aisles and transporting them,
donated by the Cleveland Cliffs Iron
along with other religious items, to the
Company. A groundbreaking ceremony
new building, which was purchased in
took place in June 1952, with a build-
December 2016 and renovated with con-
ing dedication the following year. Two
families, the Fines and Lowensteins, each gregational funds and a capital campaign
that included a substantial anonymous
gifted a more than 100-year-old Torah
donation.
to the congregation, transported from
The dedication and sanctification
Lithuania to the UP.
service held at the open house was led
With no regular rabbi, Willard
by Rabbi Samuel M. Stahl, who served as
Cohodas often led services, until the
the TBS rabbinical student-rabbi from
arrival of HUC-JIR student rabbis, some
1964-65, and is married to Lynn Cohodas
bringing instruments and songs in
Stahl, the daughter of one of the syna-
recent years.
gogue’s founding couples.
The congregation’s first High Holiday
The congregation hosts once-a-month
service held in the Ishpeming building

continued on page 12

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July 19 • 2018

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