18 | MAY 12 • 2022 

W

indsor’s Congregation Beth El 
(CBE) was first conceived in 
the winter of 1959 when sever-
al families met informally to consider estab-
lishing a Reform congregation. After many 
meetings, the small group resolved to estab-
lish CBE and first held religious services in 
Southwood School in the spring of 1960. 
A large house on Ouellette Avenue served 
as the first home for the congregation. As 
the membership grew, the congregation 
broke ground for a new building in October 
1961. Construction began in May 1962 
and the cornerstone was laid that July. An 
addition was built in 1981 and was officially 
dedicated in early 1982.
CBE represents a modern interpretation 
of ancient Jewish tradition, designed to 
meet the needs of the 20th-century Jewish 
community of Windsor. CBE is affiliated 
with the Union of Reform Judaism and the 
Canadian Council of Liberal Congregations.

CBE looked to Detroit’s Temple Beth El 
as a model in its early stages as a Reform 
congregation, said Sarah Shklov, CBE’s 
office manager/administrator.
CBE’s first rabbi was Sherwin Wine, pre-
vious rabbi at Detroit’s Temple Beth El who 
later founded the Birmingham Temple, the 
first congregation of Humanistic Judaism. 
Rabbi Jonathan Plaut was with CBE from 
1970-1984 and was instrumental in build-
ing the congregation. Rabbi Jeffrey Ableser 
served as CBE’s spiritual leader 1993-2018.
Since then, CBE has had one rabbi who 
left due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which 
brought uncertainty to the role.
“We decided we would wait a year or two 
and kind of get our finances back in order 
before we hired another rabbi,
” Sarah said. 
“We’re in that transitional stage right now.
” 
This past year, CBE has had a student 
rabbi from the Hebrew Union College– 
Congregation Beth El Jewish Institute of 

Religion in Cincinnati come once a month. 
CBE has also applied to have a student 
who will come every three weeks from 
Cincinnati this coming year. 
“
And then hopefully somewhere in there, 
we’ll decide if we can either find a part-time 
rabbi or employ a full-time rabbi,
” Shklov 
said.
Other important figures at the congre-
gation include President Karen Rosen, 
Cantorial Soloist Tracey Atin and accompa-
nist Michael Ricketts. 
Congregation Beth El runs a small 
Sunday morning religious school for the 
children of congregants. Children start in 
kindergarten and continue through bar/bat 
mitzvah and beyond.
A positive that’s come out of the pan-
demic, Shklov said, is the connection CBE 
has made with Rabbi Debra Dressler from 
London, Ontario’s Temple Israel. The two 
congregations have participated in many 
joint events.
“For Pesach, we had a second night seder. 
We were live, Dressler was on Zoom, and 
we did it together,
” Shklov said. “Several of 
our members have even been joining them 
for Torah study on Saturday mornings.
”
CBE participates in many interfaith and 
social action events, including holding a 
blood drive with the local Muslim com-
munity and hosting a security session with 
police for faith groups of all sorts. CBE 
hopes to do more of these events coming 
out of the pandemic, according to Shklov. 

SYNAGOGUE SPOTLIGHT

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Congregation Beth El 
Stays Strong After 60+ 
Years as Windsor’s 
Reform Synagogue

Temple Beth 
El Sanctuary

Exterior of 
Congregation 
Beth El

