32 | AUGUST 10 • 2023
faces&places
The Jewish Historical Society of
Michigan (JHSM) transported
a busload of enthusiastic Metro
Detroiters to Bay City on a
beautiful, sunny Sunday at the end
of June.
The group included one of two
rabbis who share duties at the Bay
City synagogue, Rabbi Dorit Edut,
and several Detroiters with ties to
the Bay City or Saginaw Jewish
communities. They were joined by
other observers interested in the
Jewish history of Michigan outside
of Detroit.
Rabbi Ari Witkin shares duties
with Rabbi Edut at Bay City’s
Temple Beth Israel.
The Bay City community
members hosted the bus
participants with a tour, a history
lesson of the area and some joined
the group for lunch.
The first stop on the tour was
the “Hebrew Cemetery” in Bay
City. Participants were amazed
by the size of the burial grounds,
which hold 800 gravesites. Many
Jews followed the lumber industry
servicing lumbermen and the
growing new community as
peddlers and small business owners
in the late 1880s.
One of those Jewish families was
the Himelhoch family, including
three brothers. The tour made a
stop at the Himelhoch Victorian
home, which is now a bed and
breakfast. One of the Himelhoch
brothers left Bay City to establish
the well-known Himelhoch
Department Store in Detroit.
The tour went by the
Palestine Colony at Bad Axe,
an experimental agricultural
community from 1890 that lasted
about 10 years; some of the Jews
from Bad Axe remained in the area
for decades.
Tour participants look forward
to another Jewish history trip
to northern Michigan in early
October.
Hilary Duberstein, JHSM
program director, arranged the Bay
City tour.
Jewish Historical
Society Hosts
Bay City Tour
PHOTOS COURTESY JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MICHIGAN
JHSM members visit
the Bay City Community
Jewish Cemetery.
James and Janet Moses have tea on the
porch of the Himelhoch’s former Victorian
home, now a bed and breakfast.
Rabbi Dorit Edut leads
Kaddish at the Jewish
cemetery in Bay City.