Tuesday, December 5, 2006

"Nusach HARI" in Detroit



Friendly anonymous sent me this pic from the same site! a "Nusach Hari" shul in Detroit now a church. Ouch!

Then again this shul did not necessarily belong to today's Lubavitch, although the date on the plaque is 5708. They could not necessarily stop the sale of the building, unlike Stolin. Then again, maybe Stolin could not stop it either? I wonder if we know anything about this Lubavitcher shul. Any help would be appreciated. If it turns out that I was wrong about Stolin (and about Lubavitch, the shul that is) I'll be Mekabel Nezifeh.

Careful when you click, it's full of Tslomim

Comments on the shul: Just recently while I was riding my bike down 9 mile Rd in Oak Park. I saw the synagogue Nusach Hari. This is their second synagogue since they moved out of Detroit in 1958.
-Dana


This was my Zaide's schul which I occasionally attended. I had my "other" Bar Bitzvah there. My first was at reform Temple Israel. But, being the only grandson, I couldn't disappoint Zaide Levine, so I learned a second one. It was good for me.

........ס'טוט זייער וויי

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This particular shul was not biyedei lubavitch, its later incarnation is currently the Lubavitch yeshivah there.

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

I'm glad to hear that.

Was this shul a gilgul of an earlier one in another neighborhood?

Milhouse said...

Most Nusach Ari shuls in America had little or nothing to do with Lubavitch as an organisation, and were certainly not financially in the hands of Lubavitchers, who could prevent their sale to churches. Some of them had no mechitzas, or were stam Conservative or worse.

Milhouse said...

By the way, how do you feel about the building in the East End of London, which was originally built as a Huguenot church, was later sold to a Methodist church, then was for many years the biggest shul in London, and is now a Bangladeshi mosque?

Anonymous said...

Millhouse, were they original established as consevative?

Hirshel Tzig - הירשל ציג said...

How do I feel? How can I feel, other tan awful. Breaks your heart, I tell ya.

Anonymous said...

anon, they were not. Millhouse, although legally there was nothing to be done, some of them had been supported by the Rebbeim and donations from abroad when the immigrants first came.

Anonymous said...

American shuls supported from abroad?

Citations, please.

Anonymous said...

Chicago had numerous shuls left behind when the Jews 'wandered' North.
Many of them were Nusach Ari shuls.

In many cases the declines in the neighborhoods became so bad that the buildings ended up too far damaged to be salable for any decent money and the churches simply took them over AFAIK.

I have pictures..

I also have a picture of the empty lot of the Chabad shul Bnei Reuven, which was (one of) the only one that refused to sell out to a church. The building was eventually razed by the city and remains an empty city lot to this day.

An orthodox shul in older neighborhood is now in the hands of Chabad because the retiring Rabbi wanted to make sure it remained open. Another shul (only blocks from Telshe Yeshiva) was also entrusted to Chabad to keep it alive in its last years.