50 And Growing, Local Lubavitch gets $7 Million to Renovate and Expand

Farmington Hills, MI — Fifty years ago, Rabbi Berel Shemtov and his wife, Batsheva, settled in as Detroit’s first Shluchim (emissaries) of Chabad Lubavitch. Rabbi Shemtov heads the Lubavitch Foundation of Michigan, which has grown to include nearly 20 new young Shluchim and more then a dozen buildings.

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At a June 11 dinner at Farmington Hills Manor honoring the half-century mark in Michigan, plans were announced to renovate and expand five facilities with an infusion of $7 million in new donations.

Philanthropist Alan Zekelman of Bloomfield Hills addressed the dinner guests, explaining his connection to Chabad – a Chassidic group who follow the teachings of the dynasty of Lubavitcher rabbis – and his motivation for donating $2 million to renovate Oak Park’s Mishkan Israel building. The synagogue at Nine Mile and Coolidge also houses the Lubavitch boys yeshiva. It was built in 1958, and is sorely in need of refurbishing.

“Our yeshiva is a source of energy and our future leaders; now we’ll have a beautiful home,” said Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov, head of Mishkan Israel.

“There is no more satisfying feeling than being part of this process,” Zekelman said.

When Wanda Zekelman passed away a year and a half ago, Alan Zekelman went to Mishkan Israel to say Kaddish for his mother, and was disheartened by the condition of the building. With his donation, the facility will be renovated and doubled in size to 20,000 square feet. Also, apartments adjacent to the building were purchased and will be remodeled for use as boys dormitories.

To the sizable enclave of Chabad families who live in the Nine Mile area, the investment means a commitment to their neighborhood. The building project represents a major step in revitalizing and stabilizing the area that anchors the South Oak Park Jewish community.

This is not Zekelman’s first philanthropic project. In January, he and his two brothers announced a donation of $10 million to the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills. The Zekelman family owned Atlas Tube Inc., an Ontario-based corporation that manufactures steel tubing.

Funds raised from other major donors to Chabad, notably the Edward Meer family, will be used to finance additional local building project, including adding 10 new bunk houses to Chabad’s Camp Gan Israel in Kalkaska; expanding and renovating the Lubavitch Cheder (elementary school) on Coolidge in Oak Park; and building a new 14,000-square-foot $2.5 million Michigan Jewish Institute (MJI) vocational school building in West Bloomfield on the Chabad “Shul” campus.

The dinner, dubbed “An Unforgettable Evening of Song and Spirit,” simultaneously commemorated the 13th yartzheit (anniversary of death) of the charismatic Chabad Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

A short video of the Rebbe was shown; and several of the evening’s speakers, including guest speaker Rabbi Shalom Moshe Paltiel, spiritual leader of the Chabad community of Port Washington in Long Island, conveyed his accomplishments and vision.

Benny Friedman, nephew of acclaimed Chasidic singer Avraham Fried, sang at the gathering with an infectious enthusiasm that inspired most of the men present to push aside tables and get up and dance.

The evening ended with a surprise treat: Sheva Brachot (special wedding blessings) recited for dinner guests Ben and Sarah Rosenzweig of Farmington Hills, who were married the previous day at Chabad’s Shul in West Bloomfield.