PROLOGUE
1ST DETROIT SERVICE
SHULS
1ST HEBREW DELRAY
AARON ISRAEL [STOLINER]
ADAS YESHURN [TYLER]
ADAT SHALOM
AHAVATH ZION
AMARATH TEMPLE
AVAS ACHIM [DELMAR]
AVAS ACHIM 2
BETH AARON
BETH AARON V ISRAEL
BETH ABRAHAM
BETH ABRAHAM 2
B'NAI DAVID
BETH EL [BONSTELLE]
BETH EL
BETH EMMANUEL [TAYLOR]
BETH ITZCHOCK
BETH MOSES
BETH MOSES 2
BETH MOSES [OWEN]
B'NAI MOSHE
BETH SCHMUEL
BETH TICHVAH [PETOSKEY]
BETH YEHUDA
B'NAI ISRAEL
B'NAI ISRAEL 2
B'NAI JACOB
B'NAI JACOB
B'NAI ZION [HUMPHREY]
DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE
EL MOSHE
EZRAS ACHIM TUROVER
HERES ISRAEL
MISHKAN YISROEL
NUSACH HARI
SHAAREY SHOMAYIM [FENKELL]
SHAAREY TORAH
SHAAREY ZEDEK
SHAAREY ZION [PIGGLY WIGGLY]
TEMPLE ISRAEL
INSTITUTIONS
BETH DAVID CEMETERY
BETH EL ELMWOOD CEMETERY
BETH OLEM CEMETERY
BUTZEL BUILDING
FREE BURIAL ASSN
JCC MEYERS
JCC WOODWARD
JEWISH WELFARE FED
MANUEL URBACH
SHAAREY ZEDEK SCHOOL
SINAI HOSPITAL
THE SCHVITZ
TUSHIYAH UHS
UHS DELMAR
YESHIVA BETH YEHUDA & MOGEN AVROM


CLICK IMAGE FOR MORE SHAAREY TORAH

Shaarey Torah

17750 Brush

Now
House of God

 

We welcome and invite you to share your memories of Detroit's former synagogues and Jewish sites.
Email your memories to us » and we will add them to the site. *PLEASE* be sure to cite the name of the synagogue or site.

Shared Memories of Shaarey Torah

I recently read an article mentioning your synagogue tour in the Jewish News and was introduced to your website. You are to be congratulated for compiling the almost forgotten information and pictures to substantiate the Jewish presence in Detroit, which is now almost unknown by young people and others not wishing to deal with the humble beginnings of a great community.

Anyway, I received several photos of a building at the above address which is known as the House of God but was originally a Hebrew school/synagogue in the E. McNichols/John R area, an area that never had any Jewish buildings, to my knowledge. The Hebrew wording above the door basically reads "Congregation Shaarai Torah"(Gates of Learning). While I am familiar with a few old synagogues in the Holbrook/Oakland/Westminister, just west of I-75 and north of Grand Blvd., this address is the only building of its sort north of Davison and east of Woodward that I have ever encountered, and I am 60 years old, born in Detroit.

It appears to have been built in the 1920's and may have served families who did not move en masse to the Linwood/12th. St. neighborhoods as most of the Oakland residents did by the late 30's or 40's. As such, in my mind, the folks who attended this little shul may represent a "lost colony" of eastside Jews who took a different path in their Detroit wanderings.

As you may know there is precious little written about Jews living on the eastside of Detroit as they were perhaps an anomaly or divergent element from the overall patterns of ethnic movement within the city, but that's what I find so fascinating. Some of these families may have intermarried and blended in with the neighboring German, English, Irish, or basic American types and are "lost", but I'd bet others have interesting stories about their eastside experiences trying to maintain their Jewish identity.
- Edna S.

The Lost Synagogues of Detroit

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