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      Photo courtesy of the Windsor Star

      Simon Meretsky.

      By then the adverse publicity, spread by the councilmen who continued to criticize Simon Meretsky’s behaviour, had reached the taxpayers. Now wary of his motives, especially, in view of his substantial property holdings, they failed to re-elect him in 1919.⁷³

       The Ford City Community

      Following the Ford Motor Company’s introduction of a guaranteed minimum daily wage of $5, a large number of people settled in a new community that became known as Ford City. Jews also had moved there, but since it was too far for them to reach Windsor on foot to attend services at Shaarey Zedek and because they were forbidden to drive on the Sabbath, they began to think about forming their own congregation.⁷⁴ Believing that Ford City’s burgeoning car industry would ultimately make it the centre of economic activity, they were convinced their Mercer Street brethren would eventually join them there.⁷⁵

      The moving spirit behind the new synagogue project was Barney Hurwitz. To provide a suitable place for religious services and a Hebrew school, he even vacated his living quarters behind his men’s wear store on Drouillard Road, moving his family to a flat on the upper floor of the same building. In 1917, he became the congregation’s first president; Sam Samberg was elected treasurer, and Harry Shore its secretary.⁷⁶ Religious classes, attended by the children of the approximately ten Jewish families, were first taught by Mr. Richardson and later by Mr. Perlmuter, with other teachers from Windsor occasionally helping out.⁷⁷ The school outgrew its existing quarters after about a year or so. Barney Hurwitz, an influential member of the local school board and a substantial taxpayer, was able to obtain a larger room at the Belle Isle Avenue School, which later became the Riverview Hospital on Riverside Drive until it was demolished in the late 1990s).⁷⁸

      The congregation, although still without a rabbi, continued to hold religious services in the flat behind Hurwitz’s store. However, on March 23, 1925, Abraham Adler paid $900 to Nicholas Palahnuk for a parcel of land on Hickory and Charles streets, which he subsequently sold to Barney Hurwitz.⁷⁹ Abraham Mechanic was the builder of the new synagogue,⁸⁰ a brick structure estimated to cost $12,000⁸¹ that was finally completed for $18,000. In August 1925, the cornerstone was laid for the house of worship that was to bear the name Tifereth Israel, the same as the one that had operated on Mercer Street. Among those attending the ceremony were Judge Harry B. Golden, Rabbi Leo Franklin of Detroit, and a Mr. A. E. Brown.⁸² Mrs. Aaron Meretsky donated a Torah⁸³ and Barney Hurwitz was re-elected president.⁸⁴ He, Abram and Fanny Adler, Samuel Samberg, and Sam Katzman became the trustees of the Ford City Hebrew School.⁸⁵ Following an ownership transfer to themselves, this property was registered as a religious institution and/or school on March 31, 1926.⁸⁶

      Although written records regarding Tifereth Israel’s activities are non-existent, some verbal accounts have provided useful information about the many weddings and bar mitzvah ceremonies that were celebrated there, as well as about the religious services that were by then held on a regular basis, led at times by rabbis from Detroit. Other officiants were Esser Kamenkowitz⁸⁷ and I. Perlmuter⁸⁸ who, together with Hyman Mosner, taught at the school, as well.⁸⁹

      In 1927, Abraham Levine became the congregation’s president; Mr. Cantor, vice president; Abram Adler, treasurer; and Sam Katzman, secretary.⁹⁰ In the course of that year, Mrs. Jacob Meretsky donated another Torah,⁹¹ and a ladies auxiliary was founded, known as the Daughters of Israel, under the respective presidencies of Mrs. Goldman and Mrs. Tabachnick.⁹² The social teas and other functions arranged by Tifereth Israel’s members kept it financially sound, at least for a while.⁹³ However, overall attendance gradually declined when the Jewish population moved out of Ford City, which eventually changed its name to East Windsor. In 1934, Barney Hurwitz again became president. Although the synagogue continued to hold services and run its school, the founders’ aspirations to make it the centre of Jewish communal life really never materialized. The other religious institutions, which were more centralized, became the established Jewish institutions because of their proximity to the majority of the Jewish population. Tifereth Israel continued to survive for many years in spite of being away from the majority of the Jewish population.

       The Birth of Zionist Fervour

      The idea of establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine had occupied the minds of World Jewry long before 1897, the year when Theodor Herzl organized the First Zionist Congress held in Basle, Switzerland.⁹⁴ In Windsor, Zionism first found expression in 1904 when Max Bernstein, in his attempt to start a Zion lodge, assembled some twenty-five Jews at his home. Following a brief address by a speaker, they elected S. Shapiro as president, a Mr. Barnett as vice president, Nathan Cherniak as financial secretary, and Max Bernstein as treasurer; F. Fisher, Joseph and Julius Kovinsky, Sam Bernstein, and J. Sovolsky became

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