A Burial for Books

OUR COMMUNITY

A Proper Burial for Holy Books

Beth Shalom buries old books containing the name of God.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It looked like any other funeral procession, except there was no hearse and no corpse. Volunteers in a small convoy of cars from Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park to Hebrew Memorial Park in Clinton Township were carrying old prayerbooks and other printed materials containing the name of God. According to Jewish tradition, these need to be stored or buried, not trashed or burned.

Such items, which can include everything from old, irreparable Torah scrolls and worn-out prayer shawls to primers introducing children to prayer, are known collectively as shaimos, or “names.” The practice of burying them stems from Deuteronomy Chapter 2, where the Israelites are ordered to blot out and destroy the names of the gods of the nations they conquer, but not to treat God in the same way.

“Sacred texts should not be discarded in the garbage,” said Beth Shalom’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Robert Gamer.

For thousands of years, Jews have been storing or burying such materials in spaces that became known as genizas, from the Hebrew verb l’g’noze, to stash or store away.

The renowned Cairo geniza, discovered in 1896, was a shaft in an ancient synagogue wall where all kinds of materials written in Hebrew were stored. Because of the dry environment, the items, dating back to the 1100s, did not decompose; they proved to be a historical treasure trove.

Beth Shalom had 103 cartons of old printed materials, including full sets of prayerbooks last used in the 1980s, benschers used for the grace after meals, old library books and texts from the religious school. Much of the material had been in the synagogue’s basement and had been damaged in the 2014 flood, but there was also a complete Talmud in good condition. Other materials came from congregants and others who lived in the neighborhood and had heard about the geniza project.

“We looked at more than 3,000 books to decide what we could recycle and what had to be buried,” Gamer said. “We tried to give things away, but not much was taken.” One reason is that many Hebrew texts, including the Talmud, are now available free online. People don’t need the physical books as much anymore, he said.

Some congregations bury shaimos in a plot on their own grounds. In Detroit, most such materials are interred at Hebrew Memorial Park in Clinton Township, under the auspices of the Hebrew Benevolent Society. Beth Shalom’s executive director, Shira Shapiro, worked with cemetery officials; once they knew the number of cartons and their dimensions; cemetery workers were able to prepare a long, narrow plot just large enough to handle the materials.

A dozen synagogue members joined Gamer and Cantor Sam Greenbaum in a brief ceremony in the synagogue’s lobby before loading the cartons into cars and unloading the cartons into the prepared plot.

Burying books is ecologically responsible, Gamer said. The books will return to the earth to enrich the soil, which will be used to grow trees, which will be used to make more books.

ABOVE: Aryeh Gamer, 15, of Huntington Woods lowers a carton of

books into the prepared grave with help from a cemetary staffer.

LEFT: The Beth Shalom book burial team included (from left) Rabbi

Robert Gamer, Yefim Milter, Aryeh Gamer, Cantor Sam Greenbaum, Marie Slotnick, Sarah Reisig, Aaron Pickover and Glen Pickover.

It literally turned my life around.

How a short-term training program from Oakland Community College gave Shawn McWilliams opportunity and a lucrative career.

OAKLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE STAFF

Like so many teenagers, Shawn McWilliams graduated high school without knowing what he wanted to do with his life.

“I was told to go to a fouryear college and get a degree to find a job,” says Shawn, who graduated from Avondale High School in 2019. “But I never really had a plan for what that meant.”

After attending a local college for a few semesters, Shawn felt like he wasn’t finding the direction he needed. And that was when his mother showed him what would become a life-changing resource.

“She told me about Michigan’s Economic Workforce Development Program and how you could train for the latest jobs at OCC. When she mentioned that I could learn about robotics in just a few months and possibly have a job waiting for me, I was hooked,” remembers Shawn.

Hooked indeed, and for good reason. Shawn immediately applied for a 14-week shortterm training course at Oakland Community College in robotics and PLC programming. Not only was he accepted, but he qualified for free tuition based on eligibility requirements through Michigan Works! And that was just the beginning.

Shawn recalls, “There were so many things I loved about the program right away. For starters, the instructors all had real-world experience. Also, everything was completely hands on with very little book work. And I really loved how comprehensive everything was. I definitely felt prepared to get a job.”

Beyond taking robots apart and putting them back together, Shawn learned about the various business opportunities available for someone in this cutting-edge field. This included programming robots in countless industries around the world such as aerospace and big pharma.

Of course, for lifelong Michigan natives like Shawn, the ability to work in the Detroit metro area - the world’s epicenter of automotive automation - was just as appealing.

“It was clear to me early on that I could use my new knowledge to work in any number of automotive jobs,” says Shawn. “So, you can imagine how excited I was to discover that I had some high-paying prospects right around the corner that were waiting for me when I finished.”

That’s right. After only one 14-week course - and with no previous experience - Shawn went from classroom to employment. He now works for GLOBAL Automation Technologies, LLC in Auburn Hills as an automation engineer where he programs computers for automating automotive assembly line processes. And he loves it.

“This technology is so fascinating and there are so many interesting things going on,” Shawn says.

And the best part? Shawn loves the fact he’s making more money than he thought possible. While most of his friends are taking student loans, Shawn hopes to make a six-figure salary within a few years.

Shawn is also grateful to OCC for helping him to find a huge opportunity in a short amount of time.

“The program quite literally turned my life around,” Shawn recalls. “If not for it, I have no idea what I would be doing today.”

OAKLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE

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