14
Friday, May 17, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
erry Teller hasn't been the
only superintendent in the 65-year
history of United Hebrew Schools. He
hasn't been the only one with charm
•and grace.
What he has been over the last
five years is the right person in the
right place at the right time for major
changes in Detroit's communal after-
noon Hebrew school system.
In the negative ledger,•those
changes include a major decrease in
afternoon school enrollment. On the
positive side, UHS has instituted in-
novative prograths for teaching, dou-
bled its enrollment in the Midrasha
College of Jewish Studies by taking its
classes to its students, and has been
the catalyst for cooperative efforts
with the "competition" — Detroit's
three Hebrew day schools, the inde-
Although the regular school week
offers each student six hours of in-
struction, a special program started by
former UHS Superintendent Jay
Stern six years ago offers eight hours.
This Chashov (Thinking) program has
grown from six students to more than
100 this year, with students getting
two hours of instruction two after-
noons each week, and four hours on
Sundays.
The school is working computers
into its curriculum, using Judaic pro-
grams developed by Davar in Chicago
and Dr. Harold Mathis, a West Bloom-
field psychologist. Dr. Teller person-
ally gave individual staff members
90-minute orientations with the corn-
puters, which are currently being used
at Adat Shalom, Beth Achim and the
UHS high school. Some UHS teachers
CHEDER
HA S CHAN
United Hebrew
Schools,
approaching
its 65th
anniversary,
is not the
way you
remember it.
BY ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Page One photo: Teacher Shula Fleisher
watches James Sugarman and Merav Barr
work with a UHS computer.
pendent Conservative Hebrew
schools, and the temple schools.
•Enrollment has "plateaued" for
UHS over the last few years. From a
peak of 2,500-13,000 students, enroll-
ment has leveled off at 1,100. At the
same time, combined enrollment at
Yeshivat Akiva, Hillel Day School and
Yeshivath Beth Yehuda has reached
1,300 students and 5,000 Jewish
youngsters attend the temple schools.
Several hundred more youth attend
religious school at Beth Shalom, Beth
Abraham Hillel Moses and Shaarey
Zedek.
While all this has been happen-
ing, United Hebrew Schools has been
changing.
"Our aim used to be to develop a
"
student who would eventually be a
scholar," Dr. Teller explains. "We aim
now to provide youth who will feel
comfortable in the American Jewish
community." Towards that end, UHS
has made curriculum changes, offer-
ing new programs in Bible, American
Jewish history and on Israel. There is
an intensive concentration on learn-
ing Hebrew because, Teller says, "to be
Jewish, there. is a need to speak and
understand Hebrew." Many of the
teaching staff are native Hebrew
speakers.
have developed their own Hebrew pro-
grams. .
The major change for United He-
brew under Dr. Teller is the schools'
emphasis on outreach. Jewish adult
education classes are offered by UHS
on any Jewish subject and virtually at
any time or place. The school has
packaged three- and four-week
"mini-series" courses on Israel, the
Middle East, the Bible, the recent
"Precious Legacy" exhibit at the De-
troit Institute of Arts, and many other
subjects. The mini-series are provided
to B'nai B'rith groups, Jewish clubs,
Federation Apartments, the Jewish
Community Center and other Jewish
agencies, and anyone else who can
gather a group of students.
Teller calls his community serv-
ices division "the key to the future of
the agency. We have to work with
other agencies to enhance the future of
Jewish education." UHS now provides
Jewish-content programs for B'nai
B'rith youth groups. It works with
other Jewish schools in the area, co-
sponsoring programs for teachers and
students.
UHS is also reaching out to the 40
percent of Jewish youth in the Detroit
area who receive no Jewish education
at all. For several years the agency has
cross-checked lists from the Jewish
Center and the Fresh Air Society,
seeking to identify unaffiliated Jewish
youth. "We'll call the parents," Dr.
Teller, says, "and offer to get their kids
involved. It is a question of Jewish
identity and commitment. For us, it's a
large market out there and we have to
get to it."
Identifying "markets" has led to
some successes. UHS staffers proudly
point to their branch at the Beemis
School in Troy. Opened five years ago
with just five students, the UHS Troy
branch now has 50 students and is cre-
dited with being the catalyst for the
founding of the Troy Jewish Congre-
gation last year. UHS began a new
cooperative arrangement with Cong.
B'nai Israel of West Bloomfield in
1983, runs a joint high school program
with Cong.. Shaarey Zedek, and has
regular branches at Adat Shalom,
Beth Achim and B'nai Moshe.
However, new roles for UHS have
als.o led to criticism. One local school
administrator told The Jewish News,
that UHS will have trouble trying to
fulfill two functions: operating a
school and developing into a Jewish
educational bureau.
The administrator said, "United
Hebrew Schools is an operating in-
stitution, not a service institution. It is
competing with other schools for stu-
dents and money. I don't know how
they can hang onto both. Jerry Teller
is maintaining a dual personality, but
it is tough with scare resources. It is
tough when people say, 'Per pupil, how
much do they get?' "
What they get is nearly $900,000
annually from the Jewish Welfare
Federation. Publicly, critics have de-
manded a larger piece of the annual
Allied Jewish Campaign pie for all of
Jewish education. Privately, they
point to the UHS enrollment drop and
claim the UHS budget is too high.
Most critics, however, forget to in-
clude the 1,000 Midrasha students
when they point to UHS. And Teller
claims that competition between the
schools has diminished.
"There are those would say, 'Take
money from United Hebrew Schools.'
That's a misunderstanding. If you take
money from UHS, you are cutting
money from many other areas. It
would affect the over-all quality of
Jewish education in Detroit." Teller
adds that "going back to the old days of
competition (between the various
schools) would be a serious mistake."
"The communal Hebrew school
system is very important," Teller told
The Jewish News. "We are only one of
two in the country — Minneapolis and
Detroit. It is an important commit-
ment the community has made and we
are committed to staying with it. Na-
tionally and locally we have found that
this is the best kind of system we can
have. It enhances education in other
settings."
In addition, UHS has taken some
serious steps to cut its own budget.
UHS Administrator Rabbi Bernard
Moskowitz points out that the school's
overall budget its $25,000 less than it
was four years ago. Dwindling enroll-
,