LOCAL NEWS
IN■ammomml
Busing
PROFESSION: Chartered Life Underwriter, Chartered
Financial Consultant; president, James A. Jacobs Co., Inc.
Continued from Page 1
ASSETS: Children Martin and Barbara
EDUCATION: Masters in business administration, Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania
COMMUNITY SERVICE: Executive board, Jewish Community Center; past
chairman of the board, JCC Men's Health Club
JUST FOR FUN: Jogging, yoga, movies, reading
ALLIED JEWISH CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER ROLE: Associate Chairman,
Insurance and Finance Section
WHY HE'S A CAMPAIGN PARTNER: "I think it started in 1973, the
Yom Kippur War. It hit me on an emotional level that we Jews were
very much alone... Perhaps the Campaign is an expression of my
brotherhood with Jews everywhere. If we will not help ourselves,
who will?"
JOIN ZOA NOW!
Have a VOICE in the election of delegates to the
31st World Zionist Congress
ZOA STANDS FOR:
• A SECURE ISRAEL
Through the activism of its 20 nation-wide regions and hundreds of districts,
ZOA has an outstanding record of achievement in sustaining public support for
Israel.
UNITY
• JEWISH
ZOA stands for Religious Pluralism. ZOA's membership - Conservative, Re-
form, Orthodox, Reconstructionist - represent such unity.
ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE FOR ISRAEL
• ZOA
advocates the development of Israel through a Free Enterprise system to
achieve economic independence
• CENTRALITY OF ISRAEL IN JEWISH LIFE
ZOA upholds the primacy of Israel through an action-oriented program:
In Israel: THE ZOA HOUSE in Tel Aviv, Israel's foremost cultural center with over 1000
daily program-participants.
KFAR SILVER - The 500 acre campus near Ashkelon, housing 7 Academic
and Technical schools, educating and training over 700 students.
In America: ZOA's celebrated Masada Summer in Israel Program sends over 800
American High School & College students to Israel each summer.
ZOA'S Young Zionist Programs reach thousands and enlist hundreds of
young American Jews for annual missions to Israel.
11.
VOTE SLATE # 3
Included in the Metro Detroit ZOA delegates-slate are:
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, DAVID B. HERMELIN, IRVING LAKER, RABBI IRWIN GRONER,
HON. IRWIN COHN, SHERWIN TUKEL, SIDNEY SILVERMAN, DR. SIDNEY LEIB,
LOUIS BERRY, LOUIS PANUSH, HAROLD BERRY, LEONARD HERMAN, WILLIAM
GRAHAM, MRS. I. WALTER SILVER, GEORGE P. MANN.
ZOA, born in 1897, whose leadership roster includes the most illustrious names in
American Judaism: Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Rabbi Abba Hillel
Silver, merits YOUR SUPPORT.
ZOA CAMPAIGN, 18451 West 10 Mile, Southfield, Ml 48075 — 569-1515
YES, I want to join ZOA and vote for delegates to the World Zionist Congress.
Enclosed is my check for $36.00 membership dues for 1987. -
Please send ballot to:
Name
Address
10
Friday, February 6, 1987
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Oak Park to send all (Oak Park
residents) to school no matter
what school they go to, within
reason."
Four of Roberg's sons attend
Beth Yehudah; a daughter
studies at Beth Jacob.
Children from 175 Oak Park
families attend the Beth
Yehudah schools (Yeshivath
Beth Yehudah and Sally Allan
Alexander Beth Jacob School),
according to Rabbi E.B.
Freedman, Beth Yehudah's
assistant administrator. Of
these families, 140 send their
daughters to Beth Jacob. The
potential for support of busing
across district lines, therefore,
is large.
According to United Hebrew
Schools Director of Transpor-
tation Isadore Goldstein, UHS
buses 113 children from the
Oak Park district to Beth
Jacob and another 33 to Beth
Yehudah.
Beth Jacob principal Rabbi
Samuel E. Cohen counted an-
other 25 Oak Park girls who
carpool to school. UHS charges
$265 per child per year for
weekday service, plus an extra
$60 for Sunday service. The
yeshivah regularly covers part
of that cost, he added.
Public school districts reg-
ularly bus private school stu-
dents within their districts,
conforming to a state law
which bars discrimination be-
tween public and private
school students.
The law regarding busing
across district lines is vague
and open to wide interpreta-
tion. The Michigan Depart-
ment of Education and local
school boards disagree on the
application of the law. The
parents at the Oak Park meet-
ing told The Jewish News they
were unaware of the. law.
According. to Dr. Philip
O'Leary, director of school
management services for the
Michigan Department of Edu-
cation, school districts must
transport non-public school
pupils outside the district if
they transport public school
pupils outside the district.
The private schools must
meet certain criteria: they
must be the same distance
from the district as the public
school in question and in the
same general direction. In
addition, districts are required
to transport only the same
grade level of private school
students as public school stu-
dents. If only secondary public
school students are bused, Dr.
O'Leary explained, the district
need only transport secondary
level private school students.
"Otherwise no transportation
is required outside the dis-
trict."
Oak Park residents see the
issue as one of not getting their
money's worth.
"We're residents of Oak
Park. We pay our property
taxes. We just don't send our
children to Oak Park schools,"
said Roberg. "We want them to
extend the bus system to suit
everybody's needs."
She said she has no qualms
about asking for special serv-
ices from the Oak Park district
even though by choice she does
not send her children to district
public schools. "What I choose
to do with my children's educa-
tion and my private life is my
business. But we are residents
and we do pay taxes. Why can
they do it in Southfield and not
in Oak Park?"
Southfield buses to the
Southeastern Oakland Voca-
tional Center (SEOVEC) in the
Birmingham school district
which, according to Dr.
O'Leary, the attorney general
ruled a public school. In order
to conform with the law, the
state ruled that Southfield
must also bus to certain pri-
vate schools outside the dis-
trict, including Beth Jacob.
Southfield is not happy with
the ruling, and years ago filed
a formal appeal with the state.
According to Southfield Asso-
ciate Superintendent for Ad-
ministrative Services Dr.
Ronald Rohlman, "We never
got a formal answer and that's
why we do it."
The status quo is a happy one
for Southfield private school
families and a tempting one for
those in Oak Park. "We're
envious of our friends who live
in Southfield," said Roberg.
"We debated whether to
move to Southfield because of
the free transportation when
we came to the area," Rabbi
Shmuel State explained. "The
family finally settled on Oak
Park." Of his eight children,
four daughters attend Beth
Jacob and a son attends Beth
Yehudah.
He was not concerned that
the law does not appear to be in
his favor. "So there's a techni-
cality in the law. I don't see any
reason why it can't be changed.
Outside of the technical, legal
factor, busing from Oak Park is
the same as busing from South-
field."
"There is no board policy to
provide that kind of service,"
said Dr. Leonard Demak,
superintendent of Oak Park
school district. "We conform
with the law as we understand
it."
He did not rule out the possi-
bility of the issue being
studied, if his administration
is directed to do so by the school
board.
Difference
Continued from Page 1
At a press conference Thurs-
day which was scheduled to be
attended by Michigan Gover-
nor James Blanchard and De-
troit Mayor Coleman Young,
ADL Michigan Region director
Richard Lobenthal said the
goal is to train ten percent of
southeast Michigan's teachers
before September.