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Ancient Learning Academy
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4

t's named for an ancient
Second Temple-era Jew-
ish learning center. Local-
ly, it is significant because it
bears the name of Detroit's
Project Renewal sister city.
And when the Yavneh
Academy opens next
September, it will establish
itself as the first Reform
Jewish day school in the
Detroit area.
Slated to be housed in the
Maple/Drake Jewish Com-
munity Center, the new day
school will be directed by Dr.
Margaret S. Eichner, an
educator and administrator
who will take up the mantle
as headmaster.
The school will be located
either in room 333 or 332 of
the Center, and will have an
option on whichever of the
two rooms is not chosen. It
will have four classrooms,
multi-purpose room, storage,
conference room, offices and
bathrooms. Eichner said she
hopes the school will get room
333 because it has windows.
But, she is happy just to be in
the Center for the facilities it
affords. "It has fabulous
facilities. We'll be a school
opening up with advantages
that no private or parochial,
school has opened with
because of our location here
at the Center?'
Several sites were con-
sidered for the school: area
temples, the main United
Hebrew Schools Building and
the Jewish Center. According
to James Jonas of Temple
Israel, president of the
Yavneh board, the temples
were eliminated because they
were deemed not neutral. The
UHS was dismissed because
it lacked facilities which the
Center had.
Demographics also played a
major role. Since it was
assumed by the founders that
most of the potential enroll-
ment will come from the West
Bloomfield and Farmington
Hills areas, it was decided
that the Jewish Center was a
more accessible site. Under
discussion is a shuttle which
will run between the Jimmy
Prentis Morris Building of
the Center and the
Maple/Drake location and
will be available at a nominal
fee to the students.
Jonas said that each of the
temples had previously ex-
pressed a desire to open its
own day school. But when the
two largest, Temple Israel

Rn h Aiin k'n,..,. .

—

Dr. Margaret S. Eichner will be the headmaster of the Yavneh Academy.

and Temple Beth El, decided
to discuss combining efforts to
create a day school, the other
Reform congregations soon
joined in the negotiations.
The school will open with
only three grades —
kindergarten, first and se-
cond. According to Dr.
Eichner, a minimum of 10
students is needed to open
each grade. As the school
grows, a grade a year will be
added up to the sixth or
eighth grade. What makes
the school different from
other day schools, she said, is
its three-pronged programm-
ing approach.
One aspect of the program
will be the incorporation of
Jewish values, ritual and
practice into the teaching of
secular subjects. For example,
if the students are studying
American history, they also
will learn about the
American Jewish experience
as well. "We don't compart-
mentalize our Judaism and
say we're a Jew in the home
and something else on the
street," Dr. Eichner said. "We
live as Jews in America and
we live our lifestyle as one
that integrates our Judaism
with the American culture.
"It only makes sense,
therefore, to integrate the cur-
riculum and this is an alter-
native to more traditional
types of curricula where the
day is segmented — half a day
is Jewish studies, half a day
in academics . . . We will have
Jewish studies run through-
out the entire day."

A second focal point of the
Yavneh program will be the
teaching of the Hebrew
language. The program will
focus on language, so that the
children can become profi-
cient conversationally, and on

prayer, so they will feel com-
fortable in the temple. While
the students will have the
same teacher for all of their
academic and Jewish studies
classes, a separate teacher
will be engaged for Hebrew
study.
The third component will
be enrichment, where
students will be allowed to try
a variety of cultural, sports
and arts and crafts activities,
such as drama, dance, video
film production, swimming,
gymnastics, computers, in-
strumental instruction and
cooking, all at the Jewish
Center.
Tuition is expected to be
$4,200 per year. However, Dr.
Eichner said it will be up to
the board to decide whether
or not the school will adopt a
"sibling discount" policy.
Eichner has experience
both as a teacher and ad-
ministrator. In the public
sphere, she has taught in the
Troy Public Schools, adult
education courses throughout
the Detroit area, at Wayne
State University and at the
University of Michigan. In
the Jewish community, she
has been an instructor at
Temple Beth El, at the
Midrasha and the Reform
College of Jewish Studies.
Prior to coming to the Yavneh
post, as both administrator
and fund-raiser, Eichner was
the educational director of the
Ivriah, Jewish Religious
School of Flint, and director of
education and youth ac-
tivities at Thmple Emanu-El.
Her doctorate focused on
developing a teaching cur-
riculum about the Holocaust.
The board is comprised of
representatives from the
Detroit Jewish community's
Reform congregations: Tern-

