UP FRONT
Donors Lift Passage To Freedom
Campaign Past Half-Way Point
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
M
Jane Sherman and Paul Borman watch Max Fisher address the meeting.
Shaarey Zedek Plans
Consolidated School
ELIZABETH KAPLAN
Features Editor
C
ongregation Shaarey
Zedek's board of di-
rectors has voted to
establish a consolidated
branch of the Beth Hayeled
nursery school and religious
school in West Bloomfield.
The new facility will in-
clude classrooms for Beth
Hayeled, now located on Mid-
dlebelt Road; the religious
school, in Orchard Lake Mid-
dle School; a chapel, a youth
center, a multi-purpose room,
administrative space, a school
library and outdoor play area.
It will accommodate cur-
rent enrollment in Beth
Hayeled, the religious school
and high school, with room
for expansion, synagogue of-
ficials said.
Harold Berry, chairman of
the synagogue's future plan-
ning committee, which
evaluated the proposed pro-
ject, said the congregation
decided to build a new facili-
ty to "enhance the quality" of
Shaarey Zedek's education
program in West Bloomfield.
At the same time, the con-
gregation will retain a
nursery and religious school
at the synagogue in
Southfield.
Synagogue officials said
they have not decided on a
building site and would not
predict when construction
will begin.
And while they added that
they have no funds on hand
for the project, they declined
to discuss specifics as to how
money will be raised to pay
for the new consolidated
school.
Shaarey Zedek President Ir-
ving Laker said the move will
be sound economically, as
well as improve educational
facilities for children of con-
gregants living in West
Bloomfield. He explained
that by owning its own facili-
ty, the synagogue will be able
to forego paying rent.
In October 1987 Shaarey
Zedek imposed a 10 percent
pay cut on 26 teachers. and
seven teacher aides at the
Beth Hayeled nursery school.
A synagogue board member
claimed the cuts were
necessary because of a deficit
in the congregation's budget.
Laker said funds for the
new consolidated school will
be raised separately, irrespec-
tive of the synagogue's
operating budget from which
teachers' salaries are paid.
The decision to build a new
education facility in West
Bloomfield follows a study
commissioned by the future
planning committee and con-
ducted October
1988-February 1989 by Dr.
Jay Weinstein, head of the
department of sociology at
Eastern Michigan University.
Among the responsibilities
of the future planning com-
mittee were an evaluation of
facilities at the synagogue,
the Orchard Lake Middle
School and the Beth Hayeled
branch on Middlebelt Road,
and gathering information
about changing demographic
patterns among congregation
members and the Jewish com-
munity as a whole.
Meanwhile, Shaarey Zedek
has hired Rabbi Charles
Michael Diamond as educa-
tion/youth director. Rabbi
Diamond, who serves as
director of Hebrew High
School and youth activities
and assistant rabbi of Temple
Israel in Great Neck, N.Y.,
will begin at Shaarey Zedek
in August. ❑
ajor donors to the
Allied Jewish Cam-
paign announced
gifts to the two-month
Passage to Freedom cam-
paign for Soviet Jewry on
Monday. More than $1.4
million has been pledged in
two weeks towards Detroit's
goal of $2.5 million to help
the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee re-
settle Soviet Jews.
Jewish Welfare Federation
officials and Passage to
Freedom Campaign Chair-
men Jane Sherman and Paul
Borman were pleased at the
response. United Jewish Ap-
peal Chairman Martin Stein
of Milwaukee had asked the
audience at the home of Paul
and Marlene Borman to con-
sider giving 20 percent of
their annual Allied Jewish
Campaign gift to the Passage
to Freedom drive, and most
followed the suggestion.
"For 5,000 years we have
been our brothers' keepers.
We are responsible one for the
said. "In our
other;
own lifetime we've seen
tremendous mass movements
of Jews" helped by Proejct
Magic Carpet for the Yemen-
ite Jews after Israel's in-
dependnce in 1948, Operation
Moses for the Ethiopian Jews
and Passage to Freedom for
the Soviet Jews.
"When I think about this
whole process, I say, 'What
would I want somebody to do
for me if I were in this situa-
tion?' In the big book, one of
the mitzvot is to rescue the
refugee. You can even sell a
Torah to rescue a Jew — that's
how important this is."
Jane Sherman touched on a
subject that has bothered
some supporters of Israel in
her remarks at the meeting.
"When I was at the transmi-
'
gration camp in Ladispoli,
Italy, two weeks ago, my goal
was to get as many Soviet
Jews as possible to go to
Israel. But we all did an
about-face," Sherman said.
"The despair on their faces
was so great. Forty percent
had been rejected by the
United States. Ninety percent
will be rejected on their se-
cond request.
"They told us it was the
first time in their lives they
had been given a free choice,
and many have family mem-
bers living here.
"I want to erase the pain,
the anger and the frustration
on their faces," Sherman said.
"This is a window of oppor-
tunity. What would we have
given in the 1940s to have the
same opportunity" to save
European Jewry? "I don't
want to face my grand-
children in 20 years to ex-
Continued on Page 18
IROUND UP
May Day
Quiet In Israel
Jerusalem (JTA) — May
Day celebrations in Israel
were markedly lower-key
Monday than in the past — a
fact which the Likud faction
of the Histadrut labor federa-
tion trumpeted in huge media
ads as a success for its party.
Most newspapers were
published, and many factories
and offices stayed open as
usual, after the Histadrut
leadership let it be known
that it would not insist on
observance of the interna-
tional workers holiday.
Unlike previous years,
there was no major parade
through Tel Aviv, although
modest public gatherings
were organized separately by
the Mapam (the United
Workers Party of Israel), the
Citizens Rights Movement
and the Hadash Communists.
Soviets Lambast
Anti-Semitism
A recent article in the Com-
munist Party newspaper
Sovetskaya Kultura says
thousands of Jews are leaving
the Soviet Union because of
the country's anti-Zionist
propaganda.
In the article, writers Sergei
Rogov and Vladimir Nosenko
compare statements of
Vladimir Begun, a leading
Soviet anti-Zionist, to those of
Adolph Hitler.
The authors also state that
anti-Zionism is nothing but a
cover for anti-Semitism.
Hate Group's
Plan Carries
New York — A shareholder
proposal submitted to AT&T
by the National Alliance
received enough support to
bring it to vote during the
phone company's annual
meeting next year.
The proposal encourages
AT&T to phase out Affir-
mative Action programs
directed toward "recruiting,
employing or promoting in-
dividuals from any particular
racial or ethnic group,"
because such actions "may
contribute toward discrimina-
tion against qualified White
employees and job ap-
plicants."
The proposal received 8.1
percent of the vote; 6 percent
was needed to put the
measure on the ballot.
A spokesman for the Center
for Democratic Renewal, a na-
tional clearinghouse that
counters bigoted violence and
hate-group activity, described
the National Alliance as "far
right-wing organization
dedicated to white supremacy
and anti-Semitism."
Ethnic Images
In The Comics
"Ethnic Images in the the
Comics," which traces the
evolution of ethnic images in
American comic strips and
comic books in the past 90
years, will be on exhibit at the
Wayne State University Com-
munity Arts Gallery Monday
through May 30.
Created by the Balch In-
stitute for Ethnic Studies in
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From Blackhawk — 265.
DC Comics, Inc.
Philadelphia in conjunction
with the Anti-Defamation
League of B'nai B'rith, the
exhibit present examples
from more than 200 comic
strips and comic books, in-
cluding "Doonesbury," "The
Katzenjammer Kids" and
"Curtis."
Compiled by
Elizabeth Kaplan
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
5