EDUCATION

AARON HALABE

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Special to The Jewish News

Glenn Triest

TWO WORLDS

Yaakov Berman works at his desk.

The Yeshiva marks 75 years of
preparing students for the Jewish
and secular communities.

60 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1989

e should treat the
future as an aged
friend from whom we
expect a rich legacy."
The words of author
Charles Colton aptly describe
the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah,
which celebrates its 75th an-
niversary in Detroit this
month. rIb many supporters,
the Yeshiva is an old friend
that continues to pass the
legacy of a Torah education to
generations of children in the
Orthodox community.
Over the past 75 years, the
Yeshiva has evolved into a
day school with an enroll-
ment of 637 preschool to high
school students. Today,
students receive a full day of
Judaic and secular studies,
six days a week.
• The Yeshiva began as a
small afternoon Hebrew
school founded in 1914 by
Rabbi Yehudah Leib Levin.
The school was located in the
Mogen Abraham synagogue
on Farnsworth Street in
Detroit. Levin, who presided
over the synagogue, was the
school's first principal. He
became prominent in Detroit
in the early 1900s for his ef-
forts to unify the Orthodox
community, at a time when
religious observance and
education were in decline.
When he died in 1926, the
school was renamed Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah in his honor.
By 1940, the Yeshiva of-
fered a full elementary and
junior high school program
for boys. The Yeshiva Girl's
School was organized by the
Ladies of Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah in 1943: A kinder-
garten opened that same
year, and in 1944, the Yeshiva
began offering day school
classes to 100 students. Ten
years later, the Beth Jacob
High School for Girls opened,
and in 1975, the Yeshiva
made the complete transition
from afternoon to day school.
The school relocated six
times before moving to its
home on Lincoln in South-
field in 1966. Today, the
Yeshiva encompasses two
campuses — the Joseph Tan-
nenbaum School for Boys in
Southfield (grades one
through eight) and the Sally
Allan Alexander Beth Jacob
School for Girls in Beverly
Hills (grades one through 12).
The youngest boys and girls
receive nursery and preschool
training at the Abner Wolf
Preschool Department in
Southfield.
, Starting in the first grade,
both boys and girls receive
Hebrew, Torah and Talmud
training in the morning, and
a full program of English and

•

secular studies in the after-
noon. By the fifth grade, the
educational emphasis for
girls shifts to Jewish history
and culture, Halachah
(Jewish law) and Old Testa-
ment studies. The emphasis
for fifth grade boys shifts to
more intensive talmudic
studies.
"By the time a kid reaches_
the eighth grade," said Rabbi
E.B. Freedman, Yeshiva ad-
ministrative director, "he
should be able to begin to
study Talmud on his own. But
at this point, he's had two
solid years of intensive
Talmud and Mishna study.
He is quite a knowledgeable
Jew at that point. He should
be well on his way to being a
Talmudist. I would say that
after the eighth grade, many
are going to the Yeshiva
Gedolah, the local yeshiva
high school, and many are go-
ing out of town to different
pre-rabbinical colleges."
Although the Judaic cur-
riculum in the boys' school
emphasizes the importance
and respectability of a rab-
binic career, Freedman
estimated that only 10 to 15
percent of the student body
pursue rabbinic studies.
"Most of the students are
going on to become profes-
sionals or businessmen. Some
of them are becoming rabbis.
But each of them will be
equipped if they want to pur-
sue a rabbinical career. The
goal of an education like this
is not necessarily to produce
a rabbi, but a very
knowledgeable Orthodox
Jew."
Freedman characterizes the
Yeshiva as ". . . a very tradi-
tional school, teaching
(students) a very traditional
Ibrah and Jewish way of life."
Despite the absence of
organized athletic, art and
music programs, the rabbi
said, the school does not com-
promise its students' ability
to get a secular education
that prepares them for college
and life in the mainstream.
He cited the newly-opened
computer room at the Beth
Jacob school and a planned
science lab as examples of the
commitment to a strong
secular program. "The
scholastic program in the
secular department, we like
to believe, is as good as any of-
fered in any school in the
area:'
"Years ago, it was perceiv-
ed that if you sent your kids
to day school, they would be
outside the mainstream,
unable to get a college educa-
tion. We've proven that other-
wise." lbday, Freedman said,
almost every Yeshiva
graduate continues his or her
education at a rabbinical col-
leke or public university.

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