All 22 girls in the 1988-89
Beth Jacob graduating class
plan to pursue a higher
education. Fifteen of those
graduates, he said, received
educational awards ranging
from Michigan State Com-
petitive Scholarships to four-
year university scholarships.
Dr. Maury Ellenberg and
his wife Chana are Yeshiva
alumni. Dr. Ellenberg recall-
ed that as a Yeshiva student,
the emphasis of the school
was to keep the students,
many of whom were refugees,
committed to the Orthodox
tradition. Thday, he said, the
Yeshiva focuses on a balance
between rigorous religious
training and a strong secular
curriculum.
The Ellenberg's two sons at-
tend the Yeshiva. Dr. Ellen-
berg, a physiatrist at Sinai
Hospital, is confident that his
children receive a balanced
education that will allow
them to choose either secular
or religious careers. "I want
them to be well enough vers-
ed that they can go into 'the
secular world if they so desire,
and well enough versed that
they can always be in contact
with the Torah world, and if
they so desire, head in that
direction."
In addition to alumni who
send their children to the
school, the Yeshiva legacy is
perpetuated - by graduates
who return to become instruc-
tors. According to Freedman, -
nearly one-third of the
teaching staff are Yeshiva
alumni. "A lot of our teachers
are second generation
Yeshiva students. Their
parents went to Yeshiva, they
went to Yeshiva and now they
are our teachers. There's a
real continuity here."
Rabbi Hershel Klainberg, a
1961 Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
graduate and a classmate of
Maury Ellenberg, has been
an instructor at the Yeshiva
for 14 years. Klainberg
teaches Talmud, Jewish
history and Halachah to sixth
grade boys in the Joseph Tan-
nenbaum school. He was born
in 1947 in the displaced per-
sons camp at Bergen Belsen,
Germany. His Polish-born
parents moved the family to
Detroit in 1950. Three years
later, he entered the Yeshiva
kindergarten.
Klainberg recalled being
with other children with
similar backgrounds. "In my
class there were a number of
refugee children. I just
remember that the rabbis
were very, very nice. I really
had a good time. They made
the whole religious education
very, very enjoyable."
Klainberg's youngest son is
a Yeshiva student; three other
sons and two daughters have
.
Mrs. Chavie Weingarden illustrates a math problem at Sally Allan
Alexander Beth Jacob School for Girls.
An eighth grade chemistry class at the girls' school checks an
experiment.
A Talmud class listens intently to Rabbi Zimmerman.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
61