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THIS ISSUE 60r

SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

JANUARY 12, 1990 / 15 TEVET 5750

Area Jewish Schools
Tally Asbestos Bills

1

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

A

Akiva got more than just a school.

Politics Entering
Israeli Papers

LEON T. HADAR

Special to The Jewish. News

T

he 1977 election in
Israel brought to power
Menachem Begin and
his conservative Likud party
and sent the centrist left-wing
Labor party, which had gov-
erned Israel for more than
half a century, to the opposi-
tion benches. But for the win-
ning coalition of the radical
right-wing and Orthodox reli-
gious parties, this was only a
partial victory. A powerful foe
remained at large — the left-
leaning press, a constant cri-
tic of the conservatives and
the hawkish members of the
ruling coalition whose radical
political agenda included —
and still includes — the an-

nexation of "Judea and Sama-
ria" (the biblical terms for the
occupied West Bank) to the
Jewish state.
Time and again the media
wing of the so-called Leftist
Mafia has harried the govern-
ment. In 1982, the year Israel
invaded Lebanon, critical re-
porting helped compel the
army to withdraw from the
war-ravaged country. The
Israeli press reported unin-
hibitedly on a series of scan-
dals involving the nation's
security forces (one newspaper,
Hadashot, was closed down for
several days for ignoring the
censor's order not to publish
one such story). More recent-
ly, the Israeli media have been
accused of abetting the cause

Continued on Page 20

sbestos has become a
dirty word for many
school districts and
Jewish day schools in the
Detroit area.
In the next few years,
Akiva Hebrew Day School
administrators estimate
they will have to spend
$40,000 to remove asbestos
from seven classrooms and
up to $150,000 long-term to
remove all asbestos from
their building.
Akiva's Principal Rabbi
Ze'ev Shimansky emphasiz-
ed that the asbestos poses no
health risk at present. "This
is non-friable asbestos. It is
not a hazard, but we have to
maintain it." In friable —
crumbly or powdery —form,
asbestos can be inhaled or
ingested and is a cancer risk.
The asbestos at Akiva is in
ceiling tile, in sprayed-on
ceilings in the classrooms
and some hallways, and in
some floor tile. The rabbi
said the material is in good
condition now and "poses no
health risk until you start to
tear it out. Then it's like the
sleeping genie in the bottle."
Akiva moved to the former
Annie Lathrup Elementary
School on Southfield Road in

CLOSE-UP

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PLEASE STAND UP?

He won't, says the author of a new biography of the
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• • •

1982 under a lease-purchase
arrangement with
Southfield Public Schools.
The building was con-
structed in 1927.
A major problem for
Akiva, Rabbi Shimansky
said, will be funding the
removal costs. "It is hard for
a private school to get loans
for this." Other area Jewish
schools also have had to
comply with the federal En-
vironmental Protection
Agency's asbestos abate-
ment rules this year:
• Yeshiva Gedolah faced a
$4,000 fine for late filing of

Akiva will spend
$40,000 in the next
few years and
possibly $150,000
long-term.

its asbestos abatement plan
with EPA. The fine was
waived after the school filed
its plan and an estimated
$3,100 will be spent to
remove problems in its
boiler room.
• Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
spent about $5,000 for its
asbestos management study
and $3,000-$4,000 to remove
asbestos at its boys' and
girls' schools, according to
yeshiva Administrator

Rabbi E.B. Freedman.
Isadore Goldstein, who has
served as plant manager
consultant for the yeshiva
since he retired as director of
the Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion's Transportation
Department last spring, said
the abatement process has
been long.
"Asbestos around the
boiler, which I could remove
in an hour with a chisel, cost
$3,000 to remove in the
prescribed manner" so that
asbestos would not escape
into the air.
• Hillel Day School spent
$13,000 to remove two
water-damaged pipes and
the coating on the
auditorium ceiling, but is
getting a marriage in the
deal. The work was done
during summer vacation to
lessen danger to students,
and the marriage will take
place this Sunday.
Hillel administrator Mar-
cia Fishman will marry
asbestos inspector Philip
Schaeffer, whom she met
during the abatement pro-
cess.
Schaeffer explained that
nursery schools and colleges
are exempt from the EPA's
current rules. Congress is
considering legislation to in-

Continued on Page 20