EZ

Jennifer Gilbert and Julie Becker.

necklace, remembers talk-
ing at a Jewish camp with
kids from the suburbs.
"It made me really mad;'
she says. "There was so
much prejudice about
Detroit."
A member of the Birm-
ingham Temple, Julie says
she was raised in a home
free of racism. "Ever since I
was little my parents have
taught me to consider
everyone equal. To my
parents, prejudice is sicken-
ing."
And that's why Julie

26

FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1990

dislikes reverse discrimina-
tion, she says. Both she and
the other Jewish students
are frustrated when oppor-
tunities open to black
students only because of
their skin color.
"I get tired of all the
scholarships for minority
students:' Freddy Rosenthal
says. "When the University
of Michigan came to recruit,
they were looking for black
students."
Renaissance High often
caters to interests of blacks,
the Jewish students say.

Amy was once asked to
write in a classroom journal
about chitlins (pork innards)
and hair weaving. Julie is
frustrated by Black History
Month.
"They make such a big
deal about it," Julie says.
"They assume everybody in
school is black."
Julie remembers a recent
appearance at the school by
a black gospel group. In the
middle of the performance,
one singer called out,
"Everybody who's not afraid
to say he belongs to a church
stand up!"
The students rarely
discuss religion with their
fellow classmates.
"Being white is different
enough," Julie says.
Science teacher Jacob
Ishakis, who wears a kip-
pah, says he, too, prefers not
to discuss religion at school.
Ishakis, who is finishing his
10th year at Renaissance,
says students "understand
that I'll be gone for the
holidays."
Ishakis sometimes brings
candy for his students on
Christmas and Chanukah.
He gives candy canes to the
Christian pupils and
Chanukah gelt to the Jewish
ones, "so they'll understand
they're a little different."
Freddy says students have
asked him what a bar mitz-
vah is, and when he wears a
necklace with a chai, the
Hebrew letter symbolizing
the word "life," his friends at
Renaissance have said,
"Why do you wear pi around
your neck?"
Freddy's mother, Elaine
Rosenthal, knows her son
hears such questions. She
knows the challenges he
faces at the school. But she
still believes Renaissance
High was the best choice for
her children.
"They're not exposed to a
lot of wealth; there's no

drugs and they don't get in
with a fast crowd;' she says.
"I'm grateful for that."
Rosenthal knows students
from West Bloomfield
schools and from Renais-
sance, "and I've seen the dif-
ference. My kids are better
off at Renaissance."
Rosenthal says she tires of
hearing criticism of the
Detroit public schools. "If
you want to study and do
well, the education is there
for you."
What Rosenthal does miss
for her children is more
Jewish friends. She also
would like to give them
more Jewish education —
Amy says she would like to
learn Hebrew — but it
hasn't been easy.
Rosenthal tried to enroll
Freddy in Hebrew classes at
a suburban organization,
but was rejected when she
couldn't bring him to all
meetings. She works full
time, and couldn't take him
to classes during the
weekday.
"I think Amy and Freddy
would like us to participate
more" in Jewish activities,
Rosenthal says. "But we're
so far away from everything
— though I guess that's not
an excuse."
D oily Weiss, a ninth-
grade student at Ren-
aissance, has lived all
of her life in Detroit. The
daughter of a Jewish father
and a non-Jewish mother
whom she describes as an
atheist, Polly has no Jewish
friends outside school. She
once attended Yom Kippur
services "some place in West
Bloomfield:' she says.
Polly's parents are in no
way prejudiced, she says.
Now divorced, they both
have dated blacks and
would not object if she did.
But like the other
students, Polly finds that
most of her friends at school

ji