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The handful of Jewish students at Renaissance High School
must live with issues most teenagers only confront in the classroom.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

n invisible line
of separation ex-
ists in the Ren-
aissance High
School lunchroom.
On one side of the line sit
black students; on the other
side are the white students.
They sit side-by-side in
classrooms permeated with
the familiar high-school
smell of gym shoes, chalk
and bubble gum.
They work together on
school projects. But at lunch
time, most blacks and
whites do not intermingle,
as though they don't know
how to communicate outside
of the classroom.
Renaissance High 10th
grader Amy Rosenthal is
white and sits with white
students at lunch. She
doesn't know why the
cafeteria is virtually
segregated. That's just how
it is, she says. "Nobody
understands it."
Being white is only part of
what puts 14-year-old Amy
in a minority at Renais-
sance High, where 90 per-
cent of the student popula-
tion is black. Amy is also
one of a handful of Jewish
students at the honor school
in Detroit, where 95 percent
of the 750 pupils enrolled
will go on to college.
Most of the Jewish
students attend the school
because their parents work
for the city, or once worked
for the city and decided to
stay. Private schools, be-
cause of their high tuition,
are not an option.
Talking to Renaissance
High's Jewish students is
like looking through a
kaleidoscope with colors of
every hue. Some are in-
terested in Judaism; many
are not. Some are tough-
talking, rap-music listeners

24

FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 1990

like a typical high
who seem to identify
school anywhere,
better with the black
that's because it is,
students than the
Freddy says.
white; others cringe
"Everybody here
at the thought of a
graduates," he says.
fellow classmate
"Most of the kids'
whose only interest is
parents are together
black power. Some
and there are no
are happy at Renais-
dropouts. I think
sance, pleased with
we've had one fight
the opportunity to
this year."
work with students of
Freddy tires of
all races, religions
hearing friends from
and backgrounds.
the suburbs ask — as
Others say the school
they often do —
does not live up to its
whether Renaissance
academic reputation
High is a frightening
and that it em-
place. They want to
phasizes black issues
know whether stu-
at the exclusion of
dents carry guns and
others.
if many of the girls
What they have in
have to quit school to
common is an ex-
raise children.
istence alien to most
Freddy and other
local Jewish teen-
Renaissance students
agers.
Most high school Amy and Freddy Rosenthal: "I don't think most of my recently participated
students are wonder- (Jewish) friends would be happy at Renaissance High." in a day-long ex-
change program with
ing where they will
a Farmington Hills
team and president of the
go to college and what
high school. Some of the
student council.
they'll wear to the senior
students at the suburban
Freddy, a 17-year-old
prom. Renaissance High's
school wouldn't even tell
senior, will graduate this
Jewish students must con-
their parents they were go-
week from Renaissance
sider how they will respond
ing to Renaissance, he says.
High. Once voted class
to suburban friends' racist
"People are always asking
clown, Freddy is the only
comments, if they can speak
if everybody here is a drug
white male in his class.
out when they disagree with
dealer," adds Freddy's sister,
After-graduating, he will at-
special privileges for
Amy.
tend the University of
minorities, whether they
Amy and Freddy Rosen-
Michigan.
can date someone of both a
thal grew up in Detroit, not
All in all, Freddy's ex-
different religion and race.
far from Redford Township.
periences at the school were
Renaissance High's
Their father works for the
positive. He received a good
Jewish students also share
city.
education; the math and
a keen interest in know-
Freddy has attended
science departments are
ledge. Listed with the nu-
numerous public and
particularly good, he says.
merous LaShawns and
private schools, and he felt
Freddy walks confidently
Lataras and Laquishas in
comfortable at all of them,
down the school halls,
the Renaissance High
he says. Amy also has been
covered with anti-drinking
School 1990 honors convoca-
a student at a variety of
and anti-smoking signs and
tion booklet are the names
schools, but she is not as
pictures of black movie pro-
Julie Becker, a straight-A
happy as Freddy at
ducer Spike Lee.
student and math whiz;
Renaissance. She wanted to
He stops to greet friends
Aaron Katz, an honor-roll
go to Cass Technical High
and visit with the principal,
student; Amy Rosenthal, an
School
because of its arts
pausing
before
the
room
of
a
honor-roll student who has
and drama programs.
science teacher who
won awards for geometry
The Rosenthal family does
"everybody knows about.
and science; and Freddy
not belong to a synagogue,
He's tough."
Rosenthal, an honor-roll stu-
but Amy and Freddy were
If it sounds pretty much
dent, member of the tennis

b'nai mitzvah. Amy is a
member of B'nai B'rith
Girls and Freddy's main
connection to Judaism is
through AZA, as it is for
17-year-old Aaron Katz.
Katz, who occasionally
attends Congregation
T'Chiyah, is an 11th grader
at Renaissance High. Born
in Detroit, he left the city
when he was 6 and lived in
New York, California and
Texas before returning to
Detroit when he was 13.
Outspoken and articulate,
Katz is "a very, very bright
student;' says his science
teacher, Jacob Ishakis.
Yet Katz is anything but
the typical young Jewish in-
tellect with books under his
arm and round glasses per-
ched on the tip of his nose.
He lives with his mother
in the Cass Corridor. His
best friend is Leon, a Black
Muslim. Katz says he has
more in common with Leon
than with Jewish kids from
the suburbs whose biggest
problem is "figuring out
how they'll live with their
new blue Corvette when
they wanted a red one."
"I can relate to him;'
Aaron says of his best friend.
"We grew up in the same en-
vironment."
Leon and Aaron like rap
music. They like to talk
politics. Aaron participates
in discussions about Israel
in his American history and
contemporary affairs
courses. He believes Israel's
existence is important, "but
its actions (toward Palesti-
nians) really need to be
evaluated."
Katz is a passionate ad-
vocate for another minority
— blacks. He doesn't
hesitate to answer suburban
friends' queries about the
number of pregnant teen-
agers or boys wielding
knives at Renaissance. He
tells them statistics show

