THE JEWISH NEWS
SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY
'SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
60% Attend
Hebrew School
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
T
he percentage of Jew-
ish youth in the core
areas of Detroit's Jew-
ish community attending re-
ligious school are higher
than recent reports in-
dicated.
Dr. Steven Cohen, one of
two key researchers analyz-
ing the results of last fall's
telephone interviews with
some 1,000 Detroit area
Jews, said this week that
more than three-fifths of
Jewish youngsters in the
core area age 6-17 attend a
Jewish school. "This is a
higher percentage than con-
ventional wisdom suggests
and higher than the overall
statistics," Dr. Cohen said.
Dr. Cohen and his partner,
Dr. Jack Ukeles, are pursu-
ing four major studies for the
Jewish Welfare Federation:
Jewish identity, use of agen-
cy services, attitudes on the
Allied Jewish Campaign and
neighborhood mobility. The
Jewish identity report is the
closest to completion, Dr.
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
Southfield man's
leukemia may be in
remission, but his
family hasn't given up its
costly search for a bone
marrow donor to .save his
life.
First diagnosed with
leukemia in December,
Southfield-Lathrup High
School graduate Jonathan
Cohen, 19, went into a brief
remission with the help of
chemotherapy. But when the
disease returned earlier this
year, doctors told Mr. Cohen
his best chance for recovery
was finding a bone marrow
donor.
Chemotherapy again
halted the disease during
the past month and the sear-
ch for a bone marrow donor
has intensified.
A
CLOSE-UP
War
of
Nerves
Cohen said, and the four
reports will be issued to Fed-
eration monthly, beginning
in September.
An article in June in The
Jewish News stated that
7,700 youngsters attend
Jewish schools out of 24,000
school-age youth in the
metropolitan area. Dr.
Cohen's statistics show that
13,000 youngsters age 6-17
live in the Jewish core area
— the northwest suburbs
where the bulk of the Jewish
community resides.
Three-fifths of the 13,000
attend Jewish schools and
one-fifth are enrolled in Jew-
ish day schools. "And over
four-fifths have had some
Jewish schooling between
the age of 6 and 17," Dr.
Cohen said.
Most, however, complete
their Jewish schooling by
age 13. Less than one-third
of the age group continue
their schooling after bar or
bat mitzvah.
"This presents a problem
and an opportunity," Dr.
Cohen said. "Many children
Continued on Page 20
Quest Continues
For Marrow Donor
While the search usually
begins with the family, be-
cause Mr. Cohen was
adopted, neither his adop-
tive mother, Charlene
Ehrlich, nor his sister,
Shelia, 26, are compatible
matches. The donor search
took the family to
Youngstown, Ohio, where a
probate court gave Mr.
Cohen permission to open
his adoption records in the
hopes of finding his natural
family.
The hunt led to three half-
sisters. The girls were tested
but were not good matches.
The search for the natural
mother continued, but there
was no trace of her, Ms.
Ehrlich said. His half-sisters
had not heard from her in
years and the Southfield
family seemed to hit a dead
end.
Continued on Page 14
AUGUST 17, 1990 / 26 AV 5750
SPECIAL REPORT
01990 LITERIATKINk COPYRGF.T BY CARTOONEWS INC.. NYC. USA
SPECIAL SECTION
GAMES
TH
BE N
C•Maccabi
Youth Games
1990
WITH THIS ISSUE