DETROIT

New Yeshiva Will Break
The Sounds Of Silence

PHIL JACOBS

Assistant Editor

R

Workmen are installing a new $285,000 roof over the sanctuary and
adult chapel of Congregation Shaarey Zedek. The old roof on the 28-
year-old building had been leaking for several years. The 24-gauge
galvanized metal roof is expected to be completed by Sept. 10.

Photo by Marsha Sundquist

Yeshiva Gedolah Begins
Building Dormitory

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

eshiva Gedolah
Ateres Mordechai
students no longer
have to live off campus now
that the school is building a
dormitory to house them.
For the past month, con-
struction crews have been
converting nine unused
classrooms at the rear of the
yeshiva into 17 dorm rooms,
said Rabbi Eric Krohner, the •
school's executive director.
The dorm, which is ex-
pected to be completed in six
weeks, will house 70
students. It is the first dor-
mitory built for talmudic
students in Michigan, Rabbi
Krohner said. School opened
at Yeshiva Gedolah on Aug.
27.
Of the 98 high school and
rabbinical college students
enrolled in the yeshiva,
about 35 percent live out of
town, he said. Since the
school opened five years ago,
those students have rented
nearby apartments.
The dorm will also be open
to Detroit area students who
wish to live on campus,
Rabbi Krohner said.
The yeshiva began plann-
ing the dorm two years ago
with the help of Oak Park of-
ficials, Rabbi Krohner said.

y

The school received permis-
sion from Oak Park officials
to build the student housing
in May with the stipulation
that the dorm not be con-
nected to the school rooms
because of fire safety con-
cerns.
The dorm also includes a
student lounge and an
apartment for Rabbi Leib
Bakst, the school's dean,
who may use it occasionally.
Yeshiva officials expect
the dorm will cost $300,000,
Rabbi Krohner said. School
officials have established a
financial advisory com-
mittee headed by Robert
Orley which has collected
$75,000 for the project.

The dorm will
house 70 students.

abbi David
Rabinowitz's face
grimaces with pain,
and his hands express them-
selves in an emotional flurry
when he "talks" about being
turned down as a youth
when he tried to find a
yeshiva to teach him Torah.
He knows what it is to sit
in a room and not be able to
keep up with the rest of the
class and on many occasions
not know what the teacher is
saying.
For Rabbi Rabinowitz of
Oak Park, the sounds of si-
lence have been at times
painful. And that pain alone
has moved him to make sure
that others like him never
have to feel that pain again.
Considered by many to be
the nation's first ordained
deaf rabbi, Rabbi
Rabinowitz, with the help of
Detroiter Rabbi Henoch
Moshe Levin, is moving
closer to the scheduled 1991
opening of the nation's first
yeshiva high school for the
deaf.
The school, which hasn't
been named yet, will be
located in the Upper Park
Height,s section of
Baltimore, Md., an area fa-
miliar to Rabbi Levin who
studied at the nearby Ner
- Israel Rabbinical College.
Also, the location is within
minutes of three yeshiva
high schools, and is less than
an hour from Washington,
D.C.'s Gallaudet College,
the world's only liberal arts
college for the hearing im-
paired. Rabbi Levin is hop-

The school, which
hasn't been named,
will be in Baltimore.

world. He took notice when
students at Gallaudet pro-
tested so vehemently
against the hiring of a hear-
ing person as college presi-
dent. The college was forced
to rescind the appointment
and appoint a hearing im-
paired leader. Rabbi Levin
was seeking a rabbi, who
was hearing impaired, to
help put the school together,
and that's how he was

directed to Rabbi
Rabinowitz, a long-time deaf
educator. "I got involved
with this 2% to three years
ago," Rabbi Levin said. "I
had the chance to be in-
volved with Jewish edu-
cation, but I wasn't sure
what I wanted to do. I came
across the concept of Jewish
education for the hearing
impaired, and I saw that
there was a tremendous
need that was not being
taken care of."
Starting any sort of school,
especially at a time when
Jewish schools all over the
country are strapped for
funds, is not easy. But Rabbi
Levin is also finding that the
idea of a yeshiva high school
for the deaf is being well
received. His goal is to begin
classes in the fall of 1991.
The school is looking to take
over an existing apartment
building, using some of the
rooms as dorms and others
as classrooms. Levin said
Continued on Page 16

Rabbi Henoch Moshe Levin signs with Rabbi David Rabinowitz.

Greenfield Road Work Cancels
Carnival For Muscular Dystrophy

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

Safety was also a con-
sideration in building the
dorm, he said. Students will
no longer have to walk
across 10 Mile Road early in
the morning and late at
night as they travel between
their homes and the yeshiva.
Rabbi Krohner believes
the dormitory will attract
more students from other
cities.
"We are talking about 13-
year-old kids who are more
likely to stay in town or
move to Detroit because of
the housing," he said. ❑

ing to use several Gallaudet
graduates as teachers at the
school.
Rabbi Levin, who is not
hearing impaired, became
interested in Jewish edu-
cation for the deaf in the
mid-1980s. That interest
grew after the release of
Children Of A Lesser God, a
movie about a young deaf
woman's difficulty in
assimilating into a hearing

R

oad construction —
the bane of drivers in
Oak Park and
Southfield for several years
because of the 1-696 freeway
— has formed a roadblock for
an annual event that has
raised thousands of dollars
for the Muscular Dystrophy
Association.
Fifteen-year-old Jeffrey
Lazar of Oak Park has
canceled his Labor Day
weekend carnival because of
construction along Green-
field Road. Storage of con-

struction equipment near
the Crown Pointe building
at Greenfield and ,Lincoln
prevented placement of a
sign advertising the annual
carnival. The carnival itself
would not have been visible
from Greenfield said Sema
Lazar, Jeffrey's mother. "He
wouldn't have made 10
cents."
Two years ago, Jeffrey
staged his first carnival at
home and raised $3,000 for
MDA. Last year, using the
Crown Pointe parking lot
and adult volunteers, he
raised $7,000. "He was hop-
ing for $10,000 this year,"
Mrs. Lazar said.

Jeffrey raised $5,000 to
stage this year's carnival by
collecting from customers at
area stores and getting
sponsors. "He called all the
sponsors," Mrs. Lazar said,
"and will turn in the money
in their name Sunday night"
during the local portion of
the national Jerry Lewis
Telethon for MDA.

Jeffrey worked this
summer at SCAMP, a
summer program for chil-
dren with disabilities. He
also visited disabled chil-
dren in the Soviet Union on
a trip sponsored by local con-
tributors. ❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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