CLOSE-UP

USSIAN
EVOLUTION

Soviet students are putting an
added burden on the already
financially strapped Jewish schools.

ive words. That was the ex-
tent of Julia Karasik's
English vocabulary when she
enrolled in Sally Allen Alex-
ander Beth Jacob School For
Girls last March. Like many
others, Julia knew little
about Judaism but heard
about Beth Jacob through
. Yalena Grinman, a Soviet im-
migrant who has been in-
strumental in bringing Soviet
children to the day schools.
Nine months later, Julia,
10, speaks English with only
SUSAN GRANT a trace of a Russian accent.
Staff Writer
Her Hebrew skills, too, are
improving daily thanks to
an intensive tutoring pro-
gram established by Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah.
The program began last
Photos by
year, when Soviet immi-
Marsha Sundquist
grants began coming to
Detroit. The four Jewish day
schools and other educa-
tional institutions made
teaching Judaism to Julia
and other new Americans a
priority.
Educators welcomed the
newcomers with full schol-
arships. They knew Soviet
families had no money to
pay for private schools; yet
they recognized Jewish edu-

cation was an important
part of the acculturation
process.
Educators then scrambled
to put together tutoring pro-
grams to teach these new ar-
rivals who knew little Eng-
lish and even less Hebrew.
Now the programs are in
place, and the Jewish
schools are struggling to find
ways to pay the bill.
"It looks like we may be
doing this backward," said
Rabbi E.B. Freedman,
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah ad-
ministrator. "We got the
students; then we built the
program and now we have to
find a way to pay for it all."
Akiva Hebrew Day School
Principal Zev Shimansky
agreed the high cost is a
problem.
Rabbi Marc Volk, Akiva's
executive director, estimates
it will cost the school
$218,000 this year to
educate the 37 Soviet chil-
dren enrolled, the largest
number in any one day
school.
Most of those dollars will
pay for teachers' salaries,
textbooks and other educa-
tional expenses, Rabbi Volk

said. The school now
employs 10 staff members
who are involved in some
aspect of the effort to
educate Soviet children.
The rest is earmarked for
buses to transport Soviets to
the school and other inciden-
tal costs, Rabbi Volk said.
To pay the bill, Akiva has
launched a fundraising
campaign. In addition,
Rabbi Volk is not ruling out
tuition increases to help pay
for Soviet programs.
The financial situation
doesn't look much healthier
at Yeshiva Beth Yehudah.
"We're a half million
dollars in debt," Rabbi
Freedman said.
His budget indicates it will
cost about $66,000 to
educate the 28 Soviet
students enrolled in the
school's Academy for New
Americans. But with busing,
uniforms and even the small
trinkets Rabbi Polter hands
out to his successful Hebrew
students, he expects the fig-
ure to tally more than
$80,000.
Dr. Mark Smiley, Hillel
Day School headmaster, fig-
ures he'll spend closer to

At left:
Julia Kareski, 10, with
Rabbi Moshe Polter.

Above:
Larrisa Muratova, 14.

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

23