LOOKING BACK

Two Catholic school grads look
back at the experience.

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

D

L

avid Feder simply
continued a family
tradition when he
enrolled in Christian
Brothers High School, a
Catholic college-prep in-
stitution in Memphis, Tenn.
Both his grandfather and
uncle graduated from the
school, and David's father
had always regretted that he
never went there. So, in the
mid-1970s, when the quality
of the Memphis Public
School system began dropp-
ing, David's parents natur-
ally opted to send him to
Christian Brothers.
He was not the only Jew
enrolled, said Rabbi Feder,
who now shares a pulpit at
Temple Emanu-El in Oak
Park. About 5 percent of the
school's 750 students were
Jewish.
"I received a very good ed-
ucation there," said Rabbi
Feder, who still sends money
to his alma mater. "I don't
regret going there."
Yet, while he values the
education he received at
Christian Brothers, he
doubts he would ever send
his own children to a
Catholic school, said Rabbi
Feder, who is unmarried.
"I'm not so certain that as
good an education as I
got, that I would feel comfor-
table sending my children to
a Catholic school," he said.
"I would rather send them to
a private secular school,
Yavneh (Detroit's reform day
school) or Hillel (Day School)
where I know they would
receive an education with
Jewish values."
Nathaniel Warshay, who
now works at the Jewish
Welfare Federation com-
munication department, also
appreciates the education he
received at the University of
Detroit Jesuit High School
and Academy. His only other
option was going to Detroit
Public Schools, said Mr.
Warshay, who lived in the
Seven Mile Road and Wood-
ward Avenue area at the
time.
"Academically, it was the
best I could have done," said
Mr. Warshay, who graduated
in 1981. "It was probably one
of the most inexpensive

private schools and offered
one of the best high school
educational programs in the
state."
Neither Mr. Warshay nor
Rabbi Feder minded the re-
ligious atmosphere in their
high schools.
"One, they never tried to
convert you and two, most of
the Jews had a fairly clear
sense of Jewish identity,"
Rabbi Feder said. "Even if
they didn't have any Jewish
knowledge, they knew they
had Jewish parents and the
non-Jews let you know you
weren't Christian."
Jewish students at both
schools were also never re-
quired to go to mass, except
for the major mass which
marked the beginning of the
school year.
He also never attended
any of the numerous re-
ligious retreats offered at

"One, they never
tried to convert
you and two, most
of the Jews had a
fairly clear sense
of Jewish identity."

Rabbi David Feder

the school, Mr. Warshay
said. But it meant he lost an
opportunity to socialize in an
informal setting with his
classmates.
At Christian Brothers,
only Catholics had to take
religion classes. Non-
Catholics took classes in
ethics, Rabbi Feder said.
"But the ethics classes were
more difficult. It was one of
the prices we paid."
While there was never any
pressure to convert, Rabbi
Feder remembers times
when he couldn't fully par-
ticipate in school. activities
because he was Jewish.
"There would always be
something important
scheduled on Rosh
Hashanah or Yom Kippur.
Our school yearbook pic-
tures would be taken then
and we would have to re-
member to go to the make-up
day," he said. "Or sometimes
students would roll pennies
toward you as you walked in
the courtyard or in the
hallway."

Although he made friends
in high school, "socially, I
could have done better," Mr.
Warshay said.
He grew up with few Jew-
ish friends. In his junior
year, a friend of his mother's
suggested he join Temple
Emanu-El's youth group. So
he went a few times. It did
not last long.
Most of the other teens in
the youth group knew each
other from previous years,
Mr. Warshay said. They had
already had a history
together and he was a
stranger to them.
He always knew he was
Jewish, he said. After all, his
father was an ardent Zionist
and his family had been in-
volved in Temple Israel
before it moved to West
Bloomfield.
But it wasn't until he
became active at the B'nai
B'rith Hillel Foundation in
Ann Arbor as a University of
Michigan student, that he
felt closer to Jewish
students, Mr. Warshay said.
Later, after a two-month trip
to Israel, he became an
assistant director of BBYO
before moving to his present
position with the Federa-
tion.
However, Rabbi Feder said
going to Christian Brothers
never prevented him from
being active with his
temple's youth group. "I was
never a regional officer, but
I was a vice president in our
youth group," he said. "I
never felt left out."
He and his family were
always involved in his
temple-based religious
school where he spent 12
years learning about
Judaism and its celebrations
in the afternoon and on Sun-
days. In fact, because Chris-
tian Brothers treated the
Bible as the basis of Chris-
tianity, he had to study it
closely and often knew it
better than his Jewish
friends at his temple.
If anything, going to
Christian Brothers helped
preserve his sense of
Judaism, he said. Because
he was one of only a few
Jews in the school, he real-
ized how precious Judaism
was to him. "I definitely felt
a need to draw myself closer
to Judaism."

The Central East Region
of the
National Conference
7771 7 r:
of Synagogue Youth
cordially requests the
pleasure of your company

at a breakfast
establishing the

Harry Blitz, Z"TL
Memorial
Scholarship Fund

Sunday, June 9,1991
9:30 a.m.

Young Israel of Greenfield
15140 West Ten Mile Road
Oak Park, Michigan

Scholarship Presentation

Rabbi Feivel Wagner

Rabbi of Young Israel, Forest Hills, New York

Blitz Family Response

Harvey Blitz

Breakfast Chairman

Gary Torgow
For further information call 557-NCSY

ASSOCIATES

Mr. and Mrs. Norman Adelsberg
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Berlin
The Blitz Family
M. and Mrs. Tzvi Burstyn
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Feldman
Mr. and Mrs. Morris Flaff
Mr. and Mrs. David Kruger
Dr. and Mrs. Larry Lowenthal
Dr. and Mrs. Jay Novetsky

Nusbaum-Laketch Family
Dr. and Mrs. Ron Reinetz
Mr. Alex Saltsman
Dr. and Mrs. Jack Schwarcz
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Sherizen
Mr. Phillip Stollman
Mr. and Mrs. Gary Torgow
Rabbi Marc Volk
Dr. and Mrs. Joel Zacks

SPONSORS

Mr. and Mrs. Steve Cohen
Rabbi and Mrs. E. B. Freedman
Mr. and Mrs. Simon Kresch
Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon Miller

Mr. and Mrs. Abe Schwartz
Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Snider
Rabbi and Mrs. Larry Ziffer
Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Zuroff

TRIBUTE COMMITTEE

Rabbi and Mrs. Baruch Levine
Mr. and Mrs. James Anderson
Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Mantel
Dr. and Mrs. Lary Berkower
Rabbi and Mrs. Yecheskel Borenstein Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Mindell
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bricker
Mr. and Mrs. Manny Mittelman
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Bronstein
Mr. and Mrs. Marc Morse
Mr. and Mrs. Hyman Brown
Mr. and Mrs. Morris Novetsky
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Carmen
Dr. and Mrs. Julian Nussbaum
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Perish
Mr. and Mrs. George Chessler
Dr. and Mrs. Jay Perlstein
Rabbi and Mrs. Eliezer Cohen
Dr. and Mrs. Eric Peterson
Rabbi and Mrs. Reuven Drucker
Mr. and Mrs. Sam Platt
Mr. and Mrs. Neil Duchin
Dr. and Mrs. Myer Roszler
The Eisenberg Family
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Ruby
Mr. and Mrs. Hersch Elchonen
Dr. and Mrs. Maury Ellenberg
Dr. and Mrs. Harvey Sabbota
Mr. and Mrs. Sam Flatt
Dr. and Mrs. Claude Schochet
Mr. and Mrs. Abe Selesny
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Fordonski
Mr. and Mrs. Donald Sharfman
Mr. and Mrs. Sol Frankel
Dr. and Mrs. Dov Sherizen
Dr. and Mrs. Phillip Friedman
Rabbi and Mrs. David Simcha
Mr. and Mrs. Herschel Gardin
Mr. and Mrs: David Snow
Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ginns
Rabbi and Mrs. Elimelech Goldberg Mr. and Mrs. Allen Steinmetz
Mr. and Mrs. Howard Tapper
Dr. and Mrs. Jeff Goldenberg
Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Teger
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Graham
Mr. Michael Tinman
Mr. and Mrs. Michael Hochhieser
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Torgow
Mr. and Mrs. Wolf Katz
Dr. and Mrs. David Unger
Mr. and Mrs. Ithamer Koenigsberg
Mr. and Mrs. Sol Zieler
Dr. and Mrs. James Lobes

❑

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

27