DETROIT
Yeshiva's Board Resigns
After Curriculum Change
Staff Writer
y
eshivah Beth
Yehudah's decision
last week to cut back
30 minutes from secular
studies each day next year
and add 30 minutes to
Judaic studies has resulted
in the resignation of the Or-
thodox boys' school's board
of directors.
David Wayntraub, who
had been a member of the
board, said the majority of
the 11 members resented the
fact that they were present-
ed with the proposal of the
Vaad Hachinuch, or re-
ligious education committee,
as a "fait accompli" to
change the balance of the
school-day curriculum. The
committee includes many
members of Detroit's Coun-
cil of Orthodox Rabbis.
At issue was the procedure
of making school policy
without approval of the
board as well as the seeming
shift to the right religiously
in determining the makeup
of the school day.
Mr. Wayntraub questioned
whether the vaad "has its
finger on the heartbeat of
the parent body" of the
school.
Rabbi Raphael Skaist,
principal of the school, and
Rabbi Norman Kahn, ex-
ecutive vice president of the
school, would not comment
on the controversy.
According to Mr. Wayn-
traub, Rabbi Skaist present-
ed the decision of the Vaad
Hachinuch at the board
meeting, explaining that it
was time for the school to
move into the "mainstream."
The rabbi said that other
boys' yeshivot around the
country were cutting back
their secular studies in favor
of more Judaic hours, Mr.
Wayntraub said.
Rabbi E.B. Freedman, ex-
ecutive director of Beth
Yehudah, who was at the
meeting, said the vaad had
made the decision about six
weeks ago and came to last
week's meeting for the
board's "blessing."
"It wasn't presented as an
ultimatum," Rabbi Freed-
man said. "The plan to modi-
fy school hours was put
before the board for a vote."
The change in hours would
affect both the elementary
and middle schools. Current-
ly, elementary students at
14
FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1991
Beth Yehudah spend 3 1/2
hours a day on Judaic and
English studies each. Grades
six through eight spend 4 1/2
hours a day on secular
studies.
According to Mr. Wayn-
traub, who is secular prin-
cipal of the Yeshiva Gedolah
and whose youngest son,
Binyamin, attends Beth
Yehudah, the board was
asked to approve an alloca-
tion of $10,000 for the plan,
which would have provided
additional pay to Judaic sub-
ject teachers for the extra
half hour they would be ex-
pected to teach.
The allocation was re-
jected, 6-5, he said.
Sol Frankel, who was at
the meeting, said he voted
"The Vaad
Hachinuch had
already made its
decision. The board
was just there to
rubber stamp it."
David Wayntraub
for the motion, but would not
comment further. He has
four sons at Beth Yehudah.
"After it became evident
that the vaad was going
ahead with their plan
regardless, some of the board
members wondered why the
school even bothered with
the board at all," Mr. Wayn-
traub said. "That's when a
motion was raised to dis-
band. The motion passed
4-3."
According to the Michigan
Department of Education,
privately funded parochial
schools like Beth Yehudah
don't have to meet a specific
number of hours of secular
study. The only state re-
quirement is that high
schools must offer a U.S.
government class, and all
schools complete 900 hours
of teaching and be open 180
days.
"They must all teach
math, reading, English, so-
cial studies and science, but
there's no state requirement
as to how many minutes
must be spent on each sub-
ject," said Jean Shane of the
Michigan Department of
Education. "As of Oct. 1,
when the last forms were
due, Yeshivah Beth
Yehudah and its faculty met
with state requirements,"
she said.
Mrs. Shane said no one
checks the signed forms
unless someone files a for-
mal complaint.
"There's a difference bet-
ween meeting requirements
and having the time to pro-
vide quality education," said
two English studies teachers
from Beth Yehudah and
Beth Jacob, the yeshiva's
girls school.
The teachers, who
originally spoke on the
record, asked later not to be
identified for the sake of the
children they have at both
schools.
"We barely have enough
time in the day as it is to get
in everything we need to,"
they both said.
The teachers also ques-
tioned the practicality of
raising Hebrew teachers'
salaries when the school is
having trouble meeting its
monthly payroll.
"We haven't been paid on
time for the last two pay
periods," a Beth Yehudah
English studies teacher said.
"The school has a legal grace
period of 48 hours, but we
certainly don't appreciate
being paid late."
Rabbi Freedman said that
in the last five years, the
school has met every con-
tractual obligation within
the legal grace period.
"Times are certainly hard,
and we are no exception,"
Rabbi Freedman said. "But
our staff are paid within the
legal limits and any increase
in Judaic studies teachers'
pay will not affect the con-
tracts of our English studies
staff."
But questions still remain
for these teachers.
"How is the school going to
absorb the increased cost of
Hebrew teachers' salaries,
and how does that affect our
salaries? The school will
probably have to raise tui-
tion," one secular studies
teacher said.
"We want our kids to have
the best — the best Limudei
Kodesh, religious subjects,
and the best Limudei Chol,
secular subjects. But not at
the expense of each other," a
Beth Jacob teacher said.
Mr. Wayntraub said the
school should have con-
ducted a study and then
compared how their students
perform against others.
"If Beth Yehudah students
perform higher or equal to
others, then maybe the
school could afford to
shorten its secular studies,"
he said.
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y
Photo by Glen n Triest
AMY J. MEHLER
1
)
The Kravenchenko, Monkman and Israeitel families.
Family To Family
Continued from Page 1
program and plenty of newly
arriving Soviet families, but
not enough local families to
match them with," she said.
Ellie Slovis, who matches
the families, said the
hardest part is telling the
new arrivals about the pro-
gram and then not being
able to put them in touch
right away with families.
"Most Soviet emigres hear
about the program when
they begin their English
classes at the Jewish Com-
munity Center," Mrs. Slovis
said. "They get all excited
and then end up waiting
around for something to
happen."
Mrs. Slovis said there are
55 Soviet Jewish seniors
that need to be matched.
There are also 40 families
with young children, in-
cluding five who are unspon-
sored, waiting to be match-
ed.
"In May, Detroit resettled
80 Soviet Jews," Mrs. Slovis
said. "This month we're ex-
pecting about 90 more. We
need more local families to
pitch in."
Mrs. Slovis said the
American families are not
expected to contribute to the
financial well-being of their
adoptive families.
"The program is designed
so that the local families
provide moral support and
serve as a sort of role
model," Mrs. Slovis said.
"They're there to show they
care and to give the Soviet
families advice on the
American way of doing
things."
For Bella Kravenchenko
and her family, it was enough
just to have the chance to
meet new people.
"It is always an exciting
experience to meet new peo-
ple, especially people from a
different country," Mrs.
Kravenchenko said.
She and her family were at
the Monkman home in Hun-
tington Woods Wednesday
night for their own family-
to-family get-together.
"Bella and Sam and their
two boys are like a part of
my own family," Mrs.
Monkman said as she was
getting ready to serve a 15-
piece black cherry cheese-
cake. "And now to be able to
include the Israeitels makes
our family even more com-
plete.
Aleksander and Yelena
Israeitel and their two chil-
dren arrived in Detroit from
Moscow June 5. The
Monkmans had an oppor-
tunity never presented to
them before — meeting them
at the airport.
"There's no way really to
describe it," Mr. Monkman
said. "There's no way to cap-
ture the feeling of the mo-
ment like being there and
seeing first-hand the expres-
sions on their faces."
Mr. and Mrs. Israeitel,
who both speak fluent Eng-
lish, said they feel they are
in "paradise" and can't say
enough about their spacious
apartment and their wall-to-
wall carpeting.
"We never expected to find
so many friends here so
quickly," said Mrs. Israeitel,
who worked as an English
language interpreter in
Moscow. "We haven't even
been here one week."
Mr. Israeitel, a physicist
with several publications to
his name, said his biggest
challenge will be to obtain a
Michigan driver's license.
Mr. Monkman, who owns a
construction company in
Ferndale, remembers the
day he taught Mr. Kraven-
chenko to drive.
"It was last winter," he
said, "and we went to the
Oak Park High School park-
ing lot. We couldn't even see
ti