40.

111401111110011101:4PIPOONINIMINNIWNIPINW

END OF
THE MAZE?

0

fra Fisher has
been waiting four
years for an
answer. She may
have another year
to wait.
Superintendent
of the Agency for
Jewish Educa-
tion and its
United Hebrew
Schools elementary branches,
Mrs. Fisher is waiting for the
Jewish Welfare Federation's
blue-ribbon task force on
Jewish education. Under the
guidance of two different com-
mittees over the last four
years, Federation is studying
the delivery of Jewish educa-
tion in Detroit and what
Federation contributes to pay-
ing for Jewish education.
So where does that leave
AJE-UHS? It historically
has taken the highest
percentage of the Federation
allocation for education
while in the 1990s has one of
the smallest percentages of
students.
Long the stronghold of
Jewish education in Detroit,
UHS now appears to be in
jeopardy as more and more
families opt for Reform Sun-
day school, the independent
Conservative schools or the
day schools.
But this means new prob-
lems for the already finan-
cially strapped Conservative
synagogues, which will be
asked to contribute more to
the Jewish education of their
children.
When the original task
force, under Federation past
president Joel Tauber, com-
pleted a three-year study in
1990, it gave general rec-
ommendations about
expanding informal Jewish
education, renewing em-
phasis on adult education
and possibly dismantling the
United Hebrew School
system.
A second task force was es-
tablished this year to get ad-
ditional community input
and implement the original
task force report. The task
force is expected to complete
its study by the end of 1991,

24

FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1991

and Federation's emphasis
on UHS funding seems to be
a key target.
Dismantling UHS would
impact 756 afternoon stu-
dents whose Jewish edu-
cation is now heavily sub-
sidized by the Federation's
Allied Jewish Campaign. It
also would affect the area's
Conservative synagogues
that rely on UHS, the three
Conservative synagogues
that have their own schools
—Shaarey Zedek, Beth
Shalom and Beth Abraham
Hillel Moses — and possibly
all other area Jewish
schools.
Students — and funds —
would have to be shifted.
Harlene Appelman denies
that the issue is just money.
"How do we move up from
good to very good" in Jewish
education is the question,
says Mrs. Appelman, Fed-
eration's professional con-
sultant to the education task
force and director of
Detroit's Jewish Experi-
ences For Families program
(J.E.F.F.).
"Will giving more money
to a particular school mean
better education?" she asks.

B

With Detroit's Jewish education
study pushing for completion,
United Hebrew Schools and
the Conservative synagogues face
the biggest changes.

ALAN HITSKY

Associate Editor

•

ut money is a key con-
cern says Mark Schlus-
sel, Federation's presi-
dent. When pressed on the
issue, he admits the educa-
tion task force is a response to
pressure from major Allied
Jewish Campaign contri-
butors: Detroit's Reform
Jewish community and the
Conservative families that
use non-UHS schools.
In 1990-91, Federation
allocated a total of $1.6 mill-
ion to Detroit area Jewish
schools. Some $920,000 of
that figure went to the
Agency for Jewish Edu-
cation (AJE), which includes
the Midrasha college pro-
grams, the Community Jew-
ish High School, area-wide
teacher training and sup-
port, but mostly United
Hebrew Schools' 756
students.
The remaining funds were

(