EDITORIAL
Education And Attitudes
United Hebrew Schools has been a fix-
ture in the Detroit Jewish community for
72 years. But as our Close-Up article on
Page 24 points out, that may be changing.
The agency was created to upgrade cur-
riculum, enhance teaching standards and
effect an economy of scale for educating the
thousands of Detroit area Jewish
youngsters who attended afternoon Heb-
rew schools. Over the years, thousands of
Detroiters attended cheder at UHS bran-
ches.
But times have changed. Over the last
two decades, Jewish parents have made
fundamental changes in their thinking
about their religion and their children's
Jewish education. Many have walked away
from the more traditional approach to
Judaism and Jewish education of the Con-
servative movement and UHS and opted
for Reform temples and fewer hours of for-
mal Jewish education.
These changes are reflected in the
decline in the number of Conservative syn-
agogues and afternoon school enrollment
in the Detroit area and the corresponding
growth of the Reform temples and their
school enrollment. From its peak in the
1950s and '60s of 7,000-8,000 students each
year, UHS enrollment for 1990-91 was 948
students in nursery through high school
programs.
That figure represents 12 percent of
students enrolled in Jewish educational
programs, but the Agency for Jewish Edu-
cation - UHS received 57 percent of the
Allied Jewish Campaign education alloca-
tion last year.
True, the Agency for Jewish Education is
more than its UHS division. But it would
be hard to argue that the bulk of its Allied
Jewish Campaign funds are not being used
to subsidize the education of 948 students.
With increasing numbers of Allied Jew-
ish Campaign contributors coming from
non-UHS ranks, and with Jewish edu-
cation in general needing an overhaul, the
Jewish Welfare Federation put together
successive blue-ribbon panels to study the
problem. The conclusions and recommen-
dations are scheduled to be announced by
the beginning of 1992.
Everyone expects changes, not only be-
cause of the financial inequities but to im-
prove our children's ties to our Jewish
community and their Jewish future.
However, a major part of the problem rests
with us — the parents.
We need fundamental changes in at-
titudes. Children will not see Jewish edu-
cation as a meaningful activity when
parents allow sports, music, birthday par-
ties and Halloween to take precedence over
Hebrew school. Similarly, the synagogue's
importance in a family's life becomes very
clear when a child is simply dropped off at
a friend's bar mitzvah with the parent-
chauffeur returning at the conclusion of
services.
When Hebrew school or the synagogue
are simply baby-sitting services, a clear
signal is sent to the children. It translates
into disruptive behavior in school and shul,
an uncomfortable lack of knowledge of
synagogue customs and prayers, and a
malaise toward Judaism among our young
that is truly alarming for the future of our
community.
The education panels under Joel Tauber
and Conrad Giles have worked diligently
to come up with creative solutions for the
problems of Jewish education for all ages
in Detroit. The Giles Commission report at
the end of the year should be eagerly
awaited by educators and parents alike.
What is desperately needed are invig-
orating programs that will rejuvenate Jew-
ish education and our attitudes.
Yavneh Needs To Survive
When class is soon dismissed for the
summer at Yavneh Academy, Detroit's
Reform day school, 14 children are going to
be released with the typical smiles and
laughter all of us remember when facing
three months of summer's "freedom?'
"freedom."
But what the students are too young to
realize is that the colorful, lively school
they attend each day at the Jewish Com-
munity Center is in danger of being closed
when school would normally open in
September.
Indeed, Dr. Margaret Eichner, the
school's headmaster, is leading an all-out
recruitment effort to bring the enrollment
up from 14 to 25 and add a third grade to
an existing kindergarten, first and second
grade.
Detroit is a major player when it comes to
day school education with a strong Conser-
6
FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1991
vative day school and several strong Or-
thodox schools. But the community also
needs a Reform day school option. We call
upon those Reform parents who are looking
at secular private school to at least give
Yavneh a look.
When a visitor walks through the
school's classrooms and hallways, it's
difficult not get a lump in one's throat
when hearing the enthusiastic Hebrew of
the children. It's a thread that must not be
broken. There is so much to this school that
cannot be learned through an advertise-
ment or a newspaper article.
No matter what sort of Jew you call
yourself, it's important to consider support
of Yavneh. If we lose Yavneh, one parent
said, we could lose more kids from
Judaism. And that would be the greatest
tragedy, because this is an issue that goes
beyond Yavneh's survival.
Dry Bones
wroFF
tdo-ree
114e 4ECIffreAKS,
STaP SAL Es To
11* SAUDIS,
WALTSofftles
T-at&
RAVE
comPterED
11* SVIDY
8/Xiaisf aSI4. ALL
t& ?
SEEMS A
rri-Le
146 (945.09. 4)(TRtt:46
JORIAN
AND Sri FF
OPINION
A Personal Note
And An Apology
PHIL JACOBS
Managing Editor
T
wo years ago, an
amazing thing
happened in New
York. In Madison Square
Garden, a place that was
more used to crowds of peo-
ple watching the New York
Knicks or Rangers, some
20,000 Orthodox Jews came
together, not to root for
Patrick Ewing but to read
the last page of the Talmud.
Busloads of people came
from all over the country to
this Siyum Hashash an op-
portunity to complete the
seven-year Daf Yomi (page a
day) cycle of learning
Talmud. It was, indeed, a
blessed event, one that
brought together some of the
world's most learned Torah
scholars.
When the event concluded,
I called around to some of
the Baltimore-area par-
ticipants. Some told me it
was the most spectacular
moment of their lives. Some
kiddingly "yelled" at me for
not joining them. And one
rabbi in particular angrily
refused to talk to me. Not
that rank holds any impor-
tance at all here, but this
rabbi was also one of the
most influential in
Baltimore's powerful Or-
thodox community.
The rabbi told me in a brief
phone conversation that he
was furious at me for "that
story you did." Immediately,
I started indexing the stories
I'd done during the past few
weeks to figure out which one
might have offended him.
But he was angry at a
story that I had done five
months earlier. It was about
a Soviet emigre, with all
kinds of computer engineer-
ing degrees from Moscow,
who was cleaning the floors
of this rabbi's schools be-
cause it was the only job she
could get. The rabbi said the
story implied the school was
forcing the woman to clean
floors for minimum wage.
The rabbi added that his
school went out of its way to
find something, anything for
this woman to do. He said I
had made him and his school
look "terrible" in the com-
munity.
At a loss for words, I went
back after our conversation,
looked up the story and read
it again. I could see his
point. It was difficult to
separate the truth from the
Continued on Page 10