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Celebrating 50 years of growth with the Detroit Jewish Community

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THE JEWISH NEWS

SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS

APRIL 3, 1992 / 29 ADAR 2 5752

Rabbi Freedman
To Leave Yeshiva

PHIL JACOBS

Managing Editor

A

fter 12 years at the
helm of Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah, executive
director Rabbi E.B. Bunny
Freedman has informed the
school's board of directors of
his intention to resign in
June.
Rabbi Freedman, 39, said
he reached a point in his life
where he wanted to make a
career switch. Though not
specific about what that
switch will be, Rabbi
Freedman indicated it would
be in sales. He also said he
intends to remain in the Oak
Park area.
The Yeshiva's board of di-
rectors has formed a search
committee to find a replace-
ment. They will look at pro-
spects both locally and na-
tionally.
Rabbi Freedman's resig-
nation comes after a rather
stormy year that saw the
formation of a new nine-

CLOSE-UP

member board whose man-
date was to help the school
heal financially and polit-
ically. Also, a rabbinic com-
mittee was formed to help
steer the school in what it
deemed was the proper fiscal
direction.
The school was staying
afloat through loan ar-
rangements as well as the
advancement of Federation
allocations. About $800,000
of the school's $3 million an-
nual budget is covered by
tuition. Over $250,000
comes from the Federation,
placing Rabbi Freedman and
Rabbi Norman Kahn in the
position of fund-raising the
remainder of the budget.
The pressures felt by the
national recession on
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah as
well as other Jewish institu-
tions made it more and more
difficult to raise the monies
needed to maintain the
school's budget.
Several achievements

Continued on Page 20

Halachic Will
Adapts To State

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

M

ichigan Jews will be
able to make their
health-care deci-
sions comply with Halachah
thanks to a will developed by
the Agudath Israel of
America.
The Halachic Living Will
for Michigan was produced
following a law passed last
year by the Michigan
legislature that recognizes
an individual's right to
designate a patient advocate
to make medical and post-
mortem decisions in his
behalf.
The Aguda's will requires
that these decisions be made
in accordance with Jewish
law. It allows the signatory
to name a specific halachic
authority to be consulted in
life-or-death issues, and calls
on the patient advocate to
consult with the authority
before any decisions are
made.

The will was necessary, an
Aguda spokesman said, be-
cause Jewish and state law
can conflict on medical care
issues.
Under Michigan law, for
example, an advocate could
opt to starve a patient to
death should he fall into a
coma and should the patient
have made such a request.
Many Orthodox, Conser-
vative and Reform leaders
have expressed opposition to
such a move.
"What the Living Will
does is allow someone to say,
`What the Torah requires is
important to me, and my ad-
vocate is obligated to consult
the rabbi whom I designate
before making any deci-
sions,' " explained Detroit
attorney Stewart Snider.
The Aguda's first living
will, issued in 1990, was cre-
ated for New York state.
Since laws addressing
health-care wills vary from

Continued on Page 22

When Baseball
Cures The Blues

With opening day upon us, it's time to forget
the gray winter and look forward to the national
PAGE 26
pastime and everything it represents.

The Shell Game In Education

PAGE 49