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Continued from Page 20
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22
FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1992
in a Sunday-only program
that met last year at the
Maple-Drake Jewish Com-
munity Center.
BAHM president Arthur
Smith said his board is
awaiting final figures from
the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit on
funding for Beth Achim
students for next year. With
the impending closing of the
UHS elementary system,
Federation promised to help
congregations with Jewish
education.
Mr. Smith said Federa-
tion's implementation com-
mittee and planning director
Larry Ziffer have indicated
that $70,000 will be
available for the Beth Achim
students. This is the same
amount Federation's Agency
for Jewish Education gave
the Beth Achim UHS branch
last year. No funds will be
given to the independent
BAHNI school this year, he
said.
"Our school has been
operating at a small deficit,
but as long as we can handle
the additional office
overhead, we'll do this," Mr.
Smith said.
"We're interested in buy :
ing in the unaffiliated and
educating our children for
the long-term survival of
Conservative Judaism," he
said
Mr. Smith added that the
merger of the schools is in-
dependent of any merger
discussions between the
congregations, which have
been on-again, off-again for
several years. "There's no
merger, not at this point.
Maybe down the road that
would be an issue but that's
not the issue today."
Larry Traison, president of
B'nai David, also denied any
intent to merge and re-
confirmed his congregation's
plans to build in West'
Bloomfield.
"With our impending
move," he said, "we are
reaching out to younger
families. To do this, we need
to offer a school program."
He said the school repre-
sents "a common need, and a
united front may gain us
some support from Federa-
tion."
B'nai David parents will
discuss the school and the
B'nai David board will vote
on the proposal next week.
❑
Chasidic Murder Film
Will Open Tonight
KIMBERLY LIFTON
Staff Writer
I
n Chasidic circles, a
young man in line to be
the next Rebbe would not
fraternize with a female
renegade police detective.
Yet in A Stranger Among
Us, a Hollywood Pictures
presentation which opens
tonight at area theaters,
that is exactly what
happens.
Late one night, a young
Chasidic man, Yaakov
Klausman (Jake Weber), is
murdered in his office in the
New York diamond district.
Nearly $1 million is missing.
A female detective, Emily
Eden (Melanie Griffith), who
is completely absorbed with
her career, takes the case
and opts to go undercover to
solve what she believes is an
inside job.
She poses as a ba'al
teshuvah, someone who
returns to religion, moves
into a room at the Rebbe's
home and develops a close
relationship with Ariel (Eric
Thal), the Rebbe's son.
Emily is hardened by her
profession, and she is emo-
tionally detached. But she
finds peace within the
Chasidic community, even
though she is a stranger in a
world that values a fun-
damental way of life.
Ariel teaches her it is
possible to live in the
modern world without being
part of it.
Producer Howard Rosen-
man, whose great-
grandparents were Chasidic
Jews, says he always wanted
to make a movie about -
Chasidim.
"It was an opportunity to
show values that some peo-
ple might consider old-
fashioned — like the cen-
trality of the family," Mr.
Rosenman says. "And it„
speaks to a spirituality that
a lot of people are seeking
today."
Screenwriter Robert J. ='
Avrech and Mr. Rosenman at-
tended the Yeshiva of Flat-
bush, N.Y.
"The Chasidim are very '-
wonderful and interesting r,
people," Mr. Avrech says.
"It is exciting to tell a story
in an exotic Jewish milieu
that people don't know
about, that even a lot of Jews
don't know about. The
challenge is to make it dra-
matically interesting
without turning it into a ,
speed-reading course in
Judaism, or to have it come
across as didactic."
❑