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Two classes study together in the one classroom of the rabbinical school.
But the local Lubavitch com-
munity did not move with the
camp. Instead, Lubavitch Jews
began to settle into metropolitan
Detroit. About 200 families in the
metropolitan Detroit area now
identify themselves as Lubavitch
Jews.
Cheder Oholei Yosef Yitzchok
Lubavitch, a high school for boys
in Oak Park, was the next insti-
tution to open, in 1964. The ched-
er students generally come from
other cities to continue their stud-
ies after their elementary educa-
tion is completed.
Although the cheder is highly
regarded in Lubavitch circles,
there was no institution of high-
er learning for the boys to con-
tinue their education in metro
Detroit. Most were sent to New
York to attend rabbinical school
or college.
Then the Rebbe died.
After the community recovered
from its grief, it moved into ac-
tion. Plans that had been in the
works were accelerated; dreams
sprouted new strategies.
One result was the rabbinical
yeshiva. The graduating class of
the cheder requested it be creat-
ed.
"There was a demand for it,"
Rabbi Shmotkin said. "Our old
students moved to New York af-
ter they graduated because they
wanted to be near the Rebbe.
Now there is a void in New York.
`That is when we decided there
was a need for a rabbinical school
in this area," he said.
So with two friends, Rabbis
Mendel Kaplan and Mendel
Shemtov, Rabbi Shmotkin orga-
nized curricula for two classes in
two months. Word quickly spread
through the Lubavitch commu- is that it offers evening classes to
nity and the school began field- single-sex classes. Organizers be-
ing requests for information from lieve this will be the hallmark of
as far away as Paris, France, and their future success.
Caracas, Venezuela.
"We aren't going to compete
With 22 students filling two with Wayne State University but
classes, the school meets in two we can offer things they can't. We
rooms in the basement of Con- can offer the Orthodox environ-
gregation Mishkan Israel Nusach ment," Dr. Kagan said, who corn-
Mari on Nine Mile Road.
pared the beginning of the
Soon, the school will have to Lubavitch Institute to the early
move to accommodate the plans years of Tuoro College in New
for the 1995-96 school year.
York.
"We will expand in the next
"They started with 36 students
year to include a full four-year and now they have 5,000. We are
curriculum," Rabbi Shmotkin starting with 30. Who knows
said.
what will happen?"
But not everything is geared
for higher learning. Ganeinu, a
pre-school and kindergarten pro-
gram which began as a mother-
toddler program and a summer
day camp, is planning to add a
first-grade class to their school.
The building on Middlebelt
Another result of plans being
fulfilled was the Lubavitch In- Road between Lone Pine and
stitute for Advanced Studies Long Lake roads is becoming too
(LIAS). The college, housed in a small for the 36 students who
building with a giant menorah on take classes there three to five
the front lawn, is in the middle of days a week. The children, 2-6
years old, bunch into three class-
its first semester.
Although the Lubavitch com- rooms. A small room with play
munity received in April the state equipment is the only room not
charter for a defunct Southfield being utilized as a classroom.
Chaya Bergstein, the director
branch of Tuoro College, little had
of Ganeinu, said the school has
been done with the plans.
Then in June, LIAS officials, grown each year because parents
including Dr. Kagan, organized have requested programming for
classes in computing, accounting their children.
"Right now we are looking for
and Judaic studies. They opened
the college in a Lubavitch com- support to form a first grade. The
munity center on Middlebelt desire is there and the need is
Road near 12 Mile Road. Thirty forming," she said.
"We really have flowered with
students enrolled.
The college is moving toward the needs of the community," she
accreditation which they hope to said. "As long as they express the
need for more, we will try to serve
attain in the next few years.
Part of the draw of the college them." ❑
New York
is no longer the
place to be.
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