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DETROIT
THE JENA/ISii N
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26 IYAR 5755/MAY 26, 1995
Lubavitch To Open
New Day School
Bais Menachem will start with a first grade in the fall.
F
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
first there was Yeshiva Beth year after that, another grade will be
Yehudah in 1914, then there was added until eight grades are offered.
The new school already has 11 stu-
Hillel Day School in 1958 which
was followed by Akiva Hebrew dents signed up for the first- grade class
Day School in 1964 and Darchei Torah and is aiming at tuition of less than
$4,000 per student with need-based
in 1986.
Now Bais Menachem Academy adds scholarships available. The funding to
its name to the list of Jewish day schools start the school, approximately $60,000,
serving elementary-aged boys and girls has mostly been raised.
"When you think about the time, there
in the Detroit metropolitan area, said
is a lot involved," Rabbi Bergstein said.
Rabbi Chaim Bergstein.
According to Rabbi Bergstein of "You aren't just talking about starting
Congregation Bais Chabad of a first grade. You are talking about get-
Farmington Hills, the school will open ting busing together, getting desks, get-
its first-grade class in the fall. Every ting books.
"But our goal is to have it up and
running in the fall," he said, adding
that the first-grade class will meet
in his shul. "We intend to reach that
goal."
The elementary school will fill a
hole in the Lubavitch community.
While Cheder Oholei Yosef Yitzchok
Lubavitch in Oak Park offers grade-
school through high-school classes,
the teaching is done in part by im-
mersing the students in Yiddish.
Secular studies are offered but not
with the selection that will be pro-
vided at the new school.
While more attention and time
will be devoted to secular studies,
less will be paid to the learning of
Yiddish. That subject will be taught
in the morning as a foreign language
much in the way that French or
Spanish is taught in public schools.
"This will be a school for people
who want a 50-50 or a 60-40 kind
of a day with Torah studies in the
morning and secular studies in the
afternoon," Rabbi Bergstein said.
Another departure from other
Lubavitch-based learning is that the
school is not specifically targeted to-
ward Lubavitch children. Instead,
the school hopes to reach out to chil-
dren of all sects of Judaism.
"Already the majority of our school
does not identify as Lubavitch
Chasidim," said Chaya Bergstein,
the director of the school.
Other formal Lubavitch educa-
tion
is offered to high school-aged
Fifty years ago, Americans
boys at Cheder Oholei Yosef
entered the Nazi death
Yitzchok Lubavitch in Oak Park and
camps.Some took pictures.
to girls at Bais Chaya Mushka in
Others relied on a pen and
Farmington Hills. Beyond high
paper to record history.
school, a yet-to-be-named seminary
is available for rabbinical students
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
in Oak Park, and the Lubavitch
LUBAVITCH page 12
Close-Up
The
Liberators
Walk On
Thousands attend the Incredible Israel Fest.
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
ne of the first questions asked by — not too far from her home — and even-
those who plan an outdoor event is: tually back south to the JCC.
Wearing her Miracle Mission I T-shirt,
Will the weather cooperate?
To those who asked that question Ms. Stacey participated in what she
guessed was her 10th Walk for Israel.
Sunday, the answer was yes.
Participants gathered under sunny Others, from this month's Miracle Mission
skies at the Maple-Drake Jewish II, held up their bus number signs so
Community Center to make the 3.5-mile Missionaires could be together.
"I enjoy walking for Israel and it's heart-
Walk for Israel. Many stayed for an af-
ternoon and evening of entertainment, warming to be here with all these people,"
said Ms. Stacey, who was with her hus-
family activities and fireworks.
Gloria Stacey was among the mass of band and friends from the Miracle
people who began the walk, heading east Mission. "The camaraderie is like re-liv-
along Maple Road, before traveling north ing the Mission."
through a West Bloomfield subdivision WALK ON page 14
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