Go West, Young School!
Congregation Beth Achim breaks from Congregation Beth
Abraham Hillel Moses, opening its own school and a satellite
center in Walled Lake.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
W
ith a little over a month
left before registration
begins, the education
department of Congre-
gation Beth Achim announced
that it will split from a joint con-
gregational religious school.
Instead of joining with Con-
gregation Beth Abraham Hillel
Moses' school as it has for the
past three years, the Southfield-
based synagogue will operate on
its own.
Part of the plans will be a new
satellite center to serve children
living in Walled Lake, Commerce
Township, Highland and West
Bloomfield Township. Adminis-
trators expect about 30 children
will sign up for those classes,
which will be located in a yet-to-
be-disclosed public school.
"Let's face it The history of
movement in the Detroit Jewish
community has been outward
and westward," said Barry V
Levine, Beth Achim's education
director. "It would be very foolish
to ignore this."
He added that the congrega-
tion has no plans to leave South-
field for the more northwestern
suburbs.
"This is not one place instead
of the other," he said, adding that
all students will be required to
attend special services monthly
at the Southfield campus. "There
are a great deal of people who
have been holding their kids back
and teaching them on their own
because of the distance they
would have to travel. This takes
that burden off of them."
Highland residents Benjamin
and Jane Miller are two of the
parents who will benefit from the
extension classes. Their two chil-
dren, Daniel and Alesha, have at-
tended the Southfield site each
--J year, leaving their home in north-
ern Oakland County twice a
week at 2:30 p.m. and returning
after 7 p.m.
"Oh, cool!" Alesha said when
she heard the school would be
taking registration this fall.
"(Walled Lake) is not even 10
minutes from our home," Mrs.
Miller said, adding that she
stayed in the Southfield area
shopping or reading while her
children attended Hebrew class-
es. "This will be very good for us."
Originally, Beth Achim was
part of the United Hebrew
Schools. When a Federation com-
mittee recommended in 1992
that UHS dissolve, Beth Achim
received a three-year allocation
totalling $130,000 to start its own
school.
Barry V Levine: Heading new school.
Beth Achim then entered an
agreement with Congregations
B'nai David and Beth Abraham
Hillel Moses to share the cost of
a single religious school program.
Sharing a full staff of teachers
who traveled between Beth
Achim and Beth Abraham Hillel
Moses, the congregational reli-
gious school's offices were based
in the West Bloomfield syna-
gogue and were headed by Mr.
Levine, then Beth Abraham Hil-
lel Moses' educational director.
The Walled Lake
school serves those
who've moved west.
Although B'nai David's stu-
dents stopped attending the
school in the first year, Beth
Abraham Hillel Moses and Beth
Achim continued to work to-
gether. They recently worked out
a reciprocal agreement where-
by Beth Abraham Hillel Moses'
Southfield residents were allowed
to attend Beth Achim and vice
versa.
But the strain of having teach-
ers travel between the two schools
grew to be too much. Last year,
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses' ed-
ucation committee acted to dis-
solve the union, saying Beth
Achim now had the ability to sup-
port its own school.
"We asked ourselves if there
was any advantage other than
the reciprocal agreement," said
Henry Lonnerstater, the chair-
man of Beth Abraham Hillel
Moses' education committee. "We
decided that there wasn't."
Mr. Levine was recruited from
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses to
start the Beth Achim program.
"I am very challenged by the
fact that we have the chance to
revive the Southfield area and
open the doors of the Walled Lake
area," Mr. Levine said. "I am very
excited to have an opportunity to
be a part of the future.
"This is a smaller program to
begin with, but remember: Oak
trees grow from acorns," he said.
"We are taking something from
nothing and building it into some-
thing special."
In constructing his program,
Mr. Levine hired most of the
teachers from the congregation-
al school to serve at Beth Achim's
Southfield site. He plans to finish
hiring for the new Walled Lake
extension center and to fill a few
open positions for the main cam-
pus before the Sept. 10 student
registration.
In the meantime, Beth Abra-
ham Hillel Moses was left with-
out a religious school director as
well as a reduced staff of teach-
ers. Acting quickly, the congre-
gation hired its cantor, Ben-Zion
Lanxner, who has several years'
experience teaching. The congre-
gation then hired all of the teach-
ers needed to start the school
year.
"We are excited," Mr. Lonner-
stater said. "We have a full teach-
ing staff. We hired other teachers
to replace the ones who left."
Although the two schools have
agreed to continue their recipro-
cal student exchange agreement,
both programs will undergo
changes.
"We are completely restruc-
turing our programming," Mr.
Lonnerstater said.
Three Promotions
At The Jewish Center
JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
I
n this year of change at the
Ms. Weitzer received a mas-
Jewish Community Center, ter's degree is social work from
Leah Ann Kleinfeldt received the University of Michigan in
another promotion — her sec- 1982. She has been with the JCC
ond in four months.
in the adult services department
Ms. Kleinfeldt served as the for six years.
Center's assistant executive di-
Previous to her work at the
rector for five years before be- Center, Ms. Weitzer was a post-
coming the associate executive adoption case worker, a sexual
director in March. She assumed abuse prevention counselor and
the responsibility of supervising the program director at the U-M
JCC operations at both campus- Hillel.
es.
Last week, the JCC board
JCC promotions: Chris
Lewis, left, and Margo
ratified a proposal to switch
Weitzer, below.
her title to executive direc-
tor, a position formerly held
by Morton Plotnick for 19
years.
When Ms. Kleinfeldt re-
ceived her first promotion,
Dr. Plotnick became the ex-
ecutive vice president, as-
suming the responsibility of
heading Center fund-raising,
endowments, sponsorship
and long-range planning.
JCC President Douglas
Bloom said the board didn't
Ms. Lewis holds
originally grant Ms. Klein-
a master's degree
feldt the executive director
in piano. Previous-
title because the agency
ly, she was a JCC
didn't consider it appropri-
cultural arts direc-
ate at the time.
tor in Virginia. In
"We were going through a
September of 1993
huge political change and it Leah Ann Kleinfeldt she became the
(the assistant executive di-
cultural arts direc-
rector title) seemed most ap-
tor with the Detroit
propriate at that time," he said. Center. Ms. Lewis also served as
"Now, this makes more sense. She the executive director of a Vir-
is acting as the executive director ginia performing arts group.
and she should have the title."
The promotions leave open a
Ms. Kleinfeldt's salary will not supervisory position in the new-
increase with the promotion.
ly created adult services and fam-
Last month's departure of As- ily enrichment program, which
sistant Executive Director Bruce combines the former adult ser-
Landgarten led to the promotions vices and cultural arts depart-
of Adult Services Director Mar- ments.
go Weitzer and Cultural Arts Di-
Center officials are in the
rector Chris Lewis.
process of interviewing and hope
Ms. Weitzer, now the director to have the post filled within two
of JCC programming, joins the weeks.
front office, supervising all Cen-
"The two departments were
ter programming departments, combined to provide quality pro-
'Including sports and fitness, child gramming without duplication,"
development and the Janice Ms. Kleinfeldt said. "Instead of
Charach Epstein Museum competing with ourselves in
Gallery.
terms of programming, we can
Ms. Lewis, now the director of provide more qualitative pro- LO
operations, will be active in the gramming.
Cr)
Center's membership and mar-
"We are not sitting back here 0)
keting strategies and is respon- and waiting for things to happen.
sible for the business aspects of We're moving with a new free- OD
C
JCC functions. They includes dom and going for new solutions >-
maintenance and human re- to old challenges. We have to be
sources. Ms. Lewis, who has more inventive and think about
headed up the annual fall book how we can creatively pursue an
fair for three years, will remain innovative way to take us into the
in charge of this year's event.
future."
15