We told Nancy Kish she could mark sale prices

on some Stiffel lamps. She wanted to let

them go for a song.

who would lead with proper of us believe that the extreme is
an illusion. Nothing is ever black
values.
Before one class, he told the and white. Only demagogues like
students that he could not teach to make everything so simple."
them anymore. Why? They had What isn't simple, however, is
a meal at a person's home the education. School is just one part
night before, and nobody thanked of a child's education. A home ed-
the hostess for cooking such a ucates, society educates, and with
good meal. When the rabbi tells school, the different influences
the story, his face turns red with form a partnership in a child's ed-
anger, renewing in his mind the ucation, he said. It is, however, a
meeting he had with the stu- parent's example that is so criti-
dents. cal to a child's education.
If education is not happening
It's the morals that make
at home, Rabbi Gross said, then
Rabbi Gross tick.
"You learn to be moral by be- schools will be wasting their time.
ing moral," he said. "The more "If when the kids come to
you do it, the more you become school, we insist that they pray
aware of the sensitivities of and that the environment is qui-
others . You just can't teach et, then when they go to shul and
people to be what they want to everyone is talking around them,
be. You have to first teach stu- what type of message are we
dents to want to be what they sending to the children? Every-
ought to be." thing we do educates."
And that includes football.
Rabbi Gross left Israel and the
school because he felt that while Once while driving across the
he was satisfying himself as an country, Rabbi Gross went out of
educator and a person, he wasn't his way to visit what falls second
in it to serve God. to Israel for him in terms of ho-
"I was getting too much," he liness — Green Bay, Wis.
He found Lombardi Street out-
said. "I had heaven in Israel. But
who was really forcing me to look side of the football stadium. Lom-
at what I was doing and how I bardi St. in Green Bay intersects
could best serve the Jewish peo- with Gross St. No kidding. He
ple? It was time to go back to my parked there and just took it all
roots and learn about our people in.
Rabbi Gross is a the-hard Pack-
again."
So he entered the education- ers fan. He chose the Packers as
al force of the Diaspora and end- a child to be his team, because the
ed up for two years in Vancouver. letter G on their helmets was
He was contacted again by what his last name started with.
schools for a move to a larger Ask him who his hero is. Try
Jewish community. Detroit was the late Hall of Fame Packers
originally crossed off his short list, coach Vince Lombardi. On the
until he arrived here on a visit. rabbi's office bookshelf, among
He said Detroit doesn't do a the texts of Talmud and Torah,
good enough job of pushing its is one of his favorite books, Vince
own cause. Rabbi Gross was ex- Lombardi — Memoirs of a Spe-
cited, he said, by the depth of De- cial Time.
On his computer, the screen
troit's Jewish community.
To improve his school, Rabbi saver flashes Lombardi's famous
Gross asks his staff to turn in at quote, "When the going gets
least one anecdotal evaluation of tough, the tough get going."
The rabbi quotes the late
its students, in addition to let-
ter grades. Akiva, he said, is mov- coach, telling of a time when the
ing that way because he believes Packers lost an important game
that grades can in effect de-grade. by getting stuck on the 2-yard
"You get a C or a D; you start line. "Coach Lombardi said the
believing as a student that this is Packers would never, ever again
who I am." get stuck on the 2-yard line."
It's the values of accepting
Along those lines, Rabbi Gross
is a big proponent of EQ, emo- challenge and reaching deep
tional quotient. He said 80 per- within to achieve that the rabbi
cent of all students enter school takes from the coach and pass-
in first grade with a high self-im- es on to the students.
A knock comes at the door of
age. By the time they graduate
from college, only 20 percent the rabbi's office. A young child
maintain that level of self-image. comes in and tells the rabbi he
But what about the Akiva stu- got in trouble with his teacher.
Rabbi Gross asks the child if he
dent?
"You want a person, after all is is feeling OK.
The boy says his stomach is
said and done, who is a mentsh,
a person who is confident yet sen- hurting.
Rabbi Gross gives him a chair
sitive, a person who has a love for
the land of Israel and a love for and tells him to put his head
down and rest for a little while.
scholarship."
The points were scored. I I
For Akiva, the message of cen-
trist Orthodoxy is of major im-
11 Akiva Day School's Chi-
portance in the effort to live a
Torah lifestyle while striving for nese Auction fund-raiser will
be held 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3,
success in the secular world.

.

T

1

fl

,21

Nancy's

lighting

a

Classic Table Lamp.
Bright old brass
finish w/ ivory pinch
pleated shades. 28" H
Reg. '276" SALE $209 95

sales consultant

at our Bloomfield store.

Contemporary
Table Lamp.
Polished brass
finish w/ ivory
fluted shade. 27"
H. Reg. '259 95
SALE 156 9'

for

our

she was

Nancy also loves a good discount.

So

when

to

set

lamp

asked

we

prices

her

4

sale,

Pharmacy Floor Lamp.
Bright old brass finish
ready to give .,,adjusts 35 to 54" H.
Reg. $409 95 SALE '296 9'

them away for

Traditional Table
Lamp. bright old
brass finish w/ ivory
fluted shade. 32"
H. Reg. '213"
SALE 169 9'

a song just to make sure

she

pleased

everybody.

But hurry. Stiffel lamps are in

limited supply. And

at these prices,

may not ask

Nancy to plan

we

another sale.

ichigan
hancteher

Light Years Ahead In Customer Service

Bloomfield

65E30 Telegraph at Maple Rd.
510-626-2545

Novi

45519 Grand River
One Mi.W of Novi Rd.
810-544-0260

Rochester

200 E. Second 5t.,
E. of Main St.
510-651-4502

