DESIGNS IN DECORATOR LAMINATES, LTD. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO COST A FORTUNE...ONLY LOOK LIKE IT! FEATURING • • • • • • Wall Units Bedrooms Dining Rooms Credenzas Tables Offices PHOTO BY JOHN M. DISCHER SPECIALTIES • • • • • Formica Woods Stones Glass Lucite LOIS HARON 851.6989 Allied Member ASID f Studio in Harvard Row Mall 6441 - The Machon ['Torah recognizes a young leader with a passion for learning. SPOT LYNNE MEREDITH COHN STAFF WRITER 50°/0•70°/0 OFF P.J. Cherrin: A thinking Jew. ALL NAME BRANDS • Vertical Blinds • Pleated Shades • Levolor Blinds • Wood Blinds 21728 W. Eleven Mile Rd. Harvard Row Mall Southfield, MI 48076 Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10-5 Free Professional Measure at No Obligation Free in Home Design Consulting New Rochester Hills 352-8622 L r Since 1986 651 5009 - STEVEN TARNOW PREFERRED BUILDING CO. Additions Kitchens • Bathrooms Remodeling w Building Quality Into Every Project With THE DETR OI T Unmatched Personal Service. 48 NARI 810-626-5603 Licensed & Insured nte REMODELING NDLISTRY mama - 445-6080 ARNOLD Automotive Group Ltd. Gratiot Ave. at 12 Mile Road, Roseville, Michigan "lust 25 A Pied Piper minutes from the BirminghaintSloomfleld area off of 1-696" ■ MERCURY LINCOLN 445-6000 I nspired by a scene in the movie Mr. Holland's Opus, P.J. Cherrin gave each of the students in his "Navi- gating Judaism" class at Congrega- tion Shaarey Zedek a compass. "Good teaching is about more than A just education," says the 23-year-old West Bloomfield native. It's about giv- ing kids direction. Jewish education gets Cherrin fired up. But he feels that all he has learned thus far, in the six-or-so years since his life took a turn toward a more Jewish- ly observant lifestyle, is just the tip of the iceberg. Cherrin doesn't think he deserves an award for anything — let alone for Jew- ish education. Call it humble acceptance. But the leaders of Machon L'Torah's Jewish outreach network in Oak Park think otherwise. At Machon's annual dinner June 24, Cherrin will receive the first Young Leadership Award, which will be an annual accolade thereafter, according to Machon's Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz. "P.J. was chosen because he [has been] active ... in getting Jewish stu- dents involved, not only with Machon but with Hillel in East Lansing and He- brew University in Jerusalem," Rabbi J says. "Most recently he organized our weekend in West Bloomfield, Shabbat Across America. [He] put together a committee, was the driving force behind it. He really showed some unusual lead- ership skills." Asked why he thinks he's receiving the accolade, Cherrin says, "Because I've been able to identify that [Machon is] a kosher source for Jewish education. The best you can do is bring the horse to the trough." Cherrin, however, thinks that a de- serving candidate for the award would have been a friend of his. Joey Felsen, he says, was one of the primary influ- ences for turning Cherrin toward a Torah-observant lifestyle. "I think that a lot of people are climbing up their lad- ders of life as fast as they can — so they can get into the best graduate school, get the best job, best promotion, and once they get to the top, where they wanted to be, they realize the ladder was on the wrong building," says Cher- rin. Felsen is a practicing example of how not to live like that. "He's a person I as- pire to be like because he's tocho k'baro (a person whose external persona re- flects what is inside)." Another man to whom he looks for guidance is Richard Joel, leader of Hil- lel International. Cherrin jokes how some observant Jews have pictures of their rebbes on the wall, while he hangs pictures of communal leaders like Joel. And he slips quotes from Michael Medved, Dennis Prager — thinkers, writers, Jewish scholars — into every- day dialogue. "I think life in [one's] 20s has to be a time for navigating the terrain, finding out what the buildings are, which one to lean the ladder against," he says. Cherrin's Jewish identity "is a par- adigm for who I am," he says. On the outside, Cherrin appears to be just an- other twentysomething. Except for the knitted kippot or one of the funky hats he always wears, he dresses in the ca- sual attire of a law student. He hangs out with friends, goes to movies, "dis- cusses all the normal things." But Cherrin quickly adds that he --\