MEIIM•••M••11111111111ME
•
U
• •
yotve to Popular Don ,
nd •
ihe Best is Getting Ili
■
■
■
■
■
■
■
U
U
p0)
SCHOOL OF DANCE
I
U
Proudly announces the Opening of our new addition!
November 3rd
we are offering new classes in
Ta • , azz, Hi • -Ho •
and the newest craze sweeping the Nation
"The Swing' ,
(Singles and couples welcome, six week courses)
Come and dance with The finest staff in Metro Detroit!
28857 Orchard Lake Rd., Farmington Hills
(248) 553-0305
I
10/24
1997
32
■
■
Cultural Tuneup
Aiming to send teens'
Jewish commitment
into higher key.
• •
IT
•
•
•
U
• ■
• •
• •
• •
•
• •
• •
■
• •
• •
• •
• •
3
Call Now! Dance your way to the Top!
•
MI
• 1111 II
■
• •
■
• •
■
• •
•
• •
• •
■
• •
■
•
STEWART AIN
Special to The Jewish News
ewish day schools, Jewish
summer camps and trips to °
Israel have been found to be
instrumental in shaping one's
Jewish identity. Now, New York UJA-
Federation's Jewish Continuity
Commission is trying another
approach: singing.
Three new Jewish coed choral
groups composed of high school stu-
dents on Long Island, Staten Island
0
and Westchester are being organized
with the help of a $40,000 grant from
the commission.
The grant was awarded to Hazamir:
The National Jewish High School
Choir, which was founded in 1993
and already has choral groups in
Manhattan, Boston, Philadelphia,
Baltimore and Houston.
"It is a safe, non-religious way to
express your cultural identity," said the
organization's founder, Matthew Lazar.
"The Jewish Continuity
Commission appreciated the fact we
had a unique and attractive way of
reaching out and touching teen-agers
who might otherwise be lost to
Judaism," he said.
Lazar noted that Jewish youngsters
who sing in their high school choirs
c
do so with no Jewish context and that
each December many of them end up
singing Christmas music.
"We can take those high standards
and the social possibilities choirs cre-
ate and put them in a Jewish context,"
he observed. "They will be in a Jewish
community, forming a Jewish musical
minyan."
There is no limit to the number of c;
teenagers who can sign up for the
choirs, which are geared for the musi-
cal novice as well for the musically
experienced.
"Everyone should come because we
find the repertoire that succeeds," said
Lazar.
"We try to make kids with a Jewish
education more musical, and give a
positive Jewish cultural identity to
those who have their musical skills
developed but have little Jewish con-
sciousness," he added.
❑
— New York Jewish Week