Vs 4

Staying Up For Tzedakah

Akiva
celebrates
Hoshanah
Rabbah
with a
learn-a-
thon.

JULIE WIENER
Staff Writer

W

il alk-a-thons, swim-a-
thons, read-a-thons,
bike-a-thons.
Just when you
thought there was nothing left to
parcel into sponsorable units and use
as a fundraising gimmick, something
new comes along.

Enter Akiva Hebrew Da.), School's
learn-a-thon, a three-year effort com-
bining tzedakah with the Hoshanah
Rabbah (seventh day of Sukkot) tra-
dition of learning all night long.
Last week, 50 Akiva boys and girls

Top: Moshe Schreiber, age 13, reads
along as Rabbi Karmi Gross discusses
the meaning of Sukkot.

Above: Ariel Hillman, 13, reads aloud
for the class.

Left: Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz makes
a point to the high school group.

10/31

1997

24

from grades 6-12 chose to study on
their vacation, staying up until mid-
night for special learning sessions at
Young Israel of Southfield and earn-
ing pledges for each hour.
"It's exhausting but it's interest-
ing," said eighth-grader Devora
Cohen, who has participated in
the learn-a-thon all three years.
Eighth-grader Moshe Schreiber,
a newcomer to the learn-a-thou;
raised $20 from the pledges of
family and friends. "It's a good
way to earn money for charity
and to encourage learning on
Hoshana Rabbah," he said.
"Around the end of our third •
learning session I was starting
to get a little drowsy, but basi-
cally I didn't have that hard of a
time."
Although not all the money has
been collected yet, principal Rabbi
Karmi Gross estimates the event
raised almost $1,000 for Azor
Matzion, a program helping Jewish
children with cancer. 0