HAVE A
CHILD
WITH A
DISABILITY?
YOU ARE
NOT ALONE.

Up Fr

•

JARC proudly announces the

••••••".

new Merle and Shirley Harris
Children and Family Division

(incorporating the Keshet Program)

Services for children with
any disability and their
families, including:

• In-home respite care

• Life planning based on
individual needs

• Parent to parent networking

-

-

• Resources and referrals

• Social and educational
opportunities

• Newsletter

PARENTS, NEED A BREAK?

Trained JARC staff available to

'at q uality respite care in
ur home. Sliding fee scale.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Tuesday, April 28 7:00-8:30 p.m.

"Dealing With Adolescents"

An opportunity for parents to
discuss common issues.

Monday, May 11 7:00 p.m.

JARC office

Public Services for Children
with Disabilities

Learn about Children's Waiver
and other programs offered by
the Community Mental Health
(CMH) System.

Presented by CMH Children's Division

Tuesday, May 19 1:00-2:30 p.m.

"Sibling Relationships"

An opportunity for parents to
discuss common issues.

To RSVP to any of these
programs or for more
information on the
Harris Children
and Family Division, call

(248) 352-5272

4/3
1998

14

28366 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034

JULIE WIENER

Staff Writer

I

is not at all unusual to pass by a
former synagogue in Detroit
that's been converted to a
church.
But on the Oak Park-Huntington
Woods border, the opposite has
occurred.
Since purchasing a Lutheran church
on Coolidge for $400,000 last sum-
mer, the Lubavitch girls' school, Beis
Chaya Mushka, has transformed the
11,000-square-foot building into a
space for intensive Jewish learning.
"The first thing we had to do was
take away all the church symbols,"
said Dr. David Kagan, director of the
school and president of the Lubavitch-
sponsored Michigan Jewish Institute,
which is temporarily sharing the
building. Where the organ stood is
now the school's library, which is dou-

•

•

the school — which moved in ami'ci
the construction at the beginning of
the academic year — will be up to
code and will have several new class-
i=3
_a rooms on the lower floor.
Founded six years ago with a class
of eight, Beis Chaya Mushka's middle
and high school now boast 45 stu-
dents, approximately a quarter of
whom hail from out of town and
with local host families. Another 50 n
girls fill the elementary school.
According to Kagan, the school's
Lubavitch curriculum differs some-
what from the offerings at Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah and Yeshivas Darchei
Torah, Detroit's other more traditional
Orthodox day schools. Before Beis
Chaya Mushka's middle and high
school were established, most local
Lubavitch girls sought education in
other cities.
Beis Chaya
Installing sprinklers Mushka, one of
in the basement:
the few local day
The school has
schools that is
invested approxi-
not a constituent
mately $30, 000 to
agency of the
meet fire codes.
Jewish
Federation of ',D<
Metropolitan Detroit, hopes to receive
Federation assistance to offset the ren-
ovation costs.
According to Howard Neistein,
Federation's director of planning and
agency relations, Federation is consid-
ering offering a 7.5 percent interest
loan, contingent upon a review of the
institution's financial records and pro-
<
vision of other details.
The school's day-to-day operating
budget draws from tuition ($4,000, but
most students pay a reduced amount)
and local fund raising, said Kagan, who
is planning an April 26 fund-raiser to-
celebrate the high school's first graduat-
ing class and to honor patrons David
and Deborah Morrison. ❑

x

bling as a classroom until renovations
are complete. The sanctuary — with
its abstract-patterned stained glass
intact — has become a computing
center. And the former altar space is
now a storage room.
Beis Chaya Mushka's
$160,000 investment in
renovations has included
an unanticipated
$30,000 for modifica-
tions — emergency win-
dows, new fire alarms
and a sprinkler system —
to comply with fire code.
But the days of clutter,
noise and crowding
stemming from the con-
struction are finally
drawing to a close, said
Kagan, who is optimistic
Devora Leah Kagan and Chani Keselman use Beis
that renovations will be
Chaya Mushka's new computing center, which once
completed by Passover.
served
as a church sanctuary.
With "finishing touches,"

