The Entire Staff of

Franklin Floor
Covering

Wish Our Customers
and Friends a

9- rappy tge Healthy
New Year!

Golden
Anniversary

The Jewish Parents Institute celebrates half a
century of seeuldr family learning.

JULIE WIENER

StaffWriter

Ilir

.door Covering Plus, Inc.

2258 Franklin Road • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302
1 block East of Telegraph, North of Square Lake Road

(248) 332-9430

Monday-Thursday 9-7 • Friday & Saturday 9-4

LSPt:NA 11:VA

ith its absence of prayers
and its informal atmos-
phere, Jewish Parents
Institute is not your typ-
ical Sunday school.
The school, which celebrates its
golden anniversary next month, began
as a small group of parents who did
not feel comfortable in synagogues but
wanted to give their children a Jewish
education rich in values and culture.
The hodgepodge of families rapidly
grew into a lively secular Jewish orga-
nization that featured
not only an eight-year
curriculum for children,
but adult learning,
social activities and cele-
brations for major
Jewish holidays. In its
heyday in the late
1950s, JPI boasted 96
active families, with
members competing for
committee seats, argu-
ing over policy, produc-
ing elaborate Purim

plays and forming tight-knit friend-
ships.
Today, with a membership of 63
families (most of them dual-career
households), JPI is smaller and not
quite as boisterous. The program, affil-
iated with the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit, uses
paid staff, but parental involvement
and cultural Jewish education remain
key.
"It's not a drop-off Sunday school,"
said Marilyn Wolfe, JPI's director.
"Parents form the core committee struc-
tures and plan all holiday celebrations."
The once-a-week program does not
teach Hebrew or prayer, but focuses

Nfrey and Sandi,
Jason, Ryan and Ashley
Tamaroff
and the staff of

Jeffrey

c.

Buick-Nissan-Acura-Honda

9/18

Wish Their Customers Friends
A Happy and Healthy
New Year

1998

14 Detroit Jewish News

Top: Chanukah celebration, date unknown. Above: Purim play cast, 1949.

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