Gross' hiring for these reasons, sug-
gesting instead that the school be run
on an interim basis by a consortium of
its Judaic studies teachers until it
could find a leader with more compat-
ible qualifications.
Dr. Benjamin Wolkinson, who
chaired the search committee that
selected Gross, declined to be inter-
viewed. Michael Greenbaum, Akiva's
current president, spoke with The
Jewish News in September and
November about general goals and
fundraising progress, but did not return
later calls requesting further comment.
Dworkin noted that Akiva has
experienced rapid turnover of top
administrators throughout its 34-year
history, which means little continuity
and no long-term planning.
"At Akiva, there's no five-year plan
and no 10-year plan," said Dworkin.
"Instead, they keep attempting to
reinvent the wheel and everything is
done for the sake of expediency.
Other parents and former parents,
including former Federation President
Mark Schlussel, echoed Dworkin's
assessment of Akiva's leadership.
In a January 1998 personal letter to
then-teacher Edward Codish,
Schlussel described Akiva's leadership
as "comfortably going through the
motions while not substantively chal-
lenging itself or its lay leadership or its
student body to establish an institu-
tion of overall excellence." Schlussel
wrote, "The corrections required to
change the course of the institution
are so drastic that the patient may not
survive the surgery. On the other
hand, continuing the present level of
mindless mediocrity does not serve the
institution or community either."
In a December interview, Schlussel
noted that he is not currently in close
contact with Akiva's goings on and
that his letter, which Codish provided
to The Jewish News, was a response to
a lengthy, unpublished essay on Akiva
that Codish had written.
A number of students and former
parents commented on Akiva's right-
ward shift with varying degrees of
concern.
Former parent Noemi Ebenstein
recently stopped contributing to Akiva
because of the changes she perceives
there.
"I'm very sad and experience it as a
personal loss," she said. "I feel that it
became much more right-wing reli-
giously and less open minded, both
secularly and Jewishly. It's more frum,
more yeshivish. I still believe in what I
thought Akiva stood for, integrating
both the secular and religious world,

but Akiva no longer represents me.
Junior Shira Traison said she, too,
notices an ideological shift at Akiva and
disagrees with it, but it doesn't interfere
with her desire to go to school there.
"I'm personally not right-wing, but I
don't think it's going to affect my
views," she said. "I was in public school
before, so I know how to avoid com-
ments I don't want to hear and go with
the comments I do want to hear."
A 1997 graduate, Alona Sharon,
now a sophomore at U-M, doesn't like
Akiva's shift to the right. She sees it in
its separation of the sexes and the atti-
tude in Jewish law classes that "there's
only this one explanation rather than
there's a broad spectrum that can be
accepted in Orthodoxy."
However, she says, the school has lit-
tle choice. "When you're an institution
like Akiva and you're so small and your
existence depends on people paying
tuition, you have to do what people
want," she said. "My great-uncle,
David I. Berris, was one of the main
founders of Akiva, and I don't think
what Akiva is now is what he intended.
But religion isn't static. It changes over
time and Akiva has to change with it."
Another 1997 graduate is Rachel
Wolkinson, the daughter of former
search committee chair and board
member Benjamin Wolkinson. Now a
freshman at Brandeis University, she
noticed Akiva changing during her
high school years and understands the
pressures it faces to become more
right-wing.
"I'm having a harder and harder
time finding people like my parents,
who will raise their children the way I
was raised," she said. "My mother
wears pants and doesn't cover her hair,
and that's how I want to be. But I
know that's not something my princi-
pal at Akiva would have approved of"
Wolkinson, who was annoyed by
the fact that girls couldn't study
Talmud at Akiva (centrist Orthodox
day schools around the country vary
as to whether they teach Talmud to
girls), said the school should not cave
in to right-wing pressure.
"Akiva should stick to living by
what it was founded to be: a modern
Orthodox institution with strong
Zionist principles," she said. "Detroit
already has black hat institutions. It
doesn't need another one."

Defenders of Akiva

Many in the community defend Gross
and some deny that the school's ideol-
ogy has changed.
Lakritz, who disagrees with the right-

STS OX.ETItE

'50 - '200 Off All .,ackets

b1:2UNO QICCI

8omeNet &)uth. • 18t Level

(248) 649-4433

Large selection of mens & women leathers by

ANDREW MARC

Private Bruno Ricci Leather Collection

the yachtsman

1105 S. Adams • Birmingham, MI
248 • 723 • 9839
YOUR LARGEST SOURCE OF PATAGONIA
JUST GOT BIGGER! NOW ON THE
CORNER OF LINCOLN AND ADAMS.

Ippy

patagonia

Manor Motorcar Company

39500 Grand River Avenue • Novi, Michigan 48375
(248)426-9600 • Fax (248)426-8686

Mike Dega 1998 Salesman of The Year will handle every

-

facet of your purchase from sale to financing, lease or buy.

IMMEDIATE DELIVERY AVAILABLE ON THE MOST POPULAR MODELS:

2000 Model S Class

Fastest Availability in
Greater Detroit

Mercedes-Benz

111
199'

Detroit Jewish News

17