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20 Detroit Jewish News

mer student Sarah Chopp, who stress-
es that she wants very much to see the
school survive.
"If Detroit's small modern Orthodox
community doesn't have enough people
to feed into the school, then the school
can't offer a lot and that attracts fewer
modern Orthodox people to Detroit,"
said Chopp, adding that she plans to
settle in a city with a larger modern

Orthodox community
"It would be a real loss to the com-
munity if Akiva doesn't survive, but it
has to put its resources toward hiring
good math and science teachers and re-
evaluating itself," Chopp continued.
"You have to make people feel when
they're writing their tuition check that
they're paying for an education, not
just a Jewish environment."

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Leaders' Kids Aren't At Akiva

kiva is notable as much
for those who are not its
students, as for those who
are. It is the only centrist
Orthodox school in Detroit, but few
community leaders associated with
centrist Orthodox organizations
send their children there. •
Akiva was strongly aligned with
the Young Israel network of centrist
Orthodox synagogues at its found-
ing, but today neither Young Israel
of Southfield Rabbi Elimelech
Goldberg nor Young Israel of Oak
Park Rabbi Steven Weil enroll their
children at Akiva.
Even Rabbi Eliezer Cohen, the
spiritual leader of the modern
Orthodox chavurah Or Chadash
and himself a longtime teacher at
Akiva, does not send his own chil-
dren there. Also not attending are
the children of Rabbi Tzali
Freedman, who is regional director
of the National Conference of
Synagogue Youth. One of Akiva's
most successful and well-known'
graduates in the community, Gary
Torgow, is president, not of Akiva,
but of Yeshiva Beth Yehudah,
which is more right-wing in its reli-
gious outlook.
Weil, whose children are elemen-
tary-age and younger, said he visit-
ed all three local Orthodox day
schools when he first moved to
Detroit four years ago, and was
most impressed by the educational
methodology at Yeshivos Darchei
Torah, a right-wing Orthodox, or
haredi, institution.
"We liked the exhilarating learn-
ing experience that we observed in
the classrooms, the rapport between
students and teachers, as well as
between the administration and
teachers," said Weil.
Although Weil defines himself
and his synagogue as centrist
Orthodox, he said the difference

between centrist Orthodoxy and the
philosophy of Darchei Torah is more
one of "nuance" than philosophy
"All Orthodox Jews are working
within the framework of
Maimonides' 13 philosophical
underlying principles of Judaism,"
said Weil, comparing the distinc-
tions between a centrist Orthodox
and other Orthodox day school to
those between "Harvard and Yale."
Young Israel of Southfield's
Goldberg transferred his daughter
(now studying at a post-high school
seminary in Israel) from Akiva after
two years of elementary school. He
sends his high school-age son to a
yeshiva in Pittsburgh because "I
don't believe a co-educational envi-
ronment is the best environment
for my children."
Although Akiva is co-ed, high
school Judaic studies classes and
some secular classes are single-sex.
The Akiva board voted in 1995 to
make all high school classes single-
sex, but lacked the funds for full
implementation.
Despite his personal preference
for single-sex education, Goldberg
noted that Akiva "does a good job"
and estimated that about 75 percent
of his congregants with school-age
children send them to Akiva.
The preference for single-sex edu-
cation also spurred NCSY's
Freedman to send his daughters to
Sally Allan Alexander Beth Jacob
(Yeshiva Beth Yehudah's girls'
school), rather than to Akiva. "I
don't think philosophy is the greater
issue, although there may be a little
more of a Zionistic bent to Akiva
than to Yeshiva," said Freedman,
who declined to "classify himself" as
centrist or ultra-Orthodox.
Cohen declined to comment on
his decision not to send his chil-
dren to Akiva, and Torgow was not
available for comment. H