AIWA COMMINTART
The Entire Detroit Jewish Community
Should Be Proud Of Akiva's Accomplishments
MICHAEL N. GREENBAUM
Special to The Jewish News
ulie Wiener's article about
Akiva Hebrew Day School
("Akiva: The Roads Ahead" Jan.
1) is sadly misleading, ignoring
that the best way to measure the success
of an organization is by its "product" —
in Akiva's case, its graduates.
Academically, Akiva graduates are
consistently represented on the list of
National Merit Scholar finalists, and last
year's graduating class had an average
SAT score of 603 in math and 663 in
English (out of a possible 800).
In addition, our graduates are regu-
larly accepted at the college of their
choice, whether it be the University of
Michigan, Columbia, Barnard, Bran-
deis, the University of Pennsylvania or
Yeshiva University. Our alumni have
achieved successful careers as physicians,
lawyers, accountants, professors, rabbis
and teachers. Moreover, many serve as
leaders in our Jewish community, in
their synagogues, schools, the Agency
for Jewish Education and the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Akiva parents are dedicated to instill-
ing Jewish values, respect, giving and
caring in their children. On any given
day, they can be found at Akiva, assist-
ing in school projects, cooking hot
lunches or overseeing Pzedakah and holi-
il
Michael Greenbaum is president of
Akiva Hebrew Day School, Lathrup
Village, and a member of the graduat-
ing class of 1974.
day programs. Every one of Akiva's 135
families plays a vital and active role in
our success. There are no exceptions.
Many Akiva teachers have been with
the school for so many years that they
are teaching family members from a sec-
ond generation. Some have left to make
aliyah in Israel, serving as true examples
of the kind of Zionism and love of Israel
that Akiva tries to instill in our students.
Others have relocated due to a
spouse's professional demands. In fact,
two-thirds of our secular high school
teachers have been at Akiva for five years
or longer and one-third of the teachers
has been here in excess of 10 years.
Akiva takes great pride in our high
school. Some of our students spent their
"time off" during winter break working
with special needs children in a camp set
up by the Friendship Circle. Most of
these students say they benefited more
from the experience than those they
helped. Others can be seen regularly
helping out at Yad Ezra, the community
kosher food bank.
These activities, strictly volunteer in
nature, are performed because of the
lessons Akiva students receive on the
necessity and virtue of ahavas Yisraeh the
love of Israel.
Our school's chapter of the National
Honor Society has organized a Chesed
program, where students bring Judaism
to non-denominational nursing homes.
offering Jewish patients the opportunity
to celebrate the customs of the Jewish
holidays. This program has received
commendations from the Jewish Home
and Aging Services.
This year's high school student has
the option of taking AP courses in both
American and world history as well as
English. The history courses are taught
as self-study with individualized support
and those students in the program have
experienced a high success rate. The
English course is worked into the gener-
al curriculum of the school and those
students last year electing to take the
year-end exam all received 4s and 5s on
a scale of 1-5.
In addition, our high school students
participate in a wide variety of programs
outside of Akiva to further their educa-
tional experiences. Panim el Panim —
Face to Face — is an intense, four-day
program in Washington, D.C., spon-
sored by the Washington Institute for
Jewish Leadership and Values. This pro-
gram, involving 100 students from vari-
ous cities plus faculty, teaches our Jewish
youth the relationship between their
Jewish education and the secular world.
Participants enjoy briefings from gov-
ernment officials and obtain a hands-on
session with their senators, gaining first-
hand knowledge about the inner work-
ings of our government. This was our
fourth year attending Panim el Panim.
Next month, our high school stu-
dents will attend our ninth model U.N.
where 600 students and 200 staff con-
vene for three days in northern New Jer-
sey. While there, each school represents a
country and is divided into committees
to solve real, everyday problems.
The conference culminates with a
General Assembly where decisions are
made and resolutions are adopted.
Many of our students have been recog-
nized with the Best Delegate Award
based upon teamwork and excellence in
debating the issues.
Akiva will once again participate in
this year's March of the Living where
Jewish students from all denominations
come together to walk through Poland
and visit sites where crimes against Jews
were perpetrated. The trip culminates in
Israel as the students celebrate our inde-
pendence and our Jewish state. This
program, strongly represented by Akiva,
requires classes be taken in addition to
their normal workload. Those students
who have attended have come away
with a learning experience impossible to
teach in any classroom in the world.
Finally, Akiva couldn't be happier
with its choice as principal, Rabbi
Karmi Gross. Rabbi Gress has instilled a
sense of spirit and family that we haven't
seen in years. Rabbi Gross comes from a
family of educators who were always
involved in their communities and who
espoused the modern centrist Orthodox
views of their institutions.
The manner in which the teachers,
parents and students have rallied around
Rabbi Gross and his family is to be
commended.
Why shouldn't we be proud of our
school and why shouldn't the Detroit
Jewish community be proud to count
our school as one of theirs? Clearly,
Akiva may be small in size. However, it
has left a deep and positive imprint on
its students, staff, parents and the
Detroit Jewish community. We believe
the best is yet to come. 1-1
It makes no sense for the commu-
nity to support substandard education.
And the results of the tests should be
distributed' to the community so that
synagogue "shoppers" might utilize the
information in making membership
decisions.
The principle is a simple one: We
need assurance that the community
receives "bang" for its education
"buck."
Laurence R. Imerman
Bloomfield Hills
The Teitel residents, like all the
Jewish Apartments and Service build-
ings, are a very tight-knit and caring
community. The residents work
together to keep their community safe
and they look after one another when s
they are sick or recuperating from
surgery
These residents share in the grief
over the death of a child, spouse or
fellow resident. They share in the joy
of the birth of grandchildren or great-
grandchildren.
The residents are elected to an
executive board, which consists of
equal numbers of American and Russ-
ian-born residents.
Do the residents have differences in
opinion and culture? Yes, but isn't that
what makes a community interesting
— the differences?
Unfortunately, your writer missed
LITTERS
Report Card - Winter 1999
JEWISH DAY SCHOOL
EXCEEDS
Expectations
MEETS
Expectations
Teachers
Support philosophies, goals of school
Possess adequate formal academic training
and experience
Participate in ongoing staff development
Curriculum
Gives instruction in Hebrew language, Bible,
prayer, Jewish life and observances, rabbinic
literature, Jewish values, Jewish history and
social studies
Has a challenging, coherent, relevant program
providing all students with suitable courses of
instruction and expectations
Offers variety of teaching strategies that
actively engage students
Using a variety of data, school examines how
well students perform and regularly informs
all its constituencies of results
Some of the standards the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education uses to evaluate Jewish day schools.
1/15
1999
30 Detroit Jewish News
BELOW
Expectations
Residents
Are Caring
Your Jan. 8 article on the Teitel resi-
dents, "Worlds Apart," created an inac-
cutate view of resident relations at the
Harriet and Ben Teitel Apartments.
'