LETTERS Specializing in Alzheimer's Care Bloomfield Healthcare Staffing Ration 1 : 3 • No Entrance Fee people. The New Americans are helpful to Teitel Apartments and are always pleasant to me and other resi- dents. We don't speak the same lan- guage, so it sometimes makes corn- munication hard but we try to com- municate and manage to live togeth- er very well. Rose Schwartz Teitel resident, Oak Park • No Hidden Costs (Supplies Included) • Quality care provided with dignity and compassion • Convenient Locations: Bloomfield Hills • Troy • West Bloomfield Yeshivat Akiva Has Our Support Philosophical commitment to doing whatever necessary and possible within our means to meet resident's needs for care of dementia. • • k SUTTON HOMES • P. • 4 • • 0. A TRULY SKILLED ALTERNATIVE TO INSTITUTIONAL CARE For information call (248) 258-8282 LET'S GET ORGANIZED! xamettst•temm""2 • BEDROOMS • KITCHEN PANTRY • GARAGE WORKSHOP BASEMENT STORAGE • LAUNDRY ROOMS • HOME OFFICE ✓Kw, you can quickly find what you're looking for, your clothes have plenty of room, and accessories like belts, ties, and jewelry are right where you need them. For more information about our total home storage solutions, please give us a call and experience the difference. 248 844-9060 Call today for a FREE home evaluation 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: 1/15 1999 32 Detroit Jewish News 2000 Model S Class Fastest Availbility in Greater Oe -oit Mercedes-Benz After reading your article on Yeshivat Akiva ("Akiva: The Roads Ahead," Jan. 1), we collectively felt a need to share our opinions with your readers. Akiva is, and has always been, a critical factor in the Detroit Jewish community's educational arsenal. It serves an important constituency and provides a vital service to hundreds of young people. It offers its students a first-class education and counts among its alumni successful rabbis, doctors, lawyers, teachers and communal ser- vants, many of whom have accepted positions of leadership in Detroit and in Jewish communities across the country. Akiva's graduates are considered well prepared for their post-high school experience and have attended some of the country's finest universi- ties. Every day school today faces enor- mous challenges both internally and externally. Akiva is no exception. Because of the important communal role Akiva has, it deserves our whole- hearted help and friendship. Gary Torgow President, Yeshiva Beth Yehuda Dr. Edward Hurvitz Yeshivas Darchei Torah Steve Margolin President, Hillel Day School Dr. Saul Weingarden President, Yeshiva Gedola Students Raise Objections As two ninth-grade students at Akiva Hebrew Day School, we feel that your article about our school ("Akiva: The Roads Ahead" Jan. 1) was uncalled for and that it only focused on the nega- tive aspects of our school. We don't understand why you thought it was acceptable to embarrass and hurt many people, including the Jewish community, our parents and the staff and students of our school, ourselves included. We feel at home at our school and feel more attention was given to what has gone on in the past than what is going on in the present. We don't see why you asked former graduates of Akiva what is going on today when the students at the school now are who you should have asked. You said our school is moving toward the right because we are sepa- rated for davening (prayers) and class- es. As students who take part in these activities, we see that the separate dav- ening has helped more people partici- pate in the services. We feel this way because when we davened with the boys, we were bored during the parts we could not participate in. We are separated for our Judaic classes only, which is preferred by Jew- r-' ish law. This also benefits our learning because different laws apply to the dif- ferent genders, so by being separated, we are allowed and able to learn more things. It is very inappropriate that you would mention the salaries of employees at our school, then corn- pare them to others, especially pub- lic school. First of all, you are invad- ing our teachers' privacy. Secondly, public schools get their money through taxes while private schools have to get their money through tuition and donations. Our parents pay tuition for us and pay taxes for public school, so that means they are paying our teachers' salaries and public school teachers' salaries. Therefore, you cannot expect the teachers at our school to be earn- ing the same amount of money as teachers in large, affluent public school systems. The academics at our school may not be the strongest, but we know our teachers and administration are con- stantly working as hard as they can to improve the level of education at our school. We can only assume you wrote this article to turn people away from our school. We feel there are so few mod- ern Orthodox schools today, you should be encouraging all of those try- ing to exist rather than belittling them. In spite of all the negatives you provided in your article, all of the stu- dents you interviewed were accepted to, and were attending, very fine col- leges. We guess the University of Michigan, Brandeis, etc., think more of Akiva than you do; but then again,