ENGINE COMPUTER DIAGNOSTICS

whose families belong to Young Israel
of Southfield.
The $1.8-million renovations at the
former Beth Achim are being funded
primarily through the $1.35 million
expected from the sale of Akiva's cur-
rent building in Lathrup Village to
developer Jeffrey Surnow.
Although Surnow is still trying to
obtain zoning approval to demolish the
71-year-old building and construct a
shopping center on the site, both Surnow
and Greenbaum anticipate that the sale
will be completed in the coming weeks.
Remaining capital dollars have
been solicited from Akiva families and
philanthropists in the larger Jewish
community.
Since 1980, Akiva has inhabited
the former Annie Lathrup Elementary
School on Southfield Road, which ---
at 35,000 square feet — is consider-
ably smaller than the future building,
costly to maintain and in disrepair.
Founded in 1964, Akiva is a co-
educational school with 260 students
in grades nursery through 12. With
$385,700 in Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit allocations this
year, Akiva receives more communal
funds per pupil than any other area
day school.
The United Jewish Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit bought Beth
Achim last summer, when the
Conservative congregation announced
it would merge with Adat Shalom
Synagogue in Farmington Hills. The
UJF is allowing Akiva to use the build-
ing free of charge, provided that it pays
for all renovations and maintenance.
While Akiva will not use the build-
ing's mikvah, this ritual bath may be
reopened in the next year as an auxii-
iary to Mikvah Israel, Detroit's largest
Orthodox mikvah.

from a Federation reserve fund, not
the Allied Jewish Campaign. Beth
Shalom conducted a congregational
capital campaign to renovate the syna-
gogue and add the new school wing.
"The congregation provides an
important service by accepting students
of non-affiliated families," said
Federation President Penny
Blumenstein. "It's most appropriate
that Federation support Beth Shalom's
efforts to provide a Jewish education to
every child, whether or not their par-
ents are members of a synagogue." II

— Harry Kirsbaurn

• Mufflers • Brakes • Shocks • Alignment
Tune-Ups 4 M
nce

...And

The Beat
Goes On

BRAKES
starting at

HARRY KIRS BAUM

Staff Writer

I is not over till the last checks
are signed.
This week, the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit said the 1999 Allied Jewish
Campaign's final fund-raiser, Days of
Decision, and its companion, The
Main Event, had ended with $26.1 mil-
lion collected. That was 53.5 million shy
of the $29.6 million goal.
But Federation leaders said the
Days of Decision closing event is sym-
bolic, not substantive. They said they
were sure they would reach the
Campaign target and would not have
to cut allocations to the agencies that
the Campaign helps subsidize.
Some of those dollars don't come in
until December," said Robert Aronson,
Federation executive vice president,
"but that's always been the case."
We expect to get the money," he
said, "but the more money that you
have outstanding and not secured, the
more in jeopardy you are that you're not
going to get your Campaign result."
Laura Linder, Campaign director,
agreed that in this case the symbolic
end is "by no means the end. Even
though we call Days of Decision the
closing, we're still going to be working
for the next six months," she said, call-
ing on about 3,000 potential donors.
We have a certain number of gifts
that we refer to, more or less, as year-
end gifts," added Penny Blumenstein,
Federation president. Campaign offi-
cials follow a formula to predict what
the total will be, she said. "When we
get to this point, we have a . pretty
good idea of how much of the unso-
licited gifts will come in."
Budget officials will work with
Federation constituent agencies over
the next several months to come up
with a total of requests that matches
the Campaign total. And, officials
said, no one is telling the agencies to
tighten budgets because of any possi-
ble Campaign shortfall.
But Federation still would like to
see more money sooner.
"The fundamental of campaigning
is get the gift closed," said Aronson.
"Because if you get it closed, it won't
bite you later." 1-1

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