The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
is proud to present...

.
:Ben- L.)Ion
CoAen

One of the founders of the state of Israel
A leader in the "Irgun" underground and
A Commander in Jerusalem, pre- state Israel, IDF officer
and a Petty Officer in the British Commando in World War II (Italy)
Born, raised and fought in Jerusalem!

Arr. Co11el2 evil/ oisti _here
Wonor
f rom gs_raef cz.no
gs.rael gnorktpencknce Day evil_h a

f ascinaliny

Thursday, April 15, 1999
7:30 p.m. • Free of Charge
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building

The Contribution of the underground to the
establishment of the State of Israel

Highlights

• Deer Yassin battle
• The Jewish participation WW 11
• T he Jerusalem Wall front
• T he British Mandate in Palestine before 1948

This Lecture is co-sponsored by:

4/9
1999

10

the Zionist Organization of America state of Michigan Region

Detroit Jewish News

The 5 Percent Mandate

Lois and Dr. Milton Shiffman's new
$5 million endowment for day
schools is a great start, but the orga-
nized Jewish community needs to
make an even larger financial com-
mitment, says a vocal national advo-
cate for day schools.
"Five million dollars is a magnifi-
cent start, but the goal should be a
$500 million endowment fund so
the interest would be enough to fund
a day school education for every
Jewish child," said George Hanus,
president and founder of the
Chicago-based National Jewish Day
School Scholarship Committee.
Hanus gained national attention 1-
1/2 years ago, when he organized a
conference on the "crisis" of day
school fimding. At the 1997 General
Assembly of the Council of Jewish
Federations, his vocal lobbying for
massive day school funding spurred
the umbrella organization of North
American federations to form a "blue
ribbon" task force on day schools (it is
expected to issue a report this spring).
A tireless, if sometimes abrasive,
activist who says day schools are "the
most effective antidote" to the
American Jewish "crises" of intermar-
riage and assimilation, Harms pitches
what he calls the "5 percent mandate."
"If all Jews give 5 percent of their
estate into an endowment fund of
their choice, we'll have free day school
education for all children who seek it,"
he said Monday in a phone interview.
"We're aiso asking every day school in
the . United States to form an endow-
ment fund and every federation in the
country to establish an endowment
trust account for day school children."
Last summer, Chicago's Jewish
community signed on to Hanus'

Detroit's Jewish Future, an effort to
raise $50 million: half for the Jewish
Community Center for building
improvements and a Jewish program-
ming endowment, and half for a series
of education-related endowments col-
lectively called the Jewish Life Fund.
Launched last May, the campaign
so far has garnered more than $13
million for the JCC, the $5 million
Shiffman Fund and $4 million in
endowments for family education and
Partnership 2000, a program that
brings Detroit Jews and residents of
Israel's Central Galilee region together
for collaborative projects.
At the start of the Millennium

plan, with its federation establishing
a $30 million day school endowment
fund and the majority of the com-
munity's rabbis signing a declaration
mandating that every Jew designate 5
percent of his or her estate to an
endowment for day schools.
Last weekend the Jewish commu-
nity of south Florida convened to
develop a similar plan.
Harms, who has his eyes fixed on
the Jews of Long Island next, empha-
sized that he is not trying to create a
new organization, but simply wants
to mobilize local Jewish day school
advocates and persuade Jewish feder-
ations to take a more active role in
funding day schools.
He has few contacts in Detroit,
however, where Federation support
for day schools has been higher per
capita than in most Jewish commu-
nities. No one from Detroit attended
Hanus' September 1997 conference,
and the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, like virtually
every federation around the country,
has yet to adopt Hanes' plan.
"His concept of having day school
affordable for everyone is important,
but the only negative thing about it is
that I don't think we should be in a
position where we say one form of edu-
cation is far more important than any-
thing else," said Federation Executive
Vice President Robert Aronson.
"Things like congregational
schools, youth groups and camps are
also important, he said, "and what
concerns me about the material corn-
ing from the Hanus committee is, it
has the tone that day schools are the
only important thing."

— Julie Wiener

Campaign last year, Aronson said the
"centerpiece" of the Jewish. Life Fund
would be a $10 million endowment
to benefit metro Detroit's congrega-
tional schools, or afternoon Hebrew
schools, which enroll more than
5,000 students. Although no money
has been raised for this yet, in 1998-
99, congregational schools got
$500,000 in scholarship funds from
Federation and its banking/real estate
arm, the United Jewish Foundation.
The Shiffinans are longtime sup-
porters of Jewish education, and
Jewish philanthropy is something of a
family tradition: Dr. Shiffman's rela-
tives include philanthropist David

