A permanent place
in education; golfing
for dollars; Kol Ami
thinks ahead.
No longer floating in "interim" limbo,
Judah Isaacs is now the official execu-
tive director of the Agency for Jewish
Education.
Isaacs, a former planner for the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, joined the AJE last summer,
shortly after a Jewish Education Service
of North America evaluation reported
widespread dissatisfaction with most of
AJE's programs and a "fuzziness" in over-
all community planning for education.
Since taking the agency's helm,
Isaacs has played a key role in the
newly formed Alliance for Jewish
Education, a Federation committee
charged with developing a mega-plan
for education. Isaacs, who replaced
Howard Gelberd, has also tried to
address some of the concerns raised in
the JESNA report, mainly strengthen-
ing communication with program
stakeholders like congregational edu-
cators and youth,group advisers.
"We knew as soon as Judah started
that this was just the right thing,
because of his skills in terms of deal-
ing with people, his awareness of the
system and his own educational back-
ground," said AJE President and
Alliance Co-Chair Dr. Lynda Giles.
She said Isaacs initially had been hired
on an interim basis simply because he
was not sure whether he wanted to
stay in Detroit or move back to his
hometown of New York City.
The first ball won't be teed up until
June, but the Jewish Community
Center Golf Classic already has col-
lected over $37,000.
Money from the June 7 outing at
Tam 0' Shanter Country Club in
West Bloomfield will help children go
to camp and enable low-income fami-
lies to become JCC members.
Golfing or hole sponsorships cost
$300 each. Raffle tickets, at $100
each, bring the chance to win a two-
year lease on a new car. JCC Executive
Vice President Mort Plotnick, who is
organizing the outing, seeks additional
sponsors. The day will include lunch,
dinner and a cocktail party.
Temple Kol Ami expects to move, but
it's not sure when it will actually out-
grow its current location in West
Bloomfield. "There is nothing on the
books immediately," said Lee
Schottenfels, first vice president of the
Reform congregation.
The building on Walnut Lake Road
is too small to fit everyone comfort-
ably during the high holidays. The
space crunch means students have to
take supplementary Hebrew classes at
nearby Ealy Elementary, a West
Bloomfield public school.
Schottenfels, who chairs a commit-
tee on location plans, said the congre-
gation is looking into various possibil-
ities, including buying an existing
building and renovating it, adding
5,000 to 10,000 feet of space to the
current structure or purchasing prop-
erty and building a new facility. A
firm commitment is five to 10 years
down the road, he said.
With a constitutional restriction of
500 families, Kol Ami is just 50 above
the current membership. Schottenfels
said the limit was upped from 350 a few
years ago and may surge to 600 over the
next several years. But the temple will
never grow larger, he maintained.
"We are a small heimish place and
that is the way we want to be. We
aren't looking to have 1,000 families
or more," he said.
Which leaves unexplained why the
congregation recently dismissed its
executive director, Joe Tarica, saying
that membership hadn't grown as
much as expected when he was hired
three years ago.
Marking
100 Tears
Of Detroit
Jewry
This 1930s photo shows
children giving their donations
to build a new Jewish Center
in Detroit.
Photo courtesy of the Leonard N. Simons
Jewish Community Archives/Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit. If you have information
about this photograph, please call Heidi Christein,
Jewish community archivist: (248) 642-4260.
4/30
1999
28
Remember
When .11 •
From the pages of The Jewish News
for this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
1989
The attorney general of Sweden
filed charges against an Islamic
radio station for stirring up anti-
Semitic feelings with its broadcasts.
Britain was seen as moving
toward accepting the concept of an
independent Palestinian state in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1979
Shalom Mellul, a 12-year-old Israeli
schoolboy, spotted a bomb under
the seat of a Jerusalem bus and
warned other passengers to flee. As
a reward, B'nai B'rith said it would
pay his educational expenses and he
will ride buses for free.
Sylvia Ross was installed as presi-
dent of the B'nai B'rith Women's
Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
1969
Dennis M. Aaron, county supervi-
sor for Oak Park-Huntington
Woods, has been named to head
the Oakland County Law
Enforcement Committee.
Egypt added its name to the list
of Arab countries that have quietly
lifted the ban on tourists with
Israeli visas stamped on their pass-
ports.
1959
Young Israel Center of Oak Woods,
the first South Oakland County
congregation to establish its own
synagogue, planned the celebration
of its fifth anniversary.
Plans were made for the first
underwater exploration of biblical
archeology to be conducted off the
Israeli coast in the Mediterranean.
Irwin I. Cohen, Detroit attorney,
was appointed by the city's mayor
to be a member of the board of
commissioners of the Detroit
House of Corrections.
Julius Chajes, director of music
at the Jewish Community Center,
presented a piano recital featuring
Roslyn Clayman, Reva Kowalsky,
Joan Machin, Judith Patterson and
Robert Shulman.