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1999
12 Detroit Jewish News
I
Giving Knowledge
New endowment will underwrite JCC's adult education program.
LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer
n adult Jewish education
program, which had a suc-
cessful start last winter with
more than 500 people sign-
ing up to take classes, got more good
news last week — an endowment that
will help assure its future.
The donation for the Seminars for
Adult Jewish Enrichment program from
Birmingham's Cis Maisel Kellman
comes as part of the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit's capital
and endowment campaign, which has
raised nearly $15 million.
"I looked at what was to be offered
and this (SAJE) program hit me,"
Maisel Kellman said. "In the area of
Judaic education, a lot is being done
for younger people and this would
keep us older people involved."
She asked that the amount of her
gift be kept private. JCC Executive
Director David Sorkin called it a "sig-
),
nificant amount.
Maisel Kellman moved from Illinois
to the Detroit area 40 years ago with
her late husband, Emanuel N. Maisel,
an automotive parts supplier and shop-
ping center developer. She was a
homemaker and "professional volun-
teer," who worked-at the JCC during
the Jewish Book Fair since the agency's
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building in
West Bloomfield opened 24 years ago.
Despite Maisel Kellman's obvious
interest in the SAJE program, she
did not attend any of the classes that
were offered in two, three-week ses-
sions last winter. She, like many
seniors, was out of town.
"I'd like it if they'd be able to offer
it at other times of the year because so
many people are out of town," she
said, suggesting possible summer ses-
sions. "I didn't even pay attention to it
at first because I knew I'd be gone."
JCC organizers say they are at the
mercy of the instructors when it
comes to scheduling. "The timetable
for SAJE was set by the clergy who
are the instructors," said Margo
Weitzer, director of programming for
the JCC. "It was scheduled based on
when they could teach."
Although nothing has been set for
next year's classes, Weitzer anticipates
that the instructors, most of who are
rabbis, "will feel their time is better
available in the winter." In spite of
the numbers that were out of town,
we still did well," she said.
The endowment of SAJE gives the
JCC an "anchor program" in three
seasons, including the Jewish Book
Fair in the fall and the Jewish Film
Festival, which makes its debut
Thursday, June 10, in the Kahn
Building's Aaron DeRoy Theatre.
The money generated by the
endowment will help underwrite
staffing, publicity, food, mailings and
postage. This year, the JCC and its
program partners, the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
and the Agency for Jewish Education
of Metropolitan Detroit, covered a gap
Status Of
Campaign
When D. Dan and Betty Kahn
gave $3.6 million to kick off the
JCC's $25 million capital and
endowment campaign last
February, the money went into
two separate and ambitious
pots.
Half of the Kahns' gift was
earmarked for bricks and mor-
tar; the remaining $1.8 million
went to start a $7-plus million
endowment. Since then, the
endowment campaign has got-
ten a $2 million matching grant
from the Weinberg Foundation
in Baltimore and smaller gifts,
such as one for adult education,
that brings the total raised to $5
Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz of Adat Shalom
Synagogue lectures at a SAJE class last
January
between program costs and tuition
charged. The fee per course was $10.
The JCC's part of the deficit was
$4,800, less than it had been prepared
to spend. "We had figured a deficit of
around $7,000," Weitzer said. "The
program fits into our mission as a high
priority and that's where we want our
budget to go.
She figures that between the endow-
ment money, tuition and sponsorships,
the cost of the program now should be
covered, even with two changes
planned for next year: a speaker to
kick-off the event and a campaign to
get more singles CO attend.
Unlike other cities where similar
adult education programs are conduct-
ed, there are no plans to pay any of
the instructors.
"To pay them all, it would take the
tuition to a point that it might dis-
suade people from attending," Weitzer
said. "It's important that money not
be an issue for people to attend." Pi
)3
Both JCC Executive Director
David Sorkin and Campaign
Chairman Hugh Greenberg are
adamant on the importance of
having a strong endowment
component to their capital cam-
paign. Previously, the center had
only $3 million in endowments,
which go toward running pro-
grams at the JCC.
On the building side, $10
million of the intended $18 mil-
lion has been raised.
Construction has begun on
Handleman Hall in the Kahn
Building, which involves gutting
and renovating the existing
social hail. According to JCC
Executive Vice President Mort
Plotnick, construction is on
schedule for completion in
September.
Since the Allied Jewish
Campaign ended April 1, the
date when local agencies can
begin their own fund-raising
campaigns, the JCC has
obtained $800,000 in commit-
ments and is negotiating for
between $1 and $2 million
more, according to Andrew
Echt, campaign staff associate at
the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit.
— Lonny Goldsmith