INSIDE

Community
Calendar

. page 50

Inset: Rona and Herbert Freedland, honored posthumously
with the Rabbi Jacob Segal Award. Above: Karen Freedland
Bergen Marcie Freedland, Rabbi Robert Abramson, Amy
Freedland and Stuart Freedland

Hillel Dream Maker awards winners Irving and Beverly Laker,
with grandson Joshua Laker and Rabbi Irwin Groner.

Honoring Its Own

ROBERT A. SKLAR
Editor -

Ai

\ -7

ducation is the
secret of Jewish sur-
vival and the hope
for Jewish continu-
ity," said Jewish education activist
Beverly Laker on June 9 at Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan
Detroit's annual awards program.
"Education is the source of
Jewish strength for people every-
where," she said, humbly accept-
ing, with her husband Irving,
Hind's first Dream Maker Award
in honor of their service to the
720-student school and the larger
Jewish community.
The program, which included
a silent auction, drew 870 people
to Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
It also featured the presentation
of the Rabbi Jacob Segal Award
posthumously to Rona and
Herbert Freedland.
At Shaarey Zedek, Irving is a
past president of both the congre-
gation and its men's club. Beverly

Hillel Day School spotlights
work of top award honorees.

is on the sisterhood board.
Together, they created the
Laker Home for JARC residents
and the Beverly and Irving Laker
Natural Sciences Library
Endowment Fund for Bar-Ilan

University. They were among the
first to donate to Hillel's capital
campaign. Most recently, the cou-
ple established Shaarey Zedek's
Irving and Beverly Laker
Education and Youth Complex.

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W.

At,

Jewish education and its importance to
Jewish continuity resonated as the theme
of Hillel Day School's major awards and
fund-raising event.

In his acceptance remarks,
Irving Laker said Jewish parents
must reinforce what teachers
teach — about Shabbos, about
holidays, about morals and about
values."
"You create valuable children,"
he said, "by teaching them Jewish
values.
In introducing the Lakers,
Rabbi Irwin Groner of Shaarey
Zedek said, "They have given us
all a great and blessed gift, and
that is, they have taught us how
to dream a glorious dream."
He added: "History should
judge us not by whether we were
noble descendants of a great her-
itage, but whether we proved to
be worthy ancestors to future
generations to whom we have the
knowledge and the pride to live
as Jews. That is our dream."
The Freedlands were active at
Hillel in various leadership capac-
ities since 1967, including service
on the executive committee:
Herbert died in 1991, Rona seven
years later. The Freedland chil-

"

6/18
1999

Detroit Jewish News

43