Complementary and Conventional
Options for Today and Tomorrow

Keynote Speaker

Susan Ford

Advocate and daughter of Betty Ford

Medical experts from leading cancer centers will discuss:

■

■

Prevention and nutrition

Medical advances, including genetics and immunotherapies

■ Complementary therapies
■ Treatment side effects
■ Recurrence issues

August 14
U-M Rackham Auditorium

This free event is open to the public.
Space is limited. To register, call 800/654-1772.

educational processes at Northwestern
University while balancing her more
than full-time position at Hanna
Sacks.
A baby-sitter helps with the chil-
dren, the oldest of whom is 1 2.
Bechhofer's husband, Yosef, a
Hebrew Theological College profes-
sor, gets home early, before the kids
return from school. On summer
afternoons, they like to play at
mom's office.
It's not that Bechhofer feels com-
pelled to work as much as she just
can't quit. She tried last year to cut
back her hours — which often extend
well into the night — but couldn't.
"I think the students know I work
very hard for them," Bechhofer said,
cognizant that most of the girls did
not cheer when she instituted a 7:30
a.m. detention period for unexcused
absences and uniform violations —
which include bright-colored nail pol-
ish and what the principal describes as
"fancy Gap sweatshirts."
Some appreciate the academic
challenge," she said. "Some have no
clue why I'm doing this to them."
What she's doing is attempting to
give the students every opportunity to
be successful in life — whether they
go on to become Hebrew teachers,
doctors or at-home moms.
Hanna Sacks school, with 150 stu-
dents, is similar in many ways to
Akiva, which has about a fifth of its
250 students in the high school
grades. The most important similarity,
Bechhofer recalls, is emphasis on pay-
ing attention to each student as an
individual.
"I hold Akiva as a model," she said.
"Akiva teachers encouraged us to think

a lot about what we were learning, to
analyze the text.",
As part of the national Bais Yaakov
system, Hanna Sacks is in a more tra-
ditional wing of Orthodox thought
than the "modern" Orthodox mission
of Akiva, which historically has aimed
to provide "the best of both worlds"
— secular and religious.
By the time Bechhofer graduated
from college — two years of general
studies courses at Barnard, two years
of Jewish education at Stern College
— it was obvious to her mother that
Bechhofer was becoming more right
wing than her parents.
"A lot of people in the last 20 years
have turned around to become more
religious," Rita Schreiber said. Two of
her grown children are now traditional
in their Orthodox observance; she
describes the other two as "middle of
the road," like their parents.
Bechhofer enrolled in graduate
courses at Yeshiva University and
taught Torah at New York's Orthodox
Shevach High School before moving
to Chicago with her husband.
First hired at Hanna Sacks in 1991
as a religious teacher, she taught and
simultaneously completed a master's
degree in educational administration.
When the school board conducted
an analysis that indicated more
emphasis was needed on secular stud-
ies, Rabbi Joseph Liberman said board
members turned to Bechhofer.
So long as she keeps parents and
students informed and involved in the j
shift toward becoming a more well-
rounded center for study, Bechhofer's
efforts have been generally approved.
"This is a center for Torah study
for girls, for them to become

Supported with an educational grant from Zeneca Pharmaceuticals.

Comprehensive Cancer Center

University of Michigan
Health System

http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu

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Shoshanah Bechhofer leads a class at the Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov High School.

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