CHILDREN & TEENS
ENRICHMENT
Birthday Parties*
Jewish Community Center - Kahn Building
6600 W. Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 661-7679
Contact Person: Polly Prime
Jewish Community Center - JPM Building
15110 W. Ten Mile
Oak Park, MI 48237
(248) 967-4030
Contact Person: Lori Heddle
We offer sports, swimming, Discovery
museum and toddler gym parties.
Parties are for children ages 1-12 and for
groups up to 30.
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum
Jewish Parenting Center
4200 Walnut Lake Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48323
(248) 681-5353
FAX (248) 681 4251
Email: jpc@shaareyzedek.org
Website: wwvv.shaareyzedek.org
Contact Person: Janet Pont, director
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Offers classes, programs and events for
expectant parents, families, parents and
grandparents. Family parties for holidays,
Shabbat dinners and monthly challa days
are available to the entire community.
Gibson School*
12925 Fenton Road
Redford, MI 48239
(313) 537-8688
FAX (313) 537 0233
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Provides gifted children ages 5-14 with
small classes, diverse curriculum and
special attention. Serving children in
over 25 metro-area communities, since
1972. Offers early childhood education,
summer enrichment and camp.
Matzah Factory Plus!
Jewish Community Center - Kahn Building
6600 W. Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 661-7649
FAX: (248) 661-3680
The Douglas and Barbara Bloom Matzah
Factory Bakery and Pesach Workshop
opens two weeks before Pesach for hands-
on experience baking shmura matza and
making Pesach crafts for the seder table.
School Break Days*
Jewish Community Center - Kahn Building
6600 W. Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(248) 661-7687
FAX: (248) 661-3680
Contact Person: Amy Freedman
anet and Jeff Weingarten consider themselves
wandering Jews" because of the many places
"It's not something
they've lived since leaving their native Chicago.
we could have done
When they settled in Grosse Pointe Woods
in 1987, they knew they were far from the city's core
alone," Jeff says.
Jewish community, but that didn't stop them from
"There are a lot of
establishing a Jewish community in their own back-
yard.
people making this
"The kindling already existed; we lit the match," Jeff
thing grow."
says of the Grosse Pointe Jewish Council, which started
in 1989 with 63 households and has grown to 180.
"The council has become our family's extended family."
The council represents a range of beliefs and levels of observance, but leans toward
Reform Judaism. Members have established a Sunday school with curriculum devised
by parents with help from local Jewish agencies. They celebrate bar and bat mitzvahs
and share the second Passover seder as a community. They bought a Torah, built their
own ark and hired a part-time rabbi who lives in the neighborhood. They hold High
Holiday services and host outreach programs.
"We're small and flexible, so we can identify a need and fill it without a moment's
notice," says Jeff, who says others in similar predominantly non-Jewish neighborhoods
around the country look to the council as a role model.
As founders, Jeff and Janet have played many roles. Both serve on the executive board.
Jeff now serves as unofficial historian. Janet is membership director, and spends much
time welcoming people, drumming up volunteers and getting people involved.
J
Honorable Menschen
Grosse Pointe Woods
Keri Guten Cohen
98
JNSourceBook