Patterns Of Change

Proceeding Afresh

A Torah parade
marks Akiva's
move to new
quarters.

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Staff Writer

T

he crowd at Monday's
Yeshivat Akiva Torah proces-
sion ranged from bearded
patriarchs in three-piece suits
with tzitzit peeking under their jackets
to teenaged girls wearing Old Navy T-
shirts over ankle-length gray skirts.
Toddlers reclined in their strollers
as their big brothers held aloft the
blue-and-white banner proclaiming
the school's name.
They didn't have far to walk, just a
few hundred yards from the Agency
for Jewish Education building at
21550 W. 12 Mile Road to Akiva's
new site in the former Beth Achim
synagogue.

Diana Lieberman can be reached at
(248) 354-6060, ext. 247, or by e-mail
at dlieberm@thejewishnews.com

9/10
1999

28 Detroit Jewish News

Despite temperatures exceeding 90
degrees, about 400 people whooped
and cavorted down 12 Mile Road. In
the midst of it all, cradled securely in
the arms of Rabbi Karmi Gross and
other school leaders, were three large
Torah scrolls and one child-sized
scroll.
These Torah scrolls, by event's end
safely installed in the school's sanctu-
ary, symbolized the last step in the
transfer of Yeshivat Akiva — more
commonly known as Akiva Hebrew
Day School — to its new home.
Once the marchers arrived at the
building, they enjoyed music and
dancing in air-conditioned comfort,
men on one side of the temporarily
partitioned room and women on the
other. Providing the klezmer beat were
four musicians from the Segulah
Orchestra.
Children's activities included a
moon bounce, maze, art projects and

games, along with the newly opened
playground. "This is something they
will remember all their lives," said
well-wisher Sharon Silverman.
Silverman and her husband, Stewart,
former members of Beth Achim, were
on hand to celebrate the successful con-
version of their old building to a nurs-
ery-through-12th-grade school. Stewart
Silverman also is
Akiva's controller.
Above: Eltan
"I was here last
Maazari of
year to see the
Southfield dances
Torahs leave,"
with the Torah
Sharon Silverman
in the school's
said. "I'm proud to
sanctuary.
be here to see
them return."
Michael Greenbaum, now the
school's president, was a third-grade
student at Akiva when it opened in
the old Labor Zionist building in
Detroit in September 1964.
"In all those years, I can't remember

a day as good as we had Monday,
Greenbaum said. "I spoke to some of
the founders, from the generation
before mine, and they said they had
tears in their eyes all day."
About 250 students are enrolled in
the school so far this fall, Greenbaum
said, not including those signed up for
parent-toddler program and On My
Own, for 2-year-olds. The faculty
numbers just under 50, he said.
Greenbaum characterized the
school as "modern Orthodox," with a
philosophy to the left of that at
Yeshivas Darchei Torah and Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah, and to the right of
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan
Detroit.
Another option in the works for
Jewish day school students will be a
non-Orthodox high school, the Jewish
Academy of Metropolitan Detroit,
scheduled to open in fall 2000.
Organizing Monday's festivities was