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The Michigan Jewish Institute
adds high school courses
to its curriculum.

DIANA LIEBERMAN
Sta Writer

IliE

ichigan's only four-year Jewish college
has yet to build its permanent home,
but already has expanded course
offerings to include a class for high
school juniors and seniors.
Michigan Jewish Institute, a Lubavitch-sponsored
college that received national accreditation in 1998,
began its high school outreach this fall with a single
course — a two-credit survey of Jewish history that
students can use as one of their high school electives.
The MJI plans to offer a second course in pre-
Holocaust history beginning in February, and add a
Holocaust history course in fall 2000.
"We think they will have very wide appeal," said
Ari Caroline, director of marketing for MJI.
Co-sponsored by the National Conference of
Synagogue Youth (NCSY), the Jewish history class
meets Tuesday nights at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield. Rabbi Steven Weil of
Young Israel of Oak Park teaches the classical to
mid-medieval era, while Rabbi Steven Burg, NCSY
associate regional director, spends the second hour
surveying the Jewish experience to the beginnings of
the modern era.
Although it has Orthodox sponsorship, the co-
educational class is open to all. First semester enroll-
ment consists of 15 students from Bloomfield Hills
Andover, North Farmington and West Bloomfield
high schools. Students are responsible for one
research paper and will take an exam in January.
The fee for the current class is $500. High school
juniors who have taken all three MEAP (Michigan
Educational Assessment Program) tests, and seniors
who have taken one of the tests, are eligible to
receive full funding from the state through the Dual

Diana Lieberman can be reached at (248) 354-

6060, ext. 247, or by e-mail,
dlieberm @thejewishnews. corn

Rabbi Steven Burg, associate
regional director of the National
Conference of Synagogue Youth, lec-
tures to students about the history
of Chasidism.

Enrollment Act. In addition, a limited number of
scholarships are available.
On a recent survey, students were asked what
percentage of their class in public school might
be interested in this type of course.
"At West Bloomfield alone, they said 10 per-
cent," MJI's Caroline said. "With a class of
500, that's 50 people."
By fall 2000, Caroline hopes to have about
200 eleventh- and twelfth-graders enrolled in
MJI courses.
"It's a place where they can learn their heritage

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This Jewish history class can

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12/24
1999

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