A Model For Learning Jewishly
STORY
The Detroit
Malka Rotem said of those early days. The for-
mer school principal is today part of the educa-
tional committee that recommended the
Frankel school for the prize.
"Here was a woman who said she wanted a
modern school to include a view of Judaism
that was not closed and structured by a rebbe,
but that had an eye towards the modern world
in a holistic approach," Rotem said.
The school's methods proved to be so popu-
lar that enrollment jumped from only 33 stu-
dents initially to almost 10 times that number
in about three years.
CONNECTION
Local benefactors help keep
Frankel school secure.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Stair Writer
Backing In Detroit
B
efore Barbara Goldsmith Levin founded a
multi-stream school in Jerusalem in 1976,
the only schools fimded by Israel's Ministry
of Education were either Orthodox or secular.
Now there are about 80 alternative schools in
the state of Israel, giving about 30,000 students
an education that combines mainstream religious ,
instruction with up-to-date secular schooling. And
all trace their roots back to that single Jerusalem
school, now called the Jean and Samuel Frankel
Traditional School.
The names Jean and Samuel Frankel are not
unfamiliar in Detroit Jewish education. The upper
elementary wing at Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit, added in 1987, bears their
name, and, year after year, they support the
school's annual patron campaign.
In 1988, the Judaic Studies Department at the
University of Michigan was renamed in their honor.
The Frankel family's involvement with Barbara
Levin's experimental school in Jerusalem began in
1980. "She is an outstanding person, very inter-
ested in the youngsters," says Samuel Frankel of
Bloomfield Hills. "She is a blessing to the educa-
tional system of Israel."
When Levin and her father, Max Goldsmith, a
founder of Adat Shalom Synagogue, met with
potential contributors, the Frankels joined local
philanthropists Bill Davidson, David Handleman,
Irwin Green and others in forming an educational
foundation called Friends of Frankel SchOol.
Members of the Frankel family declined to
reveal the extent of their financial support. "The
Detroit connection is only a small part of the
story," says Stanley Frankel of Bloomfield Hills,
son of Jean and Samuel Frankel and the founda-
tion's administrator
The real story is the school itklf," says Stanley
Frankel. 'Barbara is an incredible human being,
and she has a stupendous staff. Its a great pro-
gram that has provided us with a great amount of
joy and naehas. We just provide financial support,
moral support and a physical plant."
Levin, who turns 61 on July 1, comes from a
family that has long been involved in Judaism and
Jewish education.
Her father, the late Max Goldsmith, served as
one of Adat Shalom's first presidents, later joining
the synagogue's late Rabbi Jacob Segal and others
in founding Hillel Day School. Alice Goldsmith,
Levin's late mother, was Adat Shalords first sister-
from page 7
Barbara Goldsmith Levin, about 1954 55.
-
hood president.
"They inspired all their kids to view Judaism as
a great focus of their lives and inspired in them a
great love for Israel, too," recalled Mark
Goldsmith of Huntington Woods, Levin's
youngest brother.
The second oldest child and only girl in her
family, Levin is a graduate of Detroit's Mumford
High School. Family members said she was the
first bat mitzvah in the state of Michigan. She
went on to become a member of Adat Shalom's
confirmation class.
Adat Shalom's connection to the Frankel school
continues. On the 1993 Miracle Mission to Israel,
congregants led by Rabbi Efry Spectre donated a
Torah to the Frankel school. The donation includ-
ed gifts and messages from the synagogue's reli-
gious and nursery children.
Levin's brother Steven Goldsmith of
Farmington Hills has vivid memories of his older
sister. "From he earliest time I can remember, she
was an excellent student, involved in all the extra-
curricular activities."
Her other brothers are Merwin Goldsmith of New
York and Jonathan Goldsmith of Bloomfield Hills.
Levin received a bachelor's degree in religious
education from the Jewish Theological Seminary
in New York City, along with a bachelor's degree
in science from Columbia University. Before mak-
ing aliya to Israel, she taught and was principal at
Hebrew schools in New York, California and
Washington, D.C.
Stanley Frankel, a frequent visitor to the
Frankel school, says the varied academic and
extra-curricular programs provide "a taste of
honey as well as knowledge.
"We talk all the time about bringing pluralism
to Israel. This school is one of the best ways to
accomplish it." 0
The school's growth created an urgent need for
a real school building, causing Levin to return
to her Detroit roots for help. The Jerusalem
municipality promised that if she raised half of
the needed amount, it would match the fund-
ing for a building in the northern Jerusalem
neighborhood of French Hill. (The location is
just minutes away from Hadassah Hospital on
Mount Scopus.) However, the municipality was
never able to make any funds available so the
school had to come up with a larger chunk of the
money on its own.
The first to understand the urgent need for such a
school in Israel were Jean and Sam Frankel. Along
with son Stanley, the Frankels have been stalwart sup-
porters of the school. (See story at left)
"They helped make it a reality, and they continue
to see the school's vision," Levin said.
The Detroit Jewish community in general has been
very responsive to the needs of the school in other
ways. In 1993, during the first Michigan Miracle
Mission to Israel, Congregation Adat Shalom donated
a Torah scroll to the school in a joyous celebration.
Two years later, the Frankel family and the Detroit
community were instrumental in providing money
for a new two-story school wing that houses a com-
puter lab, an English language lab and an auditorium.
Secular studies are just as important as religious
studies at the school and, unlike other Israeli schools
where English is taught starting only in the fourth
grade, students at the Frankel school begin studying
the language in first grade. They also are taught spo-
ken Arabic, which most schools don't teach, begin-
ning in fourth grade. The school goes up to ninth
grade.
While students take the school's special activities for
granted, the staff knows their resources would be very
limited if it were not for the support they receive
from the Detroit community, said Garri Regev, a
teacher at the school since 1979.
"We know it would be impossible to do all that we
do without outside backing because the city does not
give any support for all our programs, including the
computer and art programs," Regev said. 'All those
are possible only through the generosity of the
Detroit connection."
Spur To Change
A determined Levin has almost single-handedly
introduced , new teaching techniques to her own
,
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2000
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