Question of the Week: What famous Jewish author
appeared with Mark Twain before the Educational Alliance, an

educators group, in 1906?

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...."

How a ARC program helps
include students with special
needs at Jewish day schools.

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor

F

or years, Blimie Youngworth received
her Jewish education in a hallway stor-
age room.

She sat there with her tutors, within the walls
of a Jewish day school, but was never really

4

JARC is partnering with
families, day schools and
aides to help students
with special needs learn
Jewishly.

part of it. She rarely
Blimie Youngworth at her high-school graduation, with her mother
was included with a
Helen and grandmother Felicia Leskovvitz, all of Oak Park.
1 regular class, often
overlooked for assem-
blies, hardly ever included in special events.
Reform parents, all mothers and fathers of chil-
Blimie, 20, of Oak Park was a student, but
dren with special needs, turned to Southfield-
not really.
based JARC, the Jewish Association for Residen-

"I didn't like it because I was away from
everybody," she says.
Until recently, such restricted learning was the
only option open to students with special needs
like Blimie, whose families prefer them to study
in a Jewish environment. Jewish day schools
simply were not equipped to deal with individu-
als like Blimie, who has cognitive disabilities, or
children with Down's syndrome, mild autism or
cerebral palsy.

Then a group of Orthodox, Conservative and

tial Care. What happened next, they say, is a
miracle. JARC devised the School Inclusion Pro-
gram, with a goal of integrating students with
special needs at local Jewish day schools.
Today, the program is enabling 15 students
with special needs to attend Yeshivat Akiva,
Yeshivas Darchei Torah and Yeshiva Beth Yehu-
dah, all in Southfield, and Sally Allan Alexan-
der Beth Jacob School for Girls and Bais
Chaya Mushka Girls High School, both in
Oak Park. Michigan has become one of the

10/20
2000

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