This Week

Shaarey Zedek's Southfield preschool gets another chance.

PARENT

Shaarey Zedek
Beth Heyeled
students climb
up to the bimah
in a mock
Shabbat service.

DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer

ip

reschool classes will take place at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield this fall, just as they have
since the building opened in 1962.
However, it was a close call for the Beth
Hayeled (House of Children) school. Only prompt
action by preschool parents and their pledge to help
increase enrollment stopped the synagogue from
consolidating the Southfield classes with its West
Bloomfield counterpart.
This year, 35 children attend preschool at the syn-
agogue's 11 Mile and Bell Road location. Some 170
are enrolled at the Shaarey Zedek B'nai Israel build-
ing at Walnut Lake and Green roads in West
Bloomfield.
No preschool classes are held at Shaarey Zedek's
Irving and Beverly Laker Education and Youth
Complex on Walnut Lake and Inkster roads.
Because of the small enrollment in Southfield, the
synagogue's board of directors had decided to con-
solidate both preschools at the B'nai Israel site
beginning next fall.
Shaarey Zedek President Lawrence Berry of
Bloomfield Hills said board members were "looking
at the quality of the education, the enrollment fig-
,,
ures and the budget.
Ellie Smith Litt of Birmingham, a graduate of the
Southfield Beth Hayeled whose daughter now
attends classes there, sees more than a dollars-and-
cents value to the school.
"So many of Detroit's Jewish leaders started off in
that school — Conservative, Reform and
Orthodox," she said. "This is not something you
just throw away lightly."

3/2
2001

12

Her views were echoed by many of the school's
parents, and by Harlene Appelman, director of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's Alliance
for Jewish Education.
Because involvement in a Jewish preschool often
leads to synagogue involvement for a family, "it is in
the best interest of the community to keep as many
open as possible," Appelman said. "However, we
respect Shaarey Zedek's experience and wisdom in
preschool education."

Making A Difference

Immediate, calm and well-researched intervention by
parents stopped the board - from going through with its
plans. However, unless preschool enrollment in
Southfield goes up dramatically, Shaarey Zedek's exec-
utive board will take another look at moving its very
youngest students to West Bloomfield, Berry said.
No site changes have been planned at any sites for
Shaarey Zedek's other classes, which involve kinder-
garten through sixth grade, post bar mitzvah, confir-
mation and high school.
Preschool parent Sue Terebelo of Southfield said
the first time she heard about the consolidation was
Feb. 6 in a letter from the synagogue. The decision
was presented as irrevocable, she said.
"I'm sure it's a great school," Terebelo said of the West
Bloomfield Beth Hayeled. "It's just a different flavor."

Closing the Southfield preschool "would be a sh
if you'd gotten an antique doll from your grand-
father and somebody said you had to break it
apart."
The Southfield-based parents met with the sy i
agogue's board of trustees and then, on Feb. 15,
with the five-member executive committee.
"We decided if we could hold an articulate,
well planned out, non-emotional dialogue, we wou
have a chance of them listening to us," said Karen
Alpiner of Franklin.
Both mothers and fathers spoke to the executive
committee in the planned presentation covering th e
demographics, budget analysis and the "domino
effect" of pulling one of the longtime programs fro
its Southfield locale.
"That was one of the most important points,"
Alpiner said. "Perception is reality. If you shut the
program, the perception is the next thing you inter
to do is close the building."
Berry told the Jewish News that any decision abo
Southfield Beth Hayeled has "nothing to do with ti
ultimate location of the synagogue. That's not even
on the radar screen."
The parents pledged to raise enrollment in sever,
ways, including gatherings in homes and coffee
shops.
"Every person walked out of that meeting feeling
good, even the board," Alpiner said. "No matter
what the result, we felt almost relieved — invigora
ed, rejuvenated."
Berry said the parents had made "a very favorabl ,
effect on the officers. Based on combined parental
and congregational efforts, we are going to keep
nursery school open in Southfield," he said. "The
parents are going to be very involved, which is the
key to success in any school."