EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
LETTERS
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From Dream To School
0 Aerating money is short, two more grade levels must be added and the
manner that colleges will evaluate its students is unknown. But Detroit
Jewry's newest day high school has much to be proud of on its first
anniversary.
Skeptics dared the believers to succeed — and they have.
And that's a tribute to all who have built the Jewish Academy
of Metropolitan Detroit, born from a 1996 dream of Hillel Day
School parents and significant outside support.
Tough challenges await this college preparatory school, which
blends secillAr and Jewish studies. But the dream is now reality, the
support continues to grow and the promise has never been greater.
Expectations were always high, with the founding parents
seeking a quality of education equal to, if not better than, what
ROBERT A. tax-supported high schools deliver.
SKLAR.
Metro Detroit is 11th nationwide in regional Jewish popula-
tion. Still, the Academy opened last August with the largest ini-
Editor
tial enrollment for a non-Orthodox Jewish day high school ever
in North America: 51 students in the ninth and 10th grades.
Good educators were what these students needed most.
So it's notable that the Academy's lay leadership, under Robert Roth and Jef-
frey Garden, landed a strong professional staff led by Rabbi Lee Buckman (head
of school), Rabbi Aaron Bergman (head of Judaic studies) and Dr. Helene
Cohen (director of academic affairs), and a top-flight faculty of 24 teachers will-
ing to innovate.
It's notable, too, that the Academy's first families looked past a public, private
or established religious school or uncharted hallways and an untested curriculum.
The Academy's Class of 2003 — in the midst of their most formative years
— also gave up the opportunity for more class and after-school choices so they
could strengthen their Jewish identity as they prepared for college. _
Not surprisingly, the task of recruitment elicited concern from nearby schools
that have lost students to the Academy.
Clearly, the key player in the Academy's emergence is Rabbi Buckman —
demanding, tireless, focused and a mentsh.
I liked his understated presence at last week's anniv'ersary program at the Jew-
ish Community Center in West Bloomfield, where the Academy is temporarily
housed. The students were the stars, he said, and he kept that theme alive.
"My prayer," he said to the pioneering class, "is that you continue to inspire other
students to follow your lead, that you will be the role model for what the next gen-
eration of Jews can become, and that your children will be a source of pride to you
as you are to your parents and to us."
Growing Pains
In August, student enrollment will near 100 as the 11th
grade arrives and the Academy moves to modular buildings
outside the JCC. A permanent home is envisioned elsewhere
on the Eugene and Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community
Campus.
The biggest financial contributor, the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, has gil (_n $1.1 million to the Academy
in startup, facility renovation and operational support fund-
Rabbi Buckman
ing. But Academy leaders acknowledge that fund raising and
endowments are necessary to slice deficits and sustain quality
because tuition covers just a third of operating costs.
The multistream Academy joins several day high schools in our Orthodox
community. Detroit Jewry also has many congregational high schools. Their
missions differ, but their goals are similar: to repel the effects of assimilation and
proselytizing, and to maintain Jewish continuity.
Upwards of 30 new Jewish day high schools will open across the U.S.
between 1991 and 2006, despite a shortage of administrators, teachers, cultural
arts offerings and tuition scholarships, and a need for better educational models
to train staff and develop curriculum.
The Academy must prove itself over time as the challenges of a new school
mount, but the prospects are strong that our community's investment in the
dream will reap dividends for generations. 0
Ark
March Helps
Us Remember
As long as Mr. Jay R. Shayevitz
asked about the benefits of the
March of the Living-Detroit Teen
Unity Poland/Israel Experience
("What Are The March's Benefits?",
May 18, page 6), none of "us" are
trying to build a religion around the
Holocaust.
Why do we celebrate Chanukah?
The Temple was cleaned and rededi-
cated. Why do we celebrate Purim,
which commemorates an "almost"
tragedy, or Pesach, which marks our
redemption from bondage? Were our
ancestors trying to start a new reli-
gion?
Perhaps you will allow me to still
mourn six million of my brothers
and sisters. Had they survived, they,
by extension, would number 90
million today. You see: I'm one of
those Jews who walked out of
Auschwitz 56 years ago and again
five weeks ago.
I was there in Warsaw on the
March of the Living when 400 kids
from six countries sang and danced
at Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming of
Shabbat) like I had never seen
before. The next morning, we all
met in a historic shul in downtown
Warsaw and even you might have
thought it was Simchat Torah: The
students delayed the reading of the
parashah (Torah portion) for about
one hour with their singing and
•
dancing.
I know most of these students
were not "ultra-Orthodox," but
there were enough tzitzit (prayer
shawl fringes) hanging out to make
a garter.
If you still need to be convinced
about the importance of this march,
ask any one of the 50 students from
Israel or Detroit. They were united
as one group, regardless of their
level of education or religious obser-
vance.
We said Kaddish together. We
marched together. And we remem-
bered together. This is why the
March of the Living is important —
and why we, the parents and grand-
parents, must not fail our young
people.
Alex Kuhn
Southfield
LETTERS on
page 6
BUILDING AN
INCLUSIVE
COMMUNITY FROM
THE INSIDE OUT
JARC
ANNUAL MEETING
AND ELECTION OF
OFFICERS
with special guest speaker
Dr. Al Condeluci
Author, "Interdependence"
Tuesday, June 12, 2001
7:30 p.m.
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building
Jewish Community Center
West Bloomfield
No Charge
2001-2002 Slate of Officers
and Directors
President
H. James Zack
Vice-Presidents Rebecca David
Stephanie Jacobson
Eli Scheer
Secretary
Ron Applebaum
Treasurer
Dan Gilbert
Nominated for an additional three-year
term (expiring 2003)
Ron Elkus
Gilda Jacobs
Carol Kaczander
Mark Kahn
Gary Karp
John Marx
Judith Shenkman
Genie Sollish
Nominated for a first three-year term
(expiring 2003)
Craig Erlich
Harry Goldman
Lon Grossman
Larry Shulman
Heidi Wineman
Maryann Zukosky
3 0 3 0 1 Northwestern Hwy.
Farmington Hills, MI 48034
248.538.6611
www.jarc.org
IN
5/25
2001
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