ers throughout the United Stares are
enthusiastic about Jewish preschools,
their enthusiasm does not translate
into scholarship money.
"One of the things that bothered me
at the time was we were both Jewish
communal workers. We felt they
wouldn't even help one of their own,"
Jason Roskind said.
The best the Pitt Center could do
was to offer the Roskinds a fee of
$1,024 a month, the rate charged for
five-day-a-week care at Raffi's age
group the year before. This is the
school's standard discount for JCC
employees.
"If they had come back to Bonnie
and me and asked what would we be
able to handle if they could knock
some off the fees, 5675 was what we
decided," Jason Roskind said.
Fredelle Schneider, Pitt Center direc-
tor, said the center, which opens its
renovated and expanded facilities Aug.
28, has no scholarship money available
for infant, toddler or transition care.
"We do have very minimal scholar-
ships ar the preschool level, but we
have no endowments. The money
comes from whatever contributions
someone wants to make to us,"
Schneider said. "Until somebody
endows us, we don't have a lot of
funds to stretch.
"We try to provide something for
people who need it — it might be 5
percent or 10 percent, but at least it's a
little something."
Without scholarship support, the
best the Roskinds could do was a
home-based day care center. It was
fully accredited, but not Jewish. They
paid $550 a month.
Now that Bonnie is pregnant and
feeling under the weather, she and
Raffi are staying home.
"I most certainly would have pre-
ferred Jewish-oriented day care," Jason
Roskind said. "It's one thing for my
child to learn about different religions,
but, in the very formative years, it's
better to learn about your own reli-
gion."
A Little Help
As co-president of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
Alliance for Jewish Education, Dr.
Lynda Giles realizes the need for a cen-
tralized program of financial aid for
Jewish preschool families.
"It's an issue we've been talking
about for many years," she said. "In
terms of communal need, things were
prioritized. Now we are looking at
preschools with a microscopic eye."
"In the past four or five years, early
education has been taken more seri-
ously," said Harlene Appelman, direc-
tor of Federation's Alliance.
"There's been a tremendous amount
of research that points to the fact that,
particularly in the area of brain devel-
opment, character development and
language acquisition, we need to begin
to instill education as early as possible
— not to mention that the Talmud
has said that for 2,000 years."
But Jewish education is not cheap.
On the average, a parent needs
$12,000 a year, about $1,000 a
month, for full-day nursery and day
care, Appelman said.
Just saying the number is a daunt-
ing realization," she said.
"If, in fact, we agree that early edu-
cation is the first step in a child's
Jewish education — and if we agree
that the more Jewish children we can
get into Jewish education the more
likely we can connect with them and
their families — then we need to make
affordable early education a reality,"
Appelman said.
For about a year, Naomi Silverman
of Royal Oak received a grant for her
daughter Sophie, now 2i/2, to attend
Temple Emanu-El's preschool and
extended care program
cally backed against a wall
in Oak Park. Silverman
and will have to pound the
paid $512 each month,
pavement to find another
plus the fee for extended
day care-extended care that
care — about $330 a
will not provide Jewish tra-
month less than she
ditions and teaching along
would have paid for the
with her education."
same services without
Temple Emanu-El's
the scholarship.
Silverman said the issue "is
However, the funds
not just about Naomi."
did not come from
"I think preschool schol-
Emanu-El itself but
Dr. Lynda Giles
arship money should be
from anonymous donors,
available for anyone who is
who withdrew their support at the
on a tight budget and wants their chil-
close of the 2000-2001 school year.
dren to have a Jewish educational
"I was told there are monies avail-
experience."
able but they are labeled only for 'edu-
Dottie Levitsky recently retired as
cational' purposes," Silverman wrote in director of Adat Shalom's nursery and
a letter to several leaders in the Jewish
kindergarten in Farmington Hills, one
community. "I tried to argue this phi-
of the Jewish community's largest
losophy because I see my child's day
preschools. "I hated to turn anyone
care and extended care as very much
away because of money," she said. "I
educational."
usually could find something some-
Silverman, a single parent, said she
where. But I think some people didn't
does nor blame Temple Emanu-El. She even come to me to ask."
knows that preschool director
Michaelyn Silverman (no relation) had
A National Concern
to "scramble" to find her the grant.
"I feel this is a shande [disgrace] with Throughout the United States, schol-
regard to the Jewish community and
arships for Jewish daycare and pre-
its teachings," she wrote. "If I do not
school are difficult to obtain.
have this problem resolved, I am basi-
However, it's not because Jewish