Making Do With Less
State cuts and reduced contributions
affect Jewish arts groups.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
StaffWriter/Copy Editor
Above: Shaking hands with Mrs. Sarah Gottesman are
second-grader Binyamin Neisner of Southfield and third-grader
Avraham Weiss of Oak Park, along with first gradeteacher
(and Avraham's dad) Rabbi Tuvia Weiss.
Right: Darchei Torah first graderShmuel Carmen of Southfield.
T
wo dozen young men
from Yeshivas
Darchei Torah cov-
ered their kippot with pirate
hats, helmets and frizzy wigs
March 14, for the school's
annual Purim visit to
Southfield's Menorah House.
Founded in 1986, the
Southfield-based Orthodox
day school now has an enroll-
ment of more than 300,
including a boys division,
girls division and preschool.
In addition to visiting seniors
at facilities throughout
Oakland County, another
student activity is fund-rais-
ing — with about $8,000
raised each year at a student-
led charity auction. ❑
— Diana Lieberman,
staff writer/copy editor
CAP &
RECRUITS SE
The Jewish News will honor Michigan's brightest
Jewish high school seniors in our "Cap
& Gown" supplement May 16.
Deadline for nominations is April 25.
Area high schools have been
asked to distribute our nominating
form to all Jewish seniors with
a 3.60 or higher
grade point average
(unweighted; on a
4.00 scale).
If you feel you qualify but
have not been contacted, check
with your high school counselor or
download fro our Web site:
vvwvv.detroitjewishnevvs.com
:
ocal arts organizations, already reeling from
the effect of the poor economy on private
contributions and sponsorships, got another
setback in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's March
6 budget presentation for the 2004 fiscal year.
Among the heaviest budgetary reductions were those
in arts funding — 50 percent across the
board for the fiscal year, which runs from
Oct. 1, 2003, through Sept. 30, 2004.
Most recent budget figures — which
are subject to change — also indicate pro-
posed cuts of 80 percent from Michigan
Merit scholarships; 65 percent from adult
education; 44 percent from the Life
Evelyn
Sciences Corridor, which sponsors collab-
Orbach
orative life sciences research among uni-
versities and businesses; 10 percent from
state aid to colleges and universities; and 3 percent
from revenue sharing to cities and counties.
Jewish arts organizations have seen double-digit cuts
in private donations, losing funds not only because of
the economy, but also because Jewish donors have
understandably diverted much of their charitable spend-
ing toward Israel.
"We've been both frugal and economical," said
Evelyn Orbach, executive director of the Jewish
Ensemble Theatre.
Despite the best efforts of the theater's board and
staff, she said, "we have to raise quite a bit between
now and the end of the year."
JET'S 2003 fiscal year state grant amounted to
$22,000. Of that amount, the West Bloomfield-
based theater has received less than $10,000 so far,
Orbach said. And that first increment came only a
few weeks ago.
The Janice Charach Epstein Gallery in the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield has never
received state funding, said director Sylvia Nelson.
However, private sponsors have reduced their contri-
butions by 25-40 percent over the past year.
The gallery hopes to make up some of its funding
deficit through a silent auction and raffle associated
with its current Michigan Glass Month exhibit.
Although the Holocaust Memorial Center was
awarded grants from the State of Michigan during
its startup years, it has not received state funding for
the past few years, said Rabbi Charles Rosenzveig,
the center's director. To raise money for its $15 mil-
lion museum complex going up on Orchard Lake
Road, north of 12 Mile, in Farmington Hills, the
HMC, now based in West Bloomfield, will hold a
series of parlor meetings in the homes of supporters,
he said.
The organization's major fund-raising event is a
dinner, to be held in November.
"Considering the economy, we are doing very
well," Rabbi Rosenzveig said. ❑
M!
3/21
2003
13