JAMD graduates its first 21 students during an emotional ceremony.

DIANA LIEBERMAN
Staff Writer

T

he importance of this day will last for gen-
erations," Lawrence Jackier told the crowd
gathered at Wayne State University's
Community Arts Auditorium June 10.
The occasion was the first graduation of the Jewish
Academy of Metropolitan Detroit (JAMD) —
Michigan's only multi-stream Jewish day high school
— and Federation President Jackier was flying high.
"This is an evening that is of great importance to
each of you who are graduating from the Jewish
Academy," he said. "But it's also an evening that is his-
toric to the Jewish community."
The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit had
gambled its prestige and its financial support on the
success of the 3-year-old school, supplementing the
school's initial $250,000 funding from metro Detroit's
Jewish community with a 3-1 match and following
that with annual grants. This fiscal year, JAMD
received $150,000 in Federation grant funding, and,
in October, the school was named a full constituent
agency.
In addition, JAMD has been awarded grants from
the Boston-based Partnership for Excellence in Jewish
Education and the AVI Chai Foundation. The Jane
Sherman and Larry Sherman Israel Millennium Fund
and Birthright Israel sponsored this year's JAMD trip
to Israel. And, last summer, an anonymous donor
topped them all with a $20 million endowment, the
largest endowment ever received by a Jewish day high
school.
Now, JAMD has repaid this unprecedented corn-

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2003

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munity support with a graduating class of 21 highly
motivated, emphatically Jewish young people.
They have studied Torah and rabbinics, demonstrat-
ed on behalf of Israel, plumbed the mysteries of
advanced biology and talmudic numerology and
argued the pros and cons of the death penalty and the
Oslo Accords. And, this year, they received 77 letters
of acceptance from 28 institutions of higher learning
in the United States and Israel.

Into Uncharted Waters

"Our parents had the dream, and now we have the
skills," said Ilana Goldberg, president of JAMD's sen-
ior class.
In addition to the traditional dvar Torah (Torah les-
son), student reflections and choral presentation, the
graduation included individual computer graphics pre-
sentations on each of the 21 graduates. Different

FIRST CLASS on page 49

Clockwise from the top left.

The JAMD choir sings David Daor's "Guard the World."

Rabbi Lee Buckman watches his first graduating class.

Rana Goldberg, president of the senior class, says the school
has "nurtured a new generation of:Jewish students."

Federation president Lawrence Jackier offers his
congratulations to the graduates and their families.