*-tisM4W -m 4 ^V iga r a W • FRESH VISION from page 33 • Antiques • Estates • Fine Jewelry and Watches 32800 Franklin Road • Franklin, Michigan 48025 Phone: (248) 626-1885 • Fax: (248) 661-9594 Web Site: www.legacyestatejewelry.com Custom Furniture At Factory Direct Prices FREE Phone Never pay long distance again! No Roaming Charge Voice-activated Dialing 5300 MINUTES $29.99 A MONTH ANY QUESTIONS! Choice of Style & Finish PAGERONE cingular WIRELESS Cellular and Paging Services Visit Our Showroom and Save Factory Direct OPTIONS 1952 South Telegraph • Bloomfield Hills 248.332.8855 "Michigan's Hottest Group" Voted #I Best Band - Crain's Detroit Business Crosswinds Plaza • Next to Kroger Orchard Lake and Lone Pine West Bloomfield 248-538-2100 718300 THANK YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Voted # 11/14 2003 34 Best Band Jewish News 2003/04! ticipate together in conversations about their commitment to the Hillel ideal. "Parents need to realize that children don't come out of a cookie-cutter," Freedman said. "And, along with their children, they need to understand what it means to be in a Jewish day school." Individualizing teaching styles for a wider variety of learners is another of his goals, along with establishing a curricu- lum so students can transfer into the school after attending public school. He's also establishing a faculty task force to restructure Hillel's upper school. Although Hillel will award $1.5 mil- lion in scholarship assistance this year, numerous Hillel students come from wealthy families. This brings its own set of moral lessons, Freedman said. "We had money in Philadelphia, too — Beth Sholom [there] is probably one of the best-endowed Jewish religious institutions in the United States," he said. "The message has to be that peo- ple are evaluated by their character, not by their [financial] contributions." As president of the Jewish Educators Assembly (JEA), Freedman leads about 500 Conservative movement educators and educational administrators. Through his JEA involvement, he learned about Hillel before he knew there was a job opening. "The school has an outstanding repu- tation," he said. "It's one of the largest Solomon Schechter schools in the coun- try, and it serves a wonderful, tight, warm community." Freedman's first impressions are that everybody passionately cares about the welfare of the school. I feel a tremen- dous amount of support." A doctoral candidate at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Freedman was not looking for a job when he started getting feelers about the position. "It was important to us not to move while our children were in high school," he said. "I received a call. Our oldest was just about to start high school. I think in some ways this was a beshert [meant to be] move." Since moving to West Bloomfield, the family has joined Congregation Shan rey Zedek, B'nai Israel Center. Freedman's older son, Eytan, attends the Jewish Academy of Metropolitan Detroit; older daughter Elana attends a West Bloomfield public school; Talia and Yoni are Hillel students. Joan Freedman, who, along with her husband, began her career as a syna- gogue youth director, has just accepted the position of Jewish educator for Shalom Street, the interactive museum soon to open at the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit. " ❑