For Openers
Something Extra
School Debts Unpaid
"We never had enough stu-
When Bais Menachem
dents paying tuition to cover
Academy closed its doors in
the cost of paying for the
June, about 45 boys from
school," says former Bais
metro Detroit's Lubavitch
Menachem teacher Shari
community were left with-
Klein of Oak Park.
out an elementary school.
Rabbi Chaim Bergstein of
But the closing of the 8-
Bais Chabad of
year-old school left another,
Farmington Hills, founder
less obvious casualty.
and director of the school,
Because of Bais
has been doing his best to
Menachem's failing
find money to pay the teach-
finances, a dozen or so
Rabbi Bergstein
ers, Klein said. But one man
teachers had not been paid
alone can't be expected to
for as long as six months.
foot all the bills.
And the school's director, who is ulti-
So, right before Rosh Hashanah,
mately responsible for paying these
Klein started a "Committee to Pay the
salaries, is owed even more.
Mad Cow And Kashrut
Signing Books
nected to the brain via the spinal
Keeping kosher is a sure way to avoid
cord]," Rabbi Krupnik said.
getting mad cow disease, according to
While theoretically the brains of a
Rabbi Joseph Krupnik,
cow can be made kosher, no
kashrut director of Detroit's
Detroit-area butcher has
Council of Orthodox Rabbis,
requested the purchase of
based in Southfield. "Meat
brains in his 12 years at the
that is properly made kosher
Council. "The process of
cannot be infected with the
kasherizing them is too labor-
disease," he said.
intensive," the rabbi said.
With this week's confirmed
In addition to the fact that
diagnosis of the first case of
the
infected parts of beef are
the disease in the United
not among those sold in
States — in a cow in
Rabbi Kr
kosher butchers or supermar-
Washington state — the
kets in our area, the rabbi said
rabbi and his colleagues have
animals with symptoms of the
received many calls of con-
disease
would
not be slaughtered as
cern.
kosher.
"Any
animal
that has a visible
Mad cow disease can be contracted
external
medical
disorder
— including
by consuming meat that contains cen-
those that might even be mad cow
tral nervous tissue from the brain or
disease — is not allowed to slaugh-
spine of an infected cow. "The danger
5,
[for humans] comes from cuts of meat tered for kosher meat.
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman,
that are not kosher, like T-bone steak
staff writer
and parts of the hind quarter [con-
The successful sales of Rabbi Herbert
Yoskowitz's 2001 book on sharing the
experience of saying the Mourner's
Kaddish prompted the compilation of
an expanded volume.
The December 2003 release of The
Kaddish Minyan: From Pain to
Healing; Twenty Personal Stories will be
highlighted by two book signings by
the Adat Shalom Synagogue rabbi.
Rabbi Yoskowitz will be signing
copies of the book at 7 p.m., Tuesday,
Jan. 6, at Barnes and Noble
Booksellers in West Bloomfield and at
2 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 11, at Borders
Books and Music in Farmington Hills.
Profits from sales of the book,
which includes 20 short stories writ-
ten by members of various Jewish
streams who have been affected by
saying Kaddish, will be donated to
Adat Shalom.
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman,
staff writer
Yiddish Limericks
cha
Don't Know..
g I
}-1-1 7 L7 Ej
(-3S
Brett Favre is a Mississippian who is the beloved
quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. The Jewish
community in Green Bay follows the career of
another Mississippian. Who?
— Goldfein
.sm& 'keg tiaaJD tn. IqqEJ tuoq-IddIssIssm
alp sr. ITD.C.TEITDEq EUTEITS
1/ 2
2004
32
),
Teachers.
"Baruch Hashem [praise God], peo-
ple are starting to contribute," she
says. When I get some money —
$300, $400 — I call Rabbi Bergstein
and ask him where to send it. It's
going to take forever, but some people
are getting paid."
Although Bais Menachem was affili-
ated with the Lubavitch movement,
Rabbi Bergstein said the Michigan
Lubavitch Foundation has no financial
responsibility for its maintenance. "We
are independent contractors," he said.
"I have no way of paying off the
teachers," Rabbi Bergstein said. "For
the past two years, my wife and myself
took half salaries. Right now, we owe
about $75,000 to the teachers, and
over $100,000 to my wife and
myself."
:13A1SITV
Seems Saddam Hussein was all wrong.
Our U.S. resolve has been strong.
We found him in drere
In a loch** there and scared
Like the vorem** he's been all along.
— Martha Jo Fleischmann
* in the ground
** hole
*** worm
Parents who were forced to transfer
their children to another school were
pleased to find that Bais Menachem
had prepared its students to excel at
any other institution, Rabbi Bergstein
said.
"The teachers we had were excel-
lent," he said. "And, even if they had-
n't been, they still deserve to be paid."
In a letter mailed last HI, Klein
wrote that "this group of teachers are
drowning in a sea of debt — through
no fault of their own.
"Please help to throw them a tow
line by helping in this effort to raise
funds to pay the salaries they are
earned."
To make a donation for the teachers,
call Klein, (248) 967-3747.
— Diana Lieberman, staffwriter-
Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz, flanked by
David Schostak of Birmingham and
Schostak's mother; Arlene Tilchin of
Farmington Hills. Schostak and Tilchin
each wrote a chapter of the book.
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