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Partners In Learning from page 17
Family Ties
Detroiters, gazes with excitement over
the packed room of uninhibited learning.
"My entire responsibility is to help fulfill
the innermost desires of Jews in their
search for Torah knowledge," he said.
"None of the Partners staff has any fund-
raising responsibilities. Our only mission
is pure Torah learning with no strings
attached."
The Partners in Torah program is
national, but the Detroit model is perhaps
the most prominent. "It's raising eye-
brows around the country," said Yeshiva
President Gary Torgow, who oversees
local fundraising for Partners. "We're get-
ting so many calls. It's almost hard for me
to believe how much interest locally and
nationally there is."
Rabbi Cohen's drive to teach derives
from the desire of so many people to con-
nect to their Jewish roots.
As he put it: "Every Jewish soul has
a spark that, if ignited, can grasp the
teachings of our Torah in a profound
way. I am spiritually uplifted every time
someone calls and exhibits an interest
in beginning the journey toward Jewish
scholarship."
Laura Aronson has three children:
Max, 22, an Indiana University gradu-
ating senior; Natasha, 18, a University
of Michigan sophomore; and Isaac, 13,
a Hillel Day School seventh-grader.
Janet Snider and her husband,
Stuart, have three children: Rivka, 16,
and Leah, 14, both students at Beth
Jacob, the Yeshiva's girls school in
Oak Park; and Reuven, 12, who is at
the Yeshiva.
Inclusive Program
There's an average of three new part-
ners a week, a pattern that has led to
seven specialty classes a month as
well as private learning opportunities
in addition to Tuesday night learn-
ing. A cadre of friends underwrites
Partners' $375,000 annual budget.
The full-time rabbinic staff
includes Director Avraham Cohen and
Associate Directors Leiby Burnham
and Pinchas Zusis. There is no cost to
participate. Simply call Rabbi Cohen:
(248) 342-0908. A free subscription
to the weekly newsletter is available
through Rabbi Burnham: rlb@yby.org .
Rabbi Avraham Cohen is the human energy cell behind Partners.
Partners In Torah from page 16
in the year and a half he has been with
Partners, meeting with students on col-
lege campuses, at youth group and family
events and creating and implementing
home study programs.
He also conducts regular 1-on-1 study
sessions, lunch and learns and monthly
holiday programming for children.
At Oakland University in Rochester
and Wayne State University in Detroit,
the rabbi offers holiday study and 1-on-1
learning.
"At the University of Michigan, I have a
program for textual study:' he said of his
Studies for Advanced Jewish Education
(SAJE) course. "We bring dinners from
the Detroit area and have a half-hour of
Jewish philosophy followed by an hour of
a class called 'The Evolution of Modern
Halachah' [Jewish law] that traces the
steps of a different halachaic responsum
each week. It shows how every step of
the way is based on preceding texts even
though the question is as modern as lab
testing on animals or in-vitro fertiliza-
tion."
Ethan Cohen of Southfield, a member
of the class, said, "We had been looking for
a young, charismatic, well-learned person
to come to Ann Arbor and give a class that
was geared more for students with tradi-
18
April 12 2007
tional Jewish backgrounds. As students
with less developed religious backgrounds
work their way up in their knowledge
and exposure to religious Judaism many
join SAJE," said Cohen, a U-M senior and
member of the Orthodox Young Israel of
Southfield. "Personally, the benefit I have
derived from all these different students
with such different backgrounds and ways
of understanding, all in the same learning
environment, has been immense."
The Partners plan is to add more cam-
puses to the route.
Rabbi Cohen also teaches U-M college
students, speaking to Maimonides classes
organized by Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz of
the Jewish Resource Center in Ann Arbor.
In addition, Rabbi Cohen teaches a week-
ly course at the Frankel Jewish Academy of
Metropolitan Detroit in West Bloomfield
along with a Reform and a Conservative
rabbi. "Each one of us gets one day a week
and we give our unique perspective on dif-
ferent Jewish topics': he said.
Rabbi Burnham is about to begin
programming with Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's Young Adult Division,
combining a social night out with Torah
study.
"I give classes that are open to anyone
regardless of age or gender, and we get
quite a varied crowd:' Rabbi Burnham said.
Including other snowboarders.
During a "field trip" with some college
students, Rabbi Burnham said, "They
couldn't get over the `snowboarding rabbi'
thing and videotaped me with their cell
phones hitting a jump and giving the pre-
snowboarding sermon that consisted of
`mediocrity is antithetical to Jewish values
so go out and tame that mountain!'"
Partners offers a 1-on-1 Birthright
Israel follow-up study program, continu-
ing an education for young adults begun
on trips to Israel.
Rabbi Burnham also plans "boutique
Shabbatons," which he describes as "inti-
mate weekends with small groups limited
to about 10 families. We brought in a
world-famous author and lecturer, Rabbi
Noach Orlowek, and he met with the peo-
ple extensively. Being that the groups were
small, each family got a lot of individual
attention, and the feedback was very posi-
tive."
Lifelong Study
Rabbi Burnham spends part of each
Wednesday morning with Rabbi Aaron
Starr, director of Lifelong Learning
and the Sam and Jean Frankel Family
Education Program at the Reform-
Renewal Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy.
For the last year, the two have alternated
meeting locations between the synagogue
and the Yeshiva.
Studying with a colleague is a natural
for Rabbi Starr. "It is incumbent upon all
Jews — rabbis especially — to continue
studying and learning," he said. "We know
that Pirkei Avot [Ethics of Our Fathers]
(3:2) teaches us whenever two Jews
come together to speak words of Torah,
the shechinah [presence of God] dwells
among them. Of course, this applies to two
rabbis as well!"
Each week, the two study books on eth-
ics and Talmud.
"Both texts lead to a huge variety of
discussions, including paths of Jewish
living, the synagogue in the 21st century,
differences between liberal and traditional
Judaism, wives and children, politics and
life goals and desires;' Rabbi Starr said.
"We wrestle regularly with the question,
"What does God want of us and how can
we fulfill those expectations? We've been
able to get to know each other quite well.
"Aside from all the traditional notions
of learning as a mitzvah, Jewish learn-
ing simply helps to bring meaning to the
struggles and blessings of life Rabbi Starr
said.