Letters

Hillel's Legacy

My daughter Molly will

SUNDAY, APRIL 15, 4 PM ► Rackham Auditorium

The Jerusalem String Quartet is comprised of four young musicians
who began playing together in Israel in 1993 when they were still
in their mid-teens. With more than a decade as an ensemble, they
have matured into outstanding artists, known for their "musical electricity"
(The Strad). This new generation of Israeli musicians performs
with beauty and warmth in a special concert on Holocaust
suppo
Remembrance Day.
and Ec

Media Partners

Quartet in f minor, Op. 20, No. 5 (1772)
Quartet for Strings, Op. 11 (1936)
Movement 2, Adagio, performed in memory
of Holocaust victims
Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 ("Accordian") (1865)

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Judy Goldsmith

Huntington Woods

April 12 2007

Rabbi Lee Buckman

head of school

Frankel Jewish Academy

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8

graduate
from Hillel Day School on June 13,
exactly 40 years after her dad, Mark
Goldsmith, graduated from Hillel as a
member of its first class. Although the
school has changed in size and loca-
tion, the essence of what children are
taught and how they are nurtured has
remained the same. We cannot imag-
ine a safer and more exciting environ-
ment for her to have spent the last
nine years of her educational journey.
Therefore, it was with great inter-
est that we read Helene Brody's
Community View "Hillel Day School's
Expanse" (April 5, page 26) regarding
the mention of Hillel students within
the pages of the IN. I, too, am proud
every time I read about a past or cur-
rent student whose accomplishments
are noteworthy.
Our family has benefited in ways
too numerous to count in being a part
of the Hillel Day School family. It is a
choice that came with sacrifices and
commitments that we feel were well
worth the effort.
Molly recently appeared in the
school musical, Hello Dolly, in our
beautiful new facility, 40 years after
her father appeared in My Fair
Lady. She has been enriched by the
breadth of choices the school has to
offer.
I cannot predict what lies ahead
for Molly, but I am certain her years
at Hillel have superbly prepared her
for her next four years at the Frankel
Jewish Academy. As we leave the lobby
of Hillel for the final time in June, we
will be proud to proclaim a second
Hillel graduate in our family — and
that Hillel will remain in our hearts
with gratitude forever.

hundreds of other Hillel graduates,
including rabbis, cantors and Jewish
educators, amply demonstrate that
Hillel Day School educates its students
to respond to what God demands of
them and what society needs from
them.
As head of school at the high school
where more than 60 percent of this
year's Hillel eighth-graders will be
attending, I see the benefits of Hillel's
exemplary dual focus. First and fore-
most, they are academically prepared
for a rigorous high school curriculum
that places demands on them in both
general studies and Jewish studies.
Their mathematics, writing, language
and study skills exceed those of the
typical students at other neighbor-
hood schools.
Second, Hillel graduates come to
the Frankel Jewish Academy with an
understanding that one must be a
maven and a mentsh. Being a good
student also means being a good
person and that, as Jews, we have a
responsibility to nurture our intellect
and our neshamah (spirit).
And third, they arrive to our high
school with an eagerness to embrace
an equally large number of students
that will be studying side-by-side with
them from public school, private secu-
lar school, and from local Orthodox
day schools.
The blessings of a Jewish day school
education are clear. Students get the
best of both worlds. They learn to find
their home in what the contemporary
Jewish author Cynthia Ozick calls the
"twin nobilities, the civilization that
invented the telescope side-by-side
with the civilization that invented
conscience." And in that way, as Helene
Brody pointed out, they contribute to
both.

I read with joy the accomplish-
ments cited by Hillel Day School's
Admissions Director Helene Brody
in her Community View ("Hillel Day
School's Expanse," April 5, page 26).
What struck me most vividly was the
high degree of involvement Hillel stu-
dents have in both the Jewish and gen-
eral community. Many people wrongly
believe that day school kids live such a
sheltered life and that they will never
make it in the "real world!'
But Hillel's alumni disprove that
myth handily. The Pulitzer Prize-
winning journalist, the filmmakers,
television actors, judges, University
of Michigan basketball player and

of Metropolitan Detroit

West Bloomfield

Purposeful Coverage

Thanks for a superbly written article
on "Fighting Depression" (March 22,
page 19). I am certain that benefactors
Leslie and Dennis Rogers are satisfied
with it. The story was all-inclusive
and accomplished its purpose. The
research and programs at Wayne State
University School of Medicine need
more coverage in the Detroit Jewish
community.

Dr. Elliot D. Luby

emeritus clinical professor of psychiatry

and adjunct professor of law

Wayne State University, Detroit