Editor's Letter

Securing Our Yeshiva

S

urviving week to week no longer can be the measure funding a two-story addition to the 300-student Milton and
of success for our largest day school. More than ever, Lois Shiffman Boys' Building in Southfield. The Southfield
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, the oldest pillar of the Detroit grounds, which include the Norma Jean and Edward Meer
Early Childhood Development Center, fittingly have been
Jewish community's learning network, requires an endow-
ment. Budget obligations must be stabilized for the sake of the renamed the Newman Family Campus.
A donor family or individual already is being sought for the
students, the staff and the entire Jewish community.
Sally Allan Alexander Beth Jacob campus to, as Torgow put
We must do whatever it takes to
it, "permit us a critical rebuilding and upgrading of our girls'
keep the 800-student Yeshiva not only
campus into a 21st-century, state-of-the-art facility for the
solvent, but also vibrant. It certainly
over 400 young women who study there!'
resonates for all Jews, not just those
The dinner itself is crucial to the Yeshiva, where 80 percent
who are Orthodox. At least two genera-
of the students attend on scholarship; scholarships total $4
tions were educated at the Yeshiva's
million but the need is greater given the size of Orthodox
former afternoon Hebrew school
families. Tuition is $7,300 in grades 1-5, $7,650 in grades 6-8
for public school students. Now, the
and $8,350 in grades 9-12. Requests for tuition assistance
Yeshiva's Jean and Theodore Weiss
continue to rise amid layoffs and job cuts in the community.
Partners in Torah program embraces
This year's dinner raised about $500,000 toward the current
hundreds of non-Orthodox Jews via a
budget total of $6.2 million. Tuition generated about a third of
mix of learning opportunities.
the budget. Federation's Annual Campaign
And were it not
allocation was $855,000. The Shiffman
for the generous and steady support of
Family Tuition Assistance Fund, Cohn
non-Orthodox Jews, there would be no
Family Tuition Assistance Fund and Jewish
Yeshiva. Its financial plight extends far
Life Fund all provided supplemental fund-
beyond the weekly payroll, including 150
ing in coordination with Federation.
teachers.
"Today, not only is the quality of educa-
A Tough Road
tion critical;' said Gary Torgow, president
The Yeshiva has had financial hurdles for
for 15 years, "but the surroundings and
much of its existence. Its underpinning
aesthetics must meet a standard that
is to provide a Torah-based and secular
sanctifies the name of the Almighty in the
education regardless of capacity to pay.
public domain."
Other Jewish communities like Cleveland
Over the last 20 years, major benefactors
and Baltimore have larger Orthodox corn-
have demanded more -- an elevation of
munities that generate more of their
the school's physical presence. The goal
own resources. Here in Detroit, the active
has been daunting: to rival a public school
Orthodox community has grown to 11 per-
setting. But let there be no mistake: Things Yeshiva President Gary Torgow
cent of our population of 72,000, but it still
are looking better!
relies on the non-Orthodox community for
The $15 million in building improve-
support, which it gets.
ments on the Yeshiva's Southfield and Oak Park campuses
We're not paying to educate Yeshiva students only to see
have yielded a host of sparkling new facilities. "All permit
them all leave. Statistics show that alumni choose Israel, the
the children of our Yeshiva to feel a tremendous pride in the
East Coast and Detroit in near-equal proportions.
school that they attend;' Torgow said.
Gary Torgow and other local Jewish leaders are to be
And that's important. A day school education is a central
commended for retaining the will while finding a way to
opportunity for every thriving Jewish community, regardless
keep the Yeshiva afloat. Answering a vital communal need,
of its synagogue makeup. There are many local philanthropic
families who deserve plaudits for crossing the movement lines Federation, like it has for all our day schools, has stepped
up with buildings, loans and accelerated allocations for the
to provide scholarship assistance for our day schools — aid
Yeshiva. Federation's $100 million Pillars Campaign for educa-
that has become more pivotal than ever.
Similarly, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and tion and eldercare services promises to substantially increase
its leadership have risen to the challenge: converting buildings the amount of money available for scholarships at all our day
(B'nai Moshe in Oak Park into the Yeshiva's Beth Jacob School schools.
The surest way to have Yeshiva Beth Yehudah look into the
for Girls, Beth Achim in Southfield into Yeshivat Akiva), con-
future, rather than fret over funding, is to secure a meaning-
structing new space (Frankel Jewish Academy in the West
ful endowment. Such a gift would mean the ultimate legacy:
Bloomfield JCC) and repurposing old space (United Hebrew
endowing Jewish learning for generations to come. 1
Schools in Southfield into Yeshivas Darchai Torah) — all for
the benefit of day school education.

The Newman Equatior
It's against this significant backdrop that yet another chap-
ter in the annals of Jewish learning is being written. At the
Yeshiva's 93rd annual dinner, which drew a record 2,435
people to the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center on Oct.
28, it was announced that Ann Newman and her family are

0 : How important are day schools to
11 — •
a Jewish community?

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Should Federation be our day schools'
consensus funding angel?

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0411“11111

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November 8 • 2007

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