Metro
Far left: Shterni
Kesselman, 10, of
Oak Park and Mushky
Mishulovin, 12, of
West Bloomfield try
out the new gym.
Left: Stein family:
Chana, Levi, Rabbis
Bentzion and Mendel
outside the girls
division building.
Living Jewishly
An enhanced place o study opens for Lubavitch girls school students.
Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer
I
f, as Rabbi Mendel Stein of the Lubavitch Cheder said,
our students should be like Abraham, welcoming
guests to his tent:' then the school's tent just increased
its capacity to teach those who welcome.
With the school's newly expanded and renovated girls
division building comes a more comfortable, safe and
stimulating environment, Stein says.
A $750,000 donation from Ed and Gloria Meer allowed
an addition to both levels of the school's Lillian Schwarcz
Education Center building on Coolidge in Oak Park. It was
enlarged from 11,000 to 14,000 square feet with four new
classrooms and a teacher's lounge.
The donation for the Meer Family Annex also funded
renovations for the entire building, including a new roof,
heating and cooling system, security system, floors, ceilings,
furniture and lighting. Some walls were moved, merging
smaller rooms into larger ones, like a gym, something the
school never had before. A playground will be added in the
spring.
"The building was in great need of the improvements','
said Levi Stein, the school's communication director. "Now
"
Hadas and Dennis Bernard
A16
December 20 * 2007
the students will have a place to play indoors and outdoors
and there is more office space in a building that is up to
date with everything new and fresh"
Students were relocated to the Bais Chabad of North Oak
Park during the construction, which began last summer.
The 100 students who use the building — including girls
from preschool to grade 8 and boys from preschool to sec-
ond grade — moved back into the facility Nov. 20.
Boys from third grade through high school meet in the
boys division building on Nine Mile Road in Oak Park,
which also is used for college level classes.
Now that the construction is complete, Rabbi Bentzion
Stein, director of both schools, says, "There is a whole new
excitement that makes the children look forward to coming
to school every day. The staff, as well, feel that the school is
on a whole new level."
One-Of-A-Kind
"Aside from having all aspects of regular school, the
uniqueness at Lubavitch Cheder is that not only do stu-
dents complete their own studies, but they share what
they learn with the community,' said Mendel Stein, the
school's development director.
"One of the styles of outreach of the Chabad Rabbi —
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — was street out-
reach," Stein said. "They follow that theme every single day
from the first day of school, in class and in the community,
including visits to senior citizen homes and passing out
menorahs and Shabbat and holiday literature in the super-
market to any Jew, no matter if they know a lot or a little."
He says,"The school model is the idea of someone dedi-
cating his life to the Jewish people, learning it as a way of
life and how to share it with everyone else. It's no wonder
a majority of our alumni still do outreach work full time
in the community" Last month, 100 alums gathered at
a reunion in New York during the International Chabad
Conference.
For Mendel and Levi Stein and their father Bentzion
Stein, the school has been a place of learning and a place
for family. Bentzion's wife, Chana Stein, is principal of the
girls division and their daughter-in-law, Chaya Stein, is a
teacher. Bentzion and Chana's nine children all attended the
school and they have a grandchild who is a current student.
As the finishing touches are placed on the girls building,
plans are in the works for the Harry and Wanda Zekelman
Center, which will be a brand new boys school building on
the Nine Mile Road site, created with a $3 million donation
from Alan Zekelman of Bloomfield Hills. II
JARC Transportation
Advanced Hebrew
Farmington Hills-based JARC has established the Hadas
and Dennis Bernard Family Transportation Program.
The program will help meet the transportation needs
of people with developmental disabilities in JARC's
Shetzer Independent Living Services (ILS) programs
ensuring participants can work, shop and socialize.
"Hadas and I felt that transportation was an area
greatly impacted by state funding cuts and is going to
be needed even more as JARC's population ages ; ) said
Dennis Bernard, a longtime JARC board member who is
intimately familiar with Michigan's fiscal challenges as
co-chair of Federation's government relations oversight
committee.
Joyce Keller, JARC's executive director, said, "This gift
will ensure that people served by JARC will have an even
greater ability to be included in their communities."
The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's
Alliance for Jewish Education, FedEd, will offer two
classes for advanced Hebrew students who are interest-
ed in improving their conversational skills by reading
articles from Israeli newspapers and discussing current
events.
Classes begin the week of Jan. 9 and are offered 10:30
a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sundays and 10 a.m.-noon Wednesdays.
They will be held at the Max M. Fisher Federation
Building, 6735 Telegraph, Bloomfield Township.
The Hebrew Department also has a selection of
Hebrew materials for independent study. Call Nira Lev,
(248) 205-2541, for assessment and class placement.
To register by phone or for information, contact
Marion Bronstein, (248) 642-4260, ext. 372, or e-mail
Bronstein@jfmd.org.