Shanelie Cobb of Detroit
is helped by teacher
Shaindle Braunstein.
Adults seeking enhanced computer skills find help
at ORT's Hermelin Center in West Bloomfield.
Alan Hitsky
Associate Editor
W
hen Malka Blumenfeld decided to get back
into the workforce after raising five children
and beating cancer, she found she needed
new training.
When Martha Z (not her real name) fled an abusive
boyfriend for a facility in northwest Detroit run by COTS
(the Coalition On Temporary Shelter), she also needed
additional skills to support herself and her infant son.
The two women have each been helped by a unique
program established at the Hermelin ORT Center at the
Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield.
Tucked away in a corner off the JCC's main lobby, the
Hermelin facility — in partnership with the JCC, JVS,
the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan and
some generous private donors — has established a
state-of-the-art computer-training program. Members
of the Jewish community, others, and now COTS clients,
can take 24 three-hour classes over 12 weeks to become
very familiar with Microsoft's Office Suite: computer pro-
grams that include Word, Excel spreadsheets, the Access
database, Power Point, Publisher, Outlook e-mail and
others.
Blumenfeld, of Oak Park, can't stop praising the ORT
program and how it helped her find her new job. Her hus-
band, Aaron, is a Detroit Public Schools teacher and "it's
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February 14 • 2008
14
pretty hard to live on one income she said. The couple
has three grown children plus two still living at home.
Even after completing the Hermelin class two years ago,
Blumenfeld had trouble finding work. But she persevered,
taking the class twice, using JVS and state job-hunting
resources and pounding the pavement.
And she would not have been hired into her new
position as a part-time administrative assistant at the
Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit office in
Southfield "if I hadn't learned the programs that ORT
taught me."
Formerly an executive assistant for an architectural/
building firm, Blumenfeld says the Hermelin Center
classes taught her Microsoft Office "better than I knew it
before, and I learned to manipulate the programs!'
Hired by the Council of Orthodox Rabbis just before
its annual fundraising dinner, Blumenfeld used her ORT
skills to create a flier and an invitation, a new letterhead
for the organization, tracked billing for the event and sent
out the materials by using mail merge.
"I had some beginning computing skills, but not any-
thing like ORT taught us," she says. And the classes didn't
cost anything, which was very important to me."
A Tribute
The Organization for Rehabilitation through Training was
founded in 1880 in Russia to help Jews learn skills leading
to jobs. ORT now has schools and programs in 58 coun-
tries, assisting Jews and the general community learn
their way to a better life.
The Hermelin ORT Center was founded by friends of
the late David Hermelin after the Detroit civic leader/phi-
lanthropist's death in December 2000. Hermelin's widow,
Doreen, is current national president of ORT America.
Shaindle Braunstein of West Bloomfield is the Hermelin
ORT Center's only full-time employee. Sue Curtis of West
Bloomfield is the part-time business manager, "bottle
washer and anything-that-has-to-be-done" person, and
applies for grants and funding. "I couldn't survive without
her:' Braunstin says.
Funding is in place for the 2008 classes, but Curtis is
already at work on 2009 proposals.
The Hermelin Center has two on-going class cycles at
present — a Better Job Opportunities program and the
COTS classes, which started in November. The training is
identical, with classes meeting twice a week for 12 weeks.
The classes, which are free for the students, average
$908 per individual. The cost to the Hermelin Center
includes the instructors, student materials, transportation
subsidies, childcare and dinner. That doesn't include the
cost of the computers and administration.
The center's first classes in 2005-06 were funded by
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and were
designed to help Orthodox Jewish women who wanted to
get into the workforce.
Many of the 60 women who took the class that year