Detroit's
V Tbc
dition.sej

VA BETH

nlinv n

The Yeshiva Boys
Choir performs at
the annual dinner.

navv

nn

bling to 230 students over the past 12
years, a new preschool building is going up
along 10 Mile on Oak Park land provided
by Federation and its banking/real estate
arm, the United Jewish Foundation.
On that same land, adjacent to Temple
Emanu-El, a new girls high school is rising
to ease overcrowding at Bais Yaakov Girls
School, across Church Street.

and Aron Parlame nt

Earning Plaudits

Yeshiva builds
leadership from
within ... while the
two-campus school
tops 800 students.

Robert Sklar

I Contributing Editor

F

or the first time in its 98-year his-
tory, Yeshiva Beth Yehudah has
alumni heading nearly every divi-

sion.
Among the staff who began their
Yeshiva journey as 3- and 4-year-olds in
the nursery and kindergarten are Rabbi
Yizchok Grossbard, now dean; Rabbi Zev
Poss, who guides the girls school; Rabbi
Shlomo Loketch, who heads Bais Yehudah
Kollel; Rabbi Yosef Seligson, the business
office director; and lay executive board
members Dr. Maury Ellenberg, Max
Berlin, Ephraim Singal, Tzvi Friedman and
Chaim Tkatch.
"What a triumph and
what an affirmation of
success that our own
students have become
the institution's leaders"
President Gary Torgow
declared at the Yeshiva's
annual dinner on Oct.
Gary Torgow
28. "It gives us great
hope that this genera-
tion's 3- and 4-year olds, with God's help,
will follow a similar path:'
The $250-per-plate dinner, the Yeshiva's
major fundraiser, drew 2,400 guests to
the Marriott Hotel Renaissance Center
in Downtown Detroit. Longtime Yeshiva
ambassadors Lois and U.S. District Judge

22

November 15 • 2012

Former First Lady Laura Bush admires an illuminated Chumash, a gift from the
Yeshiva, as U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan Chief Judge Gerald
Rosen, Ann Newman and Gary Shiffman look on.

Avern Cohn of Birmingham were dinner
chairs.
Over the past five years, Yeshiva enroll-
ment is up 37 percent — from 620 to 850.
The lower school grades 1-4 have a 50 per-
cent larger student count than the middle
school grades 5-8.

Supportive Observations

By The Numbers

The Yeshiva was founded in Detroit in
1914, but moved to Southfield in 1966. It
added the Oak Park campus in 1991. The
curriculum ranges from preschool to the
Maalot post-high school for women. The
staff totals 240 professionals.
Eighty percent of the students are on
scholarship. Tuition ranges from $3,000 to
$8,000.
The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit has pledged $785,549 to the
Yeshiva as part of its 2012-2013 Annual
Campaign/Challenge Fund distribution —
the same amount as the year before.
The Yeshiva is the largest Jewish day
school in Michigan. Locally, Federation
also supports Hillel Day School, Yeshivat
Akiva, Yeshivas Darchei Torah, Yeshiva

Gary Shiffman of West Bloomfield, son
of longtime Yeshiva supporters Lois and
the late Milton Shiffman, was this year's
winner of the Golden Torah Award,
the school's highest honor. Federation's
Shiffman Family Tuition Assistance Fund
is the most significant day school resource
for funding ever in the Detroit Jewish
community.
"Gary is today one of our community's
most important voices in guiding its future
agenda and, at the same time, mentoring
the next generation of Jewish leadership"
Torgow said.
Looking back on his visit a few weeks
ago to the two Yeshiva campuses, Shiffman
said he returned home and told his wife,
Lisa, "Every door I walked through, every
classroom I entered, was a new wonder."
He added, "I saw children, girls and
boys, at every age, learning Torah with a
gleam in their eyes, excited and inspired
by remarkable rabbis and teachers who are
imparting lessons that will last a lifetime"
The Yeshiva dinner also named Trudy
and Arthur Weiss of Farmington Hills
"Yeshiva Guardians:' The prestigious
honor goes to "great friends of the Yeshiva
— who have set examples of dedication
and commitment to the highest ideals of
Torah, charity and community." Arthur
was the 2010 Golden Torah Award winner.
Five years ago, the Yeshiva renamed its
Partners in Torah program after his par-
ents, Jean and Theodore Weiss.

Gary Shiffman receives the Golden
Torah Award from Arthur Weiss and
Gov. Rick Snyder.

Gedolah and Frankel Jewish Academy.

Expansive Future

Enrollment growth has prompted con-
struction on the Yeshiva's two campuses.
Two years ago, thanks to Ann Newman
of Bloomfield Hills and her family, a
two-story addition was completed at
the Yeshiva boys school on the Newman
Family Campus in Southfield.
With Meer preschool enrollment dou-

In her keynote address at the dinner,
former First Lady Laura Bush recalled
how John Adams, the second president,
once said, "There are two educations: One
should teach us how to make a living and
one should teach us how to live:'
She went on to say, "For nearly a cen-
tury, the Yeshiva has taught students both"
She added, "From those early days when
a handful of students gathered after school
to study Hebrew to today, Yeshiva Beth
Yehudah has been dedicated to promoting
within their students a love of learning,
a love for Israel and the values of a Torah
way of life:'
Following the dinner, Mandell "Bill"
Berman of Franklin, a revered national
champion and supporter of Jewish educa-
tion, told the IN, All of our day schools
are significant because their graduates
contribute not only to our Jewish life, but
also to the larger community"

❑